At 97, Gina Dal Colleto is a woman who loves to live. That's how Maria Helena describes her mother, who, despite her age, cooks, likes to takes walks, shops and is always in the company of her family.
This passion for life became evident when she left the hospital to applause from the medical team, this Sunday (12), as the oldest woman in the country that is known to have healed from Covid-19.
Dal Colleto lives in Santos, and she was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of the Vila Nova Star hospital, of the D'Or São Luiz Network, in São Paulo, on April 1 after presenting symptoms such as cough and mental confusion.
Her daughter Maria Helena, who lives in the same building as her and visits her mother every day, was infected but had no symptoms of the disease: she just had a little cough and a runny nose. It was probably her who transmitted the virus to the elderly woman.
"On the third day they called me and said that she was feeling very sick, that she didn't want to eat, that she didn't open her eyes and that she wanted the company of her daughters," Maria Helena said. As she had already had contact with the disease, she was released to accompany her mother during treatment.
"The moment she saw me, she just cried," she recalled. Even if though she feared for her mother's health, she was determined to encourage her and give her strength. "I just said that I loved her, that I knew she was going to survive."
Translated by Kiratiana Freelon