Recovery follows after 900 days in hospital

Li Jinxin, a 26-year-old Chinese woman, saw her dream of returning home come true after battling a devastating illness for almost two-and-a-half years in the Philippines that was nearly fatal.

Li spent 904 days bedridden in Medical City in Metro Manila due to a brain hemorrhage.

Her neurologist, Kim Alfred Inting, says Li was admitted to the hospital on July 16, 2019 due to severe headaches, weakness, and paralysis of the left arm and leg.

"After a CT scan, we found a blood clot on the right side of the brain, so we did surgery on her," Inting says.

After staying in the intensive care unit for several months, Li, whose vital signs gradually became stable, was transferred to a general ward and had since been taken care of by Sherricka Mae Navalta, one of the nurses in the hospital.

Recalling the days spent with Li, Navalta, who prefers to use Li's English name "Coco", says the Chinese patient is the longest hospitalized patient she has cared for as a nurse. There were too many touching and unforgettable moments while taking care of Li, Navalta adds.

"Coco is away from her family, so we treat her as one of our young relatives or sisters. I feed her, clean her body, check her temperature, diaper, and vital signs whenever I'm on duty. On her birthday last July, I posted a happy birthday greeting. Even though she can't speak, there's a smile on her face," Navalta says.

Navalta says she was concerned and distraught when they found out that Li tested positive for COVID-19 in October last year while at the hospital, despite strict prevention measures being in place.

"We were worried when she had to be transferred to an isolated unit because we were not allowed to take care of her in the COVID-19 ward," Navalta says. "We were concerned about Coco's condition at the time because of many COVID-19 patients dying."

Thanks to the treatment and care of Filipino medics, Li woke up last summer after spending almost two years bedridden and finally recovered from COVID-19.

Li can now interact and communicate with the doctors and nurses by nodding and shaking her head, frowning, and even making the shape of a heart with her fingers to express her gratitude.

As Li's health improved, she was discharged from the hospital and allowed to travel back home to China to be reunited with her family.

"I had mixed emotions. On the one hand, we are sad that Coco is leaving the hospital, but on the other, we are happy that she has recovered and will be reunited with her family in China," Navalta says.

As planned, Li will be accompanied by attending physician Jenina Paculan to fly to North China's Tianjin to undergo medical observation in quarantine at first, and then travel back home to Central China's Hubei province.