Ahmedabad: Former President of Gujarat Congress, Bharat Solanki, also a former union minister was today discharged from a private hospital here after 101 days of hospitalization including 51 days on ventilator support. The hospital has in a formal statement claimed that Solanki has been the longest surviving Covid hospitalized patient in India and Asia. Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Solanki over a phone call and greeted him for his recovery.

Spoke to @BharatSolankee Ji and enquired about his well-being. He has shown remarkable courage during his 100-day long battle against COVID-19. I wish him good health in the times to come.

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) October 1, 2020

Solanki was diagnosed positive for COVID 19 on June 21, 2020 and admitted at a private hospital in Vadodara. He was shifted to Care Institute of Medical Sciences in Ahmedabad on June 30. He battled Covid-19, pneumonia, renal failure, coma, paralysis and sepsis here.

Solanki says “The entire team at Hospital, especially the Critical Care team and Management deserves a highest medal of honour to
the service they have offered to me and many other patients in the world’s biggest pandemic ever. They have given me a second life”.

Solanki had complains of fever, and on June 22nd June. Due to difficulty in breathing, he was shifted to ICU for further care and remained admitted there for 7 days. The family decided to shift him to private hospital in Ahmedabad for further advance care on 30th June, 2020. On Admission, he was kept on Bipap (Non Invasive Ventilator) support for 7 days followed by 44 days of Invasive Ventilation. Due to his prevailing multiple co- morbidities of hypertension, diabetes and asthma, a Multispecialty team.

Anti-viral drug Injection Remdesvir was started on July 1st, 2020, repeat dose of Immunosuppressive drug Injection Tocilizumab was also given. Convalescent Plasma therapy was given on July 04, 2020 and anti-coagulant injection to avoid blood clotting and aggressive prone exercise was also initiated. As the oxygen requirement increased, and his D-Dimer went up, he was given Actilyse (Tissue Plasminogen Activator- TPA works by dissolving clots in the blood vessels.) He was also simultaneously put on invasive intubation and ventilation on July 07th, 2020. ECMO (Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation) was kept on standby.

A Senior Cardiac Surgeon, Director, ECMO Department mentioned “ECMO does the job of the lungs and/or heart, allowing the organs to rest and recover when patients are very sick. According to the Extracorporeal Life Support Organization(ELSO), the technique could save up to half of the seriously ill Covid-19 patients for whom ventilation isn’t working.”

Due to low urine output and renal failure, Nephrologist provided advanced Hemodialysis with Sustained Low Efficiency Dialysis (SLED)
increasingly used as a renal replacement modality in critically ill patients with Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) and hemodynamic instability. He during his ICU stay developed quadriparesis( paralysis) with respiratory involvement, which could’ve been post-covid severe axonal variety of GBS – Guillain- Barré syndrome (thought to be caused by a problem with the immune system,) or Critical care Neuromyopathy. We did 5 cycles of plasma exchange.

He had significant improvement in muscle power in all limbs during this period. Finally, he started maintaining oxygen level
and after valiant efforts, his condition became stable and ventilator support was withdrawn. Standby ECMO system was always kept available to be used.

“After a record hospitalization of 101 days (the longest in India and Asia), we are glad to see the patient going home walking and smiling from Hospital. It has been one of the most difficult Critical Cases,” said Dr Keyur Parikh-Chairman of hospital.

Solanki’s primary care was done by COVID Physicians of CIMS Hospital, Dr Bhagyesh Shah, Dr Vipul Thakkar, both senior Critical Care Intensivists, Dr Amit Patel , Senior Pulmonologist, Dr Surabhi Madan (Head of Infectious Disease Dept) and Dr Dhaval Naik, Dr Keyur Parikh, Chairman of Hospital and Nephrologist Dr Mayur Patil.