102-Year-Old Italian Woman Recovered from Coronavirus

After spending more than 20 days at the hospital, a 102-year-old woman has recovered from coronavirus in the northern Italian city of Genoa, doctors who treated her and her nephew told CNN.

"We nicknamed her 'Highlander' – the immortal," said doctor Vera Sicbaldi, who treated Italica Grondona in the San Martino hospital in Genoa.

"Italica represents hope for all the elderly facing this pandemic."

According to the country's National Health Center, the total age of those who have tested positive for coronavirus and have died in Italy is 78.

Grondona was hospitalized at the beginning of March for "mild heart failure," Sicbaldi told CNN.

"She only had some mild coronavirus symptoms, so we tested her and she was positive, but we did very little, she recovered on her own," Sicbaldi added.

Doctors say her case impressed them so much that they decided to study it deeper.

"We got serological samples, she is the first patient we know that might have gone through the ‘Spanish flu’ since she was born in 1917," Sicbaldi explained, referring to the 1918/1919 flu pandemic that killed at least 50 million people worldwide, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

On March 26, Grondona quit the facility and is now in a nursing home. "I don't know what her secret is, but I know she's a safe, independent lady," Renato Villa Grondona, her nephew told CNN.

Her only son died in the United States several decades back. "But she enjoys life, dance, and music and she enjoys Freddy Mercury and Valentino Rossi," said Villa Grondona, referring to the former MotoGP World Champion.

Source: CNN