UK, US 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 before returning home on July 12.

British pilot and his colleagues at Vietnam Airlines

The Guardian newspaper of the UK 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). VNA

COVID-19: Recovered British pilot leaves Hanoi for hometown

British pilot Stephen Cameron, the most severe coronavirus case in Vietnam, boarded Vietnam Airlines’ Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner in Hanoi at midnight July 11 on a special flight to his hometown in the UK.