More than 30 gravely ill patients who took part in an experimental treatment for COVID-19 at Houston Methodist Research Institute have recovered from the illness and have left the hospital, the physician overseeing the therapy said Friday.
“All of these people were very, very sick,” Dr. James A. Musser, chairman of the department of pathology and genomic medicine at Houston Methodist Hospital, said in a phone interview. “Many of them were on ventilators. That was the common theme.”
It cannot be said with certainty the treatment, in which plasma donated by people who had fully recovered from the illness caused by the coronavirus is injected into those still sick, was responsible for recoveries, Musser said. But it appears to be a hopeful sign, he added.
Experts are still seeking to determine the types of patients who appeared to have benefited from the therapy and the types who did not.
