KOLKATA: A 44-year-old Kolkata resident, a senior executive with Bharat Earth Movers Limited who was on ECMO support for a record 90 days, overcame the infection and the post-Covid complications and is now back home after fighting a battle that lasted almost six months across three hospitals.
“This patient’s case was a very tough one. Fortunately, the number of ECMO referral for Covid patients has come down drastically in the past few months as we have a lighter case load. But due to awareness among the medical community about ECMO for very critical heart and lung cases, we have started getting more non-Covid patients too,” said cardiac surgeon Kunal Sarkar, Medica Hospital vice-chairman who also heads the ECMO.
According to his family, Mohammad Saadique Akhtar was first admitted to Ryod Nursing Home on May 1 where he was detected with Covid infection. The 44-year-old was later shifted to Apollo Hospitals. Though he improved initially, he got a Cytomegalovirus infection as a post-Covid complication. Akhtar was shifted to Medica on June 18 since he needed ECMO support.
“The patient was on ECMO support for 90 days, which included 80 days of Veno-Venous ECMO for respiratory support and 10 days of ECMO support for both heart and lungs,” said ECMO specialist Arpan Chakraborty.
The patient suffered two episodes of cardiac arrest during treatment and had myocarditis, which needed both lung and heart support.
“We cannot thank the Medica team enough, especially doctors Arpan Chakraborty and Dipanjan Chatterjee, for the kind of care given to my husband,” said Akhtar’s wife Farnaz Nazli.
