War hero, 98, is oldest Briton to survive bug
A SECOND World War veteran is believed to be the oldest Briton to survive Covid-19 after recovering less than a week after diagnosis.
Jack Bowden, 98, was discharged from hospital just three days after testing positive for coronavirus.
The former pharmacist, who worked on vital production of penicillin during the war, tested positive last Wednesday after being taken ill with a water infection.
But amazingly the former Royal Navy petty officer was discharged on Saturday to return to the care home in Bolton, where he lives.
Jack’s youngest son Mark, 58, said he even wrote a goodbye letter when doctors told him that his father had tested positive for the life-threatening illness. He said: “I thought I’d never see him again. I wrote him a lovely letter and within an hour he rang me and said, ‘I think I’ve got the real thing’.
“But by Friday, the nurses said he was doing amazing and just had a mild chest infection.”
Medics at the Royal Bolton Hospital decided that Jack was better off isolating in his care home than on the ward, which posed a risk of infection.
Mark added: “They discharged him on Friday night, but he could only leave on Saturday morning once the care home had put measures in place to cope with his return. We don’t think he’s fully out of the woods yet as he still has a chest infection. But he is sitting up in his chair, he’s comfortable and well on the way to recovery. I’m pretty sure he has passed the infectious stage. The consultant wants to use him as a case study.”
Joanne Drayson, Jack’s daughter, said she believes the anti-viral drugs her father was given to treat his water infection helped him get over Covid-19.
She said: “His medication has been shown to have anti-viral properties. I believe that’s why he recovered so quickly. For somebody of his age to go into hospital on the Monday and come out again the same week is remarkable.”
Granddaughter Nicola Hyams, said: “He’s gone back home and by all accounts he’s doing very well – he’s complaining about having to stay in bed.” Jack, who was born in May 1921, trained as a pharmacist and worked on the production of penicillin to treat injured soldiers during the SecondWorldWar.
On D-Day he was based at Portsmouth giving blood transfusions to Allied servicemen returning injured from the battlefields of Normandy.
Mark added: “He helped to make and produce penicillin back then and now 80 years later, he’s being used a case study to help fight this infectious disease.
“He was a trailblazer back then and he’s a trailblazer now.”