Survivor’s step is a milestone for us all

The departure of patient Grant McIntyre from the intensive care ward at Ninewells Hospital is both a personal triumph and a cause for wider jubilation. Professor McIntyre, a consultant orthodontist by profession, spent 86 days fighting for his life after being admitted to the Dundee hospital with Covid-19 at the end of March, just as the pandemic was beginning to tighten its grip on Tayside.

He was applauded out by colleagues yesterday following the longest stay on the ward and with the unenviable title of the region’s “sickest survivor”.

But the 49-year-old clinical director for Dundee Dental Hospital was also the last remaining Covid-19 patient to be discharged from the unit, making his return home to Perthshire a major milestone for the team who cared for him and for the whole of Tayside.

He is stepping out into a very different world from the one on which he pressed pause and while Prof McIntyre was too sick to take in all that was happening, those of us who have lived through this time know only too well the tumult and tragedy that has unfolded over the last three months.

At the end of a week in which Scotland recorded the first midweek 24-hour period with no new coronavirus deaths since March 20, we should all take a moment to reflect on how far we have come, take pride in the part we played in getting there and take heed of the importance of staying on the right track and ensuring the virus is put behind us.