Monday was a big day for Austin Meegan and his family. It was one that they were fearful would never come.
As we reported, hundreds of thousands of people are dead from coronavirus around the globe. One Reno patient was discharged from Renown Monday morning, after receiving a treatment using a convalescent plasma donation from a patient who already recovered from the virus.
Austin Meegan, a local 24-year-old who works at Lakeside Health and Wellness, was admitted to Renown on April 12th with a severe case of coronavirus.
"He was as sick as anybody could get and still survive," said Dr. Tom Herbert with Renown Health.
In fact doctors say Austin’s hopes for surviving COVID-19 were in the single digits. "A lot of the time he spent as a patient, he spent on a breathing machine, paralyzed and kept in a coma."
Thanks to different treatments and tireless efforts by his family and hospital staff, he was discharged Monday morning.
"It was emotional for all of us, it was good for us as a staff, we needed to see this amazing victory," said Dr. Herbert.
"It's brought so much hope to the team, they have been working so hard in the COVID unit and we have seen some very sad patients and we really needed this win, and Austin's brought that hope," said manager for nursing at Renown, Taralynn Bassham.
Doctors credit this recovery to not only his young age and different treatments, but also to a plasma donation by Thomas Gibson, a man his mother found in Texas that had recovered from coronavirus and had the same blood type as Austin. Gibson flew all the way from Texas just to donate plasma for Austin.
"We still don't know how well convalescent plasma works, the studies are ongoing, but it is part of our arsenal," said Dr. Herbert.
Convalescent plasma is a component of blood from recovered patients that may contain precious COVID-19 antibodies. Austin was also on several different treatments including the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine.
"If any of these do work, they work in small bits. The thought is that each time we stack another treatment, that adds to his chances of success," said Dr. Herbert.
Austin is now recovering at home after spending 29 days on a ventilator. The county will continue to follow up and test to make sure Austin is no longer contagious.
