According to reports, a 104-year-old woman in New York is recovering from COVID-19, and her nursing home is calling it a “miracle.”
Ida Acconciamessa, who reportedly lives at the Sheepshead Nursing and Rehabilitation Centre in Brooklyn, tested positive for Covid-19 on 4 April. CBS News reports she was given oxygen, she was very weak and wasn’t eating.
Now, nearly a month later, reports say she’s talking, eating, and recovering from the virus.
Her daughter, Barbara Senese, told reporters that her mother is no stranger to health hardships. She continued to say that Acconciamessa lived through the Spanish flu, has had two broken hips, survived stage 4 melanoma, and now survives COVID-19.
Speaking to CBS News, Senese said, “She always used to say, ‘I was born under a lucky star.’ That was her mantra in life. And you know what? To be able to get through this virus, those words often come to my mind.”
Senese said that she and her sister last saw their mother at a window on 26 March and were concerned with her health.
“They brought her to us in a wheelchair by the window. The window was open just a tiny bit so she could hear our voices. She didn’t move a muscle and she stared at us. Just a stare. I don’t think I’ll ever forget that – ever. We were begging her for 10 to 15 minutes to say something. She said nothing. When we walked away, I said to my sister, ‘She’s sick. She has the virus.'”
The family feared she wouldn’t recover because she was already recovering from a fractured hip and c.difficile, another infection, but now nursing home staff say she’s doing much better.
Staff at Sheepshead Nursing and Rehabilitation Centre called on 24 April to say she was recovering from the virus.
Marco Perrone, the Nursing Administration Supervisor at the facility, told CBS, “At 104 years, I think it’s a miracle to survive through Covid. We have people 40, 50 years old, passing due to Covid. So, 104 years old it’s amazing she was able to survive through this.“
