A Melbourne man who was in intensive care suffering from COVID-19 and sepsis has been released from hospital with no complications after being given a high dose of intravenous vitamin C by his doctors.
The 40-year-old man had lost kidney function, his blood pressure was dropping and sepsis had begun to set in. Sepsis is a life-threatening condition that occurs when the body’s response to infection causes damage to its own organs and tissues. It is a common cause of death for people who are ill with COVID-19.
“We felt we were in a very difficult situation, and the patient's life was under serious threat," said Professor Rinaldo Bellomo, director of Intensive Care at Melbourne's Austin Health.
Professor Bellomo initially gave the patient 30 grams of vitamin C over half an hour, followed another 30 grams over 6.5 hours. In changes Bellomo described as “remarkable”, the patient regained kidney function and his blood pressure and oxygen levels improved.
12 days after starting the vitamin C treatment, the patient was taken off the ventilator and he was released from hospital after 22 days.
Bellomo had been collaborating with Professor Clive May at the Florey Institute, who leads a team studying the treatment of sepsis. He says that Bellomo was initially sceptical of the results of vitamin C treatment on animals with sepsis, but after seeing videos of their results he had visited the lab to see it for himself.
The dose of vitamin C given to the patient was 50 times larger than had been tried before in the treatment of sepsis.
Professor May has just published research that shows the megadoses of vitamin C can reverse the course of sepsis in animals, which he describes as “revolutionary”.
"If the treatment works as well in patients as it does in our animal studies, I think it's going to totally revolutionise the treatment of septic patients in intensive care units all over the world," Professor May said.
More research is needed to confirm the effectiveness of vitamin C on human sepsis patients, something that is already under way at Albert Health following their patient’s remarkable recovery.
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