Kerala: 85-year-old man recovered from Covid-19 dies of age-related ailments

MALAPPURAM: An 85-year-old Covid-19 patient, who was declared cured and was under treatment for other ailments, died at government medical college, Manjeri in Kerala's Malappuram on Saturday morning.
Nechithan Veerankutty, a native of Poonthanam near Keezhattur in Perinthalmanna, died at Medical college on Saturday morning. Veerankutty who was under treatment at medical college for more than two weeks has been tested negative for virus infection three consecutive times.
Medical authorities have clarified that the death was not due to the coronavirus infection, but other age-related ailments.
It was on March 31 that Veerankuttty admitted to the medical college hospital, for the treatment of viral pneumonia. But, on April 2, he had tested positive for the novel coronavirus infection. After some days of treatment at the hospital, the deceased was tested negative in two consecutive tests conducted on April 7 and April 10. Following this, he was shifted from isolation ward of the hospital to step-down ICU of the hospital, on April 11.
On April 13, he suffered a severe chest pain and breathing issues and cardiologist on duty who conducted electrocardiogram (ECG) test found that Veerankutty had suffered a heart attack. While continuing treatment at the hospital, Veerankutty, his third swab sample also tested for novel coronavirus infection on April 13.
On April 14, doctors have found that the patient has acute kidney injury and he was shifted to ventilator. Later, he had undergone dialysis with the support of a team of nephrologists from government medical college Kozhikode.
His health condition marked progress in the following days and he suffered from high fever on April 16. A critical care team of the hospital started treatment for urinal issues. In a detailed test conducted on April 17, the medical team found that the patient is suffering from septicemia and multi-organ dysfunction syndrome and he died at 4am on Saturday.
Earlier medical authorities had found that Veerankutty got the novel coronavirus infection from his 45-year-old son who returned from Saudi Arabia on March 11 after Umrah pilgrimage. But his son tested negative later and medical authorities suspect that he cured of the virus without showing any major symptoms. His wife and children are also were tested negative for the infection.
After the extensive travel by Veerankutty and his son caused serious concern, the health authorities had collected swab samples from more than 70 people in Keezhattur, which were tested negative.