The Max Hospital in Saket has administered plasma therapy on a critical coronavirus patient and it’s showing positive results with the patient being began ventilator support, the hospital said on Monday.
The 49-year-old man became the primary patient to be administered plasma therapy at the Max Hospital (East Wing) here, the hospital said during a statement.
In convalescent plasma therapy, the antibodies of an individual who has recovered from the virus are taken and transfused into a diseased person (having the virus) to assist boost the person’s system .
The patient from Delhi had tested positive for Covid-19 on April 4 and was admitted on an equivalent day to the coronavirus facility at the Max Hospital with moderate symptoms and a history of fever and respiratory issues.
“His condition deteriorated during subsequent few days and he soon required external oxygen to take care of saturation. He also developed pneumonia with Type I respiratory failure and had to be placed on ventilator support on April 8,” the hospital said.
When the patient showed no improvement, his relations requested the hospital to administer plasma therapy on compassionate grounds, a primary of its kind treatment modality that’s getting used for the disease in India.
“The family came forward to rearrange a donor for extracting plasma. The donor had recovered from the infection (confirmed by two consecutive negative reports) three weeks ago and again tested Covid-19 negative at the time of donation along side other standard tests to rule out infections like Hep B, Hep C and HIV,” the hospital said.
The critically ill patient was administered fresh plasma as a treatment modality as a side-line to the quality treatment protocols on the night of Pan American Day , it said.
“After receiving the treatment, the patient showed progressive improvement and by the fourth day, he was weaned off ventilator support on the morning of April 18 and continued on supplementary oxygen thereafter,” it added.
The hospital said the person has been shifted to an area with round-the-clock monitoring facility.
“He has started taking oral feed since Sunday and is faring well,” it said.
Speaking on the success of the primary case administered under plasma therapy at the hospital, Sandeep Budhiraja, Group Medical Director, Max Healthcare, and Senior Director, Institute of general medicine , said the case opened a replacement treatment opportunity during these challenging times.
“We are delighted that the therapy worked well in his case, opening a replacement treatment opportunity during these challenging times. But it’s important that we also understand that plasma therapy is not any remedy . During the patient’s treatment at the Max Hospital, other standard treatment protocols were followed and that we can say that plasma therapy could have worked as a catalyst in speeding up his recovery,” Budhiraja said.
He also said the recovery can’t be attributed 100 per cent to the therapy.
“We cannot attribute 100 per cent recovery to plasma therapy only, as there are multiple factors which carved his path to recovery,” he said.
He further added that during a country like India, a therapy of such kind features a good potential to assist Covid-19 patients who have disease severity, which inserts into moderate to severe categories.
“Government regulations should work towards making it more accessible for hospitals across the country to be ready to use it. One donor can donate 400 ml of plasma which may save two lives, as 200 ml is sufficient to treat one patient,” Budhiraja said.
So far, 47 people have lost their lives thanks to coronavirus in Delhi.
This articale taken refrence from Livemint