The whole story began in the autumn of last year. Mr Marian, a 62-year-old resident of Bolesławiec, developed pneumonia. His condition deteriorated. His wife called an ambulance, and the 62-year-old was taken to our Healthcare Complex. As it turned out, he was infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus. His lungs were 95 percent affected.

The Bolesławiec resident’s condition kept worsening. The man was transferred to intensive care. His lungs were already 100 percent affected. “There was practically no healthy lung tissue,” says Wojciech Hap, head of the general surgery department at the county hospital in Bolesławiec. The patient was connected to a ventilator and kept in a medically induced coma.

Complications appeared, including a pneumothorax. Drainage was performed several times. But the problem kept returning. At the end of December, the Bolesławiec resident’s condition was critical; in January, Marian was transferred to a specialist hospital in Wrocław.

Later, back in Bolesławiec, a thoracostomy was performed. Only then did the 62-year-old’s condition begin to improve.

He was brought out of the coma before Easter. He is slowly recovering, now in the general surgery department. He will soon be transferred to a rehabilitation ward. “He went through hell,” says W. Hap.

What did Marian do after such a long interruption in his life? He called his wife and invited her to the hospital. “They had not seen each other for almost half a year,” says the head of surgery. “It was an incredible moment for all of us.”

This is a huge success for the Bolesławiec Healthcare Complex. Everything indicates that after six months of arduous treatment, things are finally moving in the right direction, meaning that Marian will not be bedridden and will be able to function independently. He no longer requires oxygen therapy. Of course, a long rehabilitation lies ahead of him.

“It was terrible; I would not wish it on anyone,” says Mrs Maria, the Bolesławiec resident’s wife, who throughout that time lived with the knowledge that her husband could die at any moment. “I wondered: how did I get through it, how did I endure it?”

She adds:

I would very much like to thank the entire hospital team. My husband says that the medical team at the hospital in Bolesławiec is wonderful.

When Marian was brought out of the coma and told that the holidays were approaching, he thought they meant… November 11. He remembers nothing, did not know what had happened to him or where he was. He spent 144 days in intensive care. He is enormously grateful to the hospital staff, who fought for his life with such determination. And he emphasizes:

I come from a generation that does not give up. You have to fight to the end.