Coronavirus: British pilot with COVID-19 in Vietnam wakes from coma but needs lifesaving lung transplant
Medics declared him free of coronavirus but he has severe complications relating to his immune system, including his lungs.
Saturday 30 May 2020 12:04, UK
A British coronavirus patient on life support in Vietnam has come out of a coma but will need a lung transplant to save his life.
The 43-year-old man, a Vietnam Airlines pilot known only as Patient 91, has been described as being the most severe case in Vietnam, which has seen no deaths from the virus.
The man was admitted to Ho Chi Minh City's Hospital for Tropical Diseases on 18 March, the Vietnam Times reported.
Medics declared him free of coronavirus on 2 May but he has severe complications relating to his immune system and organ failures, including his lungs.
According to the paper, the pilot, who was transferred to the capital's Cho Ray Hospital on 22 May, remained in intensive care but had come out of a coma after his doses of sedatives were reduced, and is able to make "basic communication" with doctors.
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A scan last week showed an improvement in his lung capacity but a lung transplant "is believed to be the only solution to save his life unless his lung capacity is improved", the paper reported.
Reports said 30 people had volunteered to be donors for the man's lung transplant but a potential complication with the surgery has arisen in that lung transplants are normally allowed only from brain-dead patients under Vietnamese medical regulations.
It has been reported that the Vietnamese health system has spent more than £163,000 on treating the pilot.
He was linked to a cluster of COVID-19 cases at a bar in Ho Chi Minh City which resulted in two dozen infections.
There have been 327 confirmed coronavirus cases in Vietnam, including 279 recovered patients.
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