International media highlight British pilot’s hospital discharge after defeating coronavirus

The UK media has run articles highlighting the hospital discharge of a British pilot – known as Patient 91 and the most seriously ill COVID-19 case in Vietnam – who spent more than two months on life support in the country before returning home on July 12.

Patient 91 receives his hospital discharge paper before heading to his home country on July 11, 2020. (Photo: Cho Ray Hospital)
Patient 91 receives his hospital discharge paper before heading to his home country on July 11, 2020. (Photo: Cho Ray Hospital)

>>> US CDC congratulates Cho Ray Hospital for successful treatment of Patient 91

The Guardian said that the patient, a pilot of the national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines, had been treated for nearly four months in Ho Chi Minh City’s hospitals, including 10 weeks on a ventilator.

It cited the pilot as saying that he was overwhelmed by the generosity of the Vietnamese people, the dedication and professionalism of the doctors and nurses, and thanked them for what they’ve done.

The article also quoted Tran Thanh Linh, the deputy head of ICU at Cho Ray hospital as saying that “huge effort and energy” had gone into saving Cameron, who was given the country’s best equipment and whose case had captured the attention of everyone from doctors to government officials.

Patient 91 became the focus of huge media attention as the country’s top medical minds met to brainstorm treatment options, the article wrote, adding that the news that he would need a lung transplant was met with 59 donation offers. It also stressed that as of July 11, Vietnam had recorded 370 infections and no official fatalities.

On July 12, the BBC also provided readers an insight into Patient 91’s hospitalisation days. "If I'd been almost anywhere else on the planet, I'd be dead,” BCC quoted the patient in his exclusive interview to the newspaper. “"I'm very humbled by how I've been taken into the hearts of the Vietnamese people. And most of all I'm grateful for the bloody-mindedness of the doctors in not wanting me to die on their watch."

The Daily Mail said on July 11 that Vietnam keeps its perfect score when the British pilot finally left hospital.

The British pilot’s hospital discharge has also made headlines in several US newspapers such as Washington Post, USA Today and the Associated Press (AP), while the New York Times published an article titled “A Scottish pilot who became an emblem of Vietnam’s virus fight leaves hospital”, saying that the case of the pilot has come to exemplify Vietnam’s all-out effort to beat the coronavirus. Vietnam has been among the most successful countries in tackling the virus. It is the largest country not to have reported a single COVID-19 death, the article read.

Canada’s CBC.ca has highlighted Vietnam’s success in fighting COVID-19 pandemic through the impressive case of the pilot. The article entitled “Virus-free UK pilot, symbol of Vietnam's pandemic success, to return home” that was run by CBC.com on July 11 reported that the pilot is Vietnam's most seriously ill COVID-19 patient, who at one point seemed close to death, left hospital on July 11 on his way home after a dramatic recovery that attracted national attention.

It said that the case, a pilot for national carrier Vietnam Airlines, became a sensation in Vietnam, where a combination of targeted testing and an aggressive quarantine programme has kept its coronavirus tally to an impressively low 370 cases, and zero deaths.

The 43-year-old Scot, who arrived in the Southeast Asian country from Britain in early March, was hospitalised three days after his first flight for Vietnam Airlines, following a visit to a bar in Ho Chi Minh City that became linked to a cluster of coronavirus cases.

The article recalled that at one point, medical officials said that he had just 10 percent of his lung capacity and was in critical condition. By early April, he was on a ventilator and life-support machine at Ho Chi Minh City's Hospital of Tropical Diseases. In May, medical officials were saying that he urgently needed a lung transplant. But under round-the clock care, he improved. By June, he no longer required a lung transplant and was taken off life-support.

Earlier in late May, Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper also ran a story spotlighting Vietnam’s effective measures of preventing SARS CoV-2 virus from spreading in the community.