Centenarian COVID-19 patient discharged from hospital after week-long treatment

WUHAN, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- A 103-year-old woman has been discharged from hospital after recovering from COVID-19 in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province, hospital sources said.

The woman surnamed Zhou was discharged from the Wuhan Pulmonary Hospital on Monday after receiving a week of treatment, said Chen Guoxi, who was Zhou's attending physician.

The centenarian resident felt tired and lost her appetite on Dec. 28, 2022, but did not develop fever or other typical symptoms of COVID-19. It was her lower-than-normal blood oxygen level that prompted her family to take her to hospital, where she was confirmed to have COVID-19.

Considering Zhou's advanced age and pre-existing health problems such as hypertension, the hospital called on specialists to adapt a treatment plan that uses only modest medication.

"Like many elderly patients, her liver and kidney functions are weak, so many effective medicines are not viable for her," said Chen. Instead, doctors prescribed her oxygen therapies and prone positioning, which aims to improve the patient's respiratory function.

Doctors said it took some time for Zhou to adapt to the prone positioning therapy, which requires her to spend several hours lying in a prone position, but her condition has since improved.

Chen said Zhou's experience could inspire alternative treatments for other geriatric COVID-19 patients and the use of prone positioning, which is being included into the treatment plans of more COVID-19 patients.