Marianne Schwartz, who is 98 and survived the holocaust, has become the oldest Victorian to have beaten the deadly COVID-19 virus.
Infected with COVID-19 in July, she was in Cabrini Hospital for over a month before being released earlier this week, in time to celebrate her 98th birthday three days later.
She was on and off oxygen in hospital, and contracted pneumonia, an experience she described on 7’s Sunrise as “terrible, it was absolutely terrible”.
When asked why she thinks she was able to overcome the virus, when older people have sadly been so vulnerable to it, she heartedly replied, “I’m very, very determined by nature… I’m a survivor in many ways.”
But COVID-19 hasn’t been the greatest challenge she’s faced. “It was not my most difficult challenge, but it was a big challenge,” she said.
As for the future, she hopes to get back to driving.
“I love driving. I don’t know for how long I will be able to, but if I have a chance I still would. I feel capable of it.”
She also likes to spend her time playing Scrabble and playing table tennis.
Ms Schwartz’s story comes as welcome relief from the gloomy COVID-19 and economic news dominating the news cycle at present. Here’s to more positive news, perhaps about about other elderly people surviving or improved treatments, in the weeks ahead.
Image: Sunrise.
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