A BRITISH pilot who survived a record 243 days in hospital with Covid punched the air with joy after being discharged.
Nicholas Synnott, 59, was rushed to hospital last March in Texas after falling ill with the deadly bug in Houston.
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The British Airways pilot suffered respiratory failure and was placed on a ventilator as well as a heart and lung machine,
His wife, Nicola, 54, spent every day at his hospital bedside and he was finally discharged just before Christmas.
The average Covid hospital stay in the US is three to five days.
But Nicholas, from Betchworth, Surrey, spent eight months at UT Health and Memorial Hermann Hospital.
Nicholas has said he hopes Derek Draper, 52 – husband of GMB host Kate Garraway, 53 – beats his record as the British patient who returns home after the longest stay in hospital with Covid-19 , The Times reports.
'DARK PHASE'
Derek, 52, was admitted to hospital with Covid on March 30 last year, but is still seriously ill in intensive care.
Dad-of-two Nicholas told ABC 30 News after leaving hospital: “I went through a dark phrase where psychologically there were issues I had to deal with.
“It was a tough journey but, we’ve got where we are.”
He added: "With the support of my wife, and the thought of going back to my kids."
Dr Biswajit Kar, a cardiologist who treated Mr Synnott, said: “Every organ of his body was affected by Covid-19.
"But yet, because his health was so good as a pilot prior to the illness, he could sustain all this and survive something as serious as this.”
Nicholas said he hopes to return to Houston to visit the zoo which he could see every day from his hospital window.
Doctors believe his good health as a pilot and his wife's care helped him survive
Memorial Hermann's Dr. Bindu Akkanti said. "There was always a question, 'Is he even in there?'
"Given the enormous number of the medications the other multi-organ issues that were happening.
"I think all of us on our team agreed that it was his wife."
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