CAPE TOWN – A COVID-19 patient has finally been discharged from hospital after 77 days.
Zukiswa Maqana spent weeks in Groote Schuur Hospital’s intensive care unit.
She’s now been given a clean bill of health.
In late April, Maqana developed a fever and experienced shortness of breath.
She went to the Mitchells Plain Hospital where she was diagnosed with pneumonia and diabetes.
“They said my sugar is so high, I can’t eat, they can’t control it. The other doctor came to me and he said they had to take me to Groote Schuur.”
Zukiswa, a widow and mother of two, said that at Groote Schuur Hospital she was diagnosed with COVID-19 and her condition quickly deteriorated.
“When they told me I’ve got COVID-19, I was a little bit scared. I said I am going to die now, I’m going to die now.”
But she fought back.
Now, after a two-and-half-month hospital stay, she’s beaten the virus and is thankful for a second chance at life.
“I’ve got my daughter who’s still studying. My wish is for her to pass matric and go to the university and work for herself and her mother because I’m a single mother but I’m trying so hard to make her happy.”
She is one of more than 70,000 COVID-19 patients in the Western Cape who’ve recovered from the disease.