A coronavirus patient has become the first in the UK saved by an arthritis drug thanks to his quick-thinking Italian doctor.
Leonard Whitehurst, 72, was admitted at the start of the UK's outbreak with a confirmed infection of Covid-19. Over the course of his stay, Leonard had remained critically unwell, requiring 19 litres of oxygen and was still deteriorating.
He told staff Royal Cornwall Hospital last week that he did not want artificial ventilation. But Dr Giorgio Gentile, his consultant nephrologist, had been in regular contact with his network of former colleagues in Italy fighting the virus.
He had heard anecdotal reports of people in very severe conditions who had dramatically improved after treatment with tocilizumab, an