Scots pilot to return home from Vietnam after ‘miracle’ recovery

A SCOTTISH pilot who was Vietnam’s most critical Covid-19 patient has been discharged from hospital, less than a week after doctors said he was virusfree and healthy enough to return home.

Stephen Cameron was taken by ambulance from Cho Ray Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City to the city’s airport.

He was scheduled to take a flight to Hanoi, Vietnam’s capital, where he will depart on a flight to London, with a stop in Frankfurt. He is scheduled to land in London this morning.

Vietnam has gone all out to save the 42-year-old, who was working for national carrier Vietnam Airlines when he tested positive for the coronavirus in March. Mr Cameron had been critically ill and spent 65 days on life support.

“I’m overwhelmed by the generosity of the Vietnamese people, the dedication and professionalism of the doctors and nurses working at Cho Ray Hospital,” he said yesterday morning in a video released by the hospital, where he was last treated.

“I can only thank everybody here for things that they have done,” said Mr Cameron as he was sitting in a wheelchair next to a group of doctors. “I’m going home with a happy heart because I’m going home, but it is sad that I’m leaving so many people here that I’m friends with.”

Mr Cameron, from Motherwell, is known in Vietnam as “Patient 91,” as he was the 91st person in the country confirmed to have coronavirus. He was Vietnam’s last patient in the ICU, and his recovery means the country has still not had any Covid-19 deaths. “The patient’s recovery has been like a very long flight,” said Dr Tran Thanh Linh, the deputy head of the ICU ward at Cho Ray Hospital, during a meeting between hospital officials, the British Consulate and Vietnam Airlines representatives just before the discharge.

“But he made it,” he said. “All of the health workers are overwhelmed with joy to see him fully recovered and being discharged from the hospital today.”

After the meeting, Mr Cameron was handed a certificate stating that he is virusfree and healthy enough to travel on a long-haul flight.

He was scheduled to be flown on one of Vietnam Airlines’ Boeing 787s – the same aircraft he used to pilot when he was flying for the carrier.

“We want to make him happy, to make him feel like coming back to his second home on the aircraft,” said Luu Hoang Minh of Vietnam Airlines’ flight crew division where Mr Cameron used to work.

“It’s going to be a long night tonight, but he will have his colleagues with him on the flight. He will feel like being a pilot again,” he said.

Mr Cameron had been so sick with Covid-19 that doctors said at one point they considered a lung transplant, with his lungs 90% damaged and non-functional. But he now breathes normally without any support. He sleeps well and can sit up and walk a few steps with a walking frame, Dr Linh said.

Vietnam has reported 370 coronavirus cases. It has not found a local transmitted infection in nearly three months.