Connie Titchen, who is a 106-year-old great grandmother, may be the oldest person in the United Kingdom to beat coronavirus.
Three weeks after testing positive for Covid-19, Titchen was discharged from Birmingham City Hospital in the UK.
“She is our oldest patient to beat the virus and may well be the oldest in the country to do so,” the Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust said Wednesday.
Nurses at the hospital lined the corridor to applaud the great-grandmother of eight as she was wheeled out to be sent home.
“I feel very lucky that I’ve fought off this virus,” Titchen said, according to a statement from the NHS Trust. “I can’t wait to see my family.”
Titchen, who was born in September 1913 and has lived through two World Wars, was admitted to City Hospital in mid-March with suspected pneumonia, the hospital said. She was diagnosed with coronavirus soon afterwards.
“It’s been fantastic to see Connie recover,” said Kelly Smith, a nurse. “She is amazing and we’ve been doing our best to nurse her back to health. We were really pleased when she was given the all clear. It’s nice to see patients leave our ward after having beaten this virus.”
Covid-19 has infected more than 2 million people and killed at least 134,000 worldwide, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
In the UK specifically, there have been nearly 100,000 cases of the virus and almost 13,000 deaths. The country’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson is among those who contracted the virus. Johnson, who announced he tested positive for the virus on March 27, spent three nights at the intensive care unit (ICU) of St. Thomas’ Hospital in London before being released on Sunday.
“I have today left hospital after a week in which the NHS has saved my life, no question,” Johnson said in a video he posted on Twitter on Sunday. “It’s hard to find the words to express my debt.”
Though people of all ages have died from Covid-19, health care experts say the elderly and those with underlying conditions are most at-risk.
Source: CNN
