In a time with such devastating news all around us, a ray of hope comes from the Italian city of Rimini. A 101-year-old man, named “Mr. P” has been released from the hospital after recovering from COVID-19. The deputy mayor of Rimini, Gloria Lisi, reported that Mr. P was admitted last week to a hospital in northeast Italy after he was tested positive for the coronavirus.
On Thursday, he was released from confinement. Gloria was shocked and said this was “truly extraordinary” and that such a recovery from a man of his age would give hope to the world and the future. The mayor also pointed out that this old man shows that for people “even at 101 years, the future is not written.”
Mr. P was born in 1919; the same period, the Spanish Flu pandemic was killing off around 30 to 50 million people around the world. He was born a year after World War I was over, and when he was in his 20s, WWII began. He survived WWII, and now he’s the oldest patient in Italy to recover from COVID-19.
The Spanish Flu pandemic started in 1918 and lasted till 1920. It killed 600,000 Italians, including some in his town, however, not Mr. P!
As COVID-19 struck the hardest on people older than 65 years old, the health workers were rather hopeless when Mr. P came into the hospital. The mayor said that once Mr. P started to recover fast, he was the only thing that everyone in the hospital would talk about. Everyone was amazed, happy, overwhelmed, and hopeful for the future of the world in an older person’s recovery. When Mr. P was fully recovered, he was released from the hospital, and his family took him home.
His survival is remarkable, especially since men are already at higher risk than women and with the high rates of fatality for older people infected with the coronavirus. According to Italy’s National Institute of Health, almost 86% of deaths in Italy where patients who are over 70 years old.
On top of that, as the world’s confirmed COVID-19 cases rise to around 681,706, Italy saw significantly more deaths, with up to 10,023, in comparison to the US with 2,191 recorded deaths, as of 7:55 p.m., March 29th.
Let this be a reminder that no matter how old you are, “the future is not written.” Mr. P brings hope and motivation to all people who are older than 70 by reminding them that they don’t ever have to give up.
