There were raucous scenes in a Cork hospital on Thursday when a mother-of-two was discharged from ICU after spending a record 79 days on life support battling COVID-19.
Mary Sullivan, from Douglas in County Cork, suffered a heart attack on March 11 and subsequently tested positive for COVID-19. She developed respiratory failure and required a ventilator to survive, before she was finally discharged from intensive care on Thursday, June 18.
Staff at the Bon Secours Hospital in Cork lined the corridors to give her a huge round of applause in a heartwarming and moving video posted on Twitter by RTÉ's Paschal Sheehy.
Even off-duty hospital staff stopped by to add to the rousing scene.
A moment mother of two Mary Sullivan and her family from #Douglas #Cork though they would never see: Mary’s discharge from the @BonSecours Hospital ICU after spending a record 79 days on life support being treated for Covid-19. Even off-duty staff came to applaud her. @rtenews pic.twitter.com/6J44ZB5Qma
— Paschal Sheehy (@PaschalSheehy) June 18, 2020
Yvonne and Niamh Sullivan, Mary's two daughters, were by her side as she left the hospital's ICU on Thursday.
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Yvonne Sullivan told RTÉ News that it was a surreal feeling seeing her mother being wheeled out of ICU after almost three months of uncertainty.
Mary Sullivan, meanwhile, was keen to heap praise on the staff at the Bon Secours Hospital.
"I feel wonderful. Only for ye, this day would never have happened," she told staff as passed them in the corridor.
"I want ye to be recognized for all ye have done. I do appreciate it."
Staff at the hospital were amazed by her recovery and doctors believe that she has spent longer on a ventilator than any COVID-19 patient in Ireland or Britain with investigations ongoing to determine if she holds the European record.
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