Italica Grondona came down with the deadly virus and was admitted San Martino hospital with mild heart failure in early March.
“She only had some mild coronavirus symptoms, so we tested her and she was positive, but we did very little, she recovered on her own,” her doctor, Vera Sicbaldi, told CNN.
Doctors were so impressed with Grondona’s recovery from the virus, which has been deadly for many elderly people, that they gave her a new nickname.
“We nicknamed her ‘Highlander’ – the immortal,” Sicbaldi said.
“Italica represents a hope for all the elderly facing this pandemic.”
Sicbaldi said it’s possible, given Grondona’s age, that she may be one of the only patients to have also survived the 1918 Spanish flu.
“We got serological samples, she is the first patient we know that might have gone through the ‘Spanish flu’ since she was born in 1917,” the doctor said.
The Spanish flu lasted from January 1918 to December 1920, and killed anywhere from 17 million to 50 million people.
Having become a symbol of hope and gone viral on social media, Grondona is now resting and enjoying being back home at the aged residence where she lives.
