Vietnam struggles to save British pilot, avoid first Covid death

Vietnam has mounted an all-out effort to save the life of its most critically ill coronavirus patient, a British pilot who works for Vietnam Airlines. Little expense has been spared to try save the life of the 43-year-old man, identified only as "Patient 91", who caught the coronavirus at a bar in the southern business hub of Ho Chi Minh City in mid-March, state media reported. More than 4,000 people connected to the cluster were tested, with 18 of them found to be infected with the coronavirus. While most have recovered, the British pilot is on life support and his condition has deteriorated significantly. On Tuesday, the health ministry held a meeting with experts from top hospitals and decided that the only way to save the man's life was a lung transplant. The patient has just 10% of his lung capacity left and has been on life support for more than 30 days, Tuoi Tre said. Deputy health minister Nguyen Truong Son told media last month that Vietnam had imported specialist medicine from overseas to treat blood clots in the patient, but to no avail. <br/>