91-year-old beats Covid, returns home to cheers, flowers

A 91-year-old Mulund resident successfully battled Covid-19 and returned home on Saturday after undergoing treatment for eight days at KJ Somaiya Hospital in Sion.

A 91-year-old Mulund resident successfully battled Covid-19 and returned home on Saturday after undergoing treatment for eight days at KJ Somaiya Hospital in Sion. The nonagenarian’s strong willpower, active lifestyle, and healthy habits ensured that he walked the distance from the building’s main gate till the lift after returning home from the hospital.

Manoharlal Gupta’s family credit’s his recovery to his fit lifestyle.

Manoharlal Gupta, who turned 91 on June 11, returned home to cheers from society members who had gathered in the compound to give him a warm welcome after he trounced the virus. They also showered flowers on him.

Gupta lives with his daughter Seema Agrawal, 58, and grandson Akool Kumar, 28, in Destiny Heights building in Mulund (East).

He had fallen sick with fever and cough during the first week of June. Doctor Pradip Shah, consultant and senior physician at Fortis Hospital advised him to go for a Covid test. “On June 9 the report confirmed that my father was positive for Covid-19. He was also diagnosed with typhoid. As he never went out after the lockdown, we don’t know how he got infected,” said Agrawal. “We also got tested but were not infected,” she added.

“There were no beds available at any nearby hospitals, so we isolated him in the bedroom in our one-BHK flat till June 12. We were in touch with the doctor and monitored all the parameters as advised by Dr Shah,” said Gupta’s grandson, Kumar.

Gupta even recorded videos about his health condition and shared them with Dr Shah.

“As he had mild breathlessness, we admitted him to KJ Somaiya Hospital on June 13. He was in HDU (high dependency unit), and doctors took care of him very well,” said Kumar.

“He has strong willpower. On the day he was admitted, he told me he would be coming home in two to three days and asked me to keep his 60ml peg ready,” added Agrawal.

Gupta used to run a small factory in Kalyan and retired in 2010.

The nonagenarian is the senior-most member of a group of 25 people aged above 55 years, who used to go for morning walks together before the lockdown.