TORONTO -- Hospital staff in Colombia are praising a 104-year-old coronavirus patient after she recovered from the virus for a second time.
Doctors and nurses at San Rafael De Tunja University Hospital in Tunja, a city about 120 kilometres north of Colombia’s capital of Bogota, applauded Carmen Hernandez as she was discharged on April 5 following a 21-day hospitalization.
The centenarian patient, who hospital staff affectionately referred to as “Carmelita,” was reportedly diagnosed with COVID-19 for the first time last June, and received treatment at a San Jose nursing home where she has lived for 25 years.
Hernandez contracted the coronavirus again on March 8, shortly after she had received her first dose of the Sinovac vaccine on Feb. 26.
Gina Gomez, a nurse who worked with Hernandez at the nursing home, said the elderly patient was someone “with an excellent physical capacity” for having recovered from COVID-19 a second time. “Thank God she has done very well, and she has beaten this virus,” Gomez added.
Yamit Noe Hurtado, a manager at San Rafael De Tunja University Hospital, said doctors classified the woman’s case as a reinfection, but said they were pleased to see her recover so well. “It was a solid work of the scientific team and respiratory therapy team,” Hurtado said. “We are claiming victory, and we say that this patient has recovered and is going home with the best conditions."
Hernandez is said to be the hospital’s oldest patient.
Colombia has so far recorded 65,608 coronavirus-related deaths, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University.
