After over six months of treatment for severe post-COVID complications, a 33-year-old man was discharged from Gandhi Hospital on Saturday.
The city resident, M. Suresh Kumar, was bedridden for more than four months and the tertiary care health facility had become his second home of sorts as he spent half a year there.
Prior to getting admitted at the government hospital in June, he had exhausted around ₹6 lakh of savings for his treatment at a corporate hospital.
Gandhi Hospital doctors performed lung surgery on Mr. Suresh Kumar as part of his treatment for sepsis with multi-organ dysfunction. Since his health condition did not allow him to even take a step on his own, patient care providers and ward boys constantly attended him by feeding him, changing his diapers, and helping him with every other thing.
A resident of Ramnathapur, Mr Suresh Kumar worked in administrative positions at night clubs in the uptown part of Hyderabad. Superintendent of the hospital, M. Raja Rao said the patient got infected with COVID in April this year, got hospitalised and partially recovered after two weeks.
Cost comparison
“After experiencing breathlessness, I went to a private hospital and spent around ₹6 lakh of my savings for treatment. Thereafter, I got admitted at Gandhi Hospital in June,” said Mr Suresh Kumar after reaching home.
Gandhi Hospital doctors said the surgery that he underwent would have cost nearly ₹15 lakh in a corporate hospital. For treatment of sepsis and multi-organ dysfunction in ICUs, the patient would have had to shell out ₹50,000 to ₹1 lakh a day. Altogether, the six-month treatment would have easily cost him over ₹1 crore.
Critical condition
“During the hospital stay, he was very serious. The patient was on CPAP for several weeks along with ICD (intercostal drainage) tubes in both lungs. At one point, he was in sepsis with multi-organ dysfunction and was very critical. Dr Ravinder and team from CT surgery performed a lung surgery on him too,” said Dr Raja Rao.
The patient was monitored for 20 days after post surgery. Mr Suresh Kumar said he is now able to walk by himself and hopes to resume work in a month. He was off the job for over seven months.
