Lenox Hill Hospital celebrates 1,000th coronavirus patient discharge

A man who was released from Manhattan’s Lenox Hill Hospital on Thursday after recovering the coronavirus was excited to return to his family, who have also been diagnosed with the disease.

Ramdeo Radhay, 61, was the hospital’s 1,000th patient discharged after recovering from COVID-19 — and was wheeled out by hospital staff with large fanfare, video shows.

Dozens of cheering workers gathered to clap for Radhay as hospital staff wheeled him out of the building.

Radhay, overcome with emotion, pressed his hands together in a thankful gesture and seemed to laugh from behind his mask — then gave a thumbs up to the camera, video shows.

After exiting the building, Radhay shakes the gloved hand of Dr. Shankar Thampi, a fellow of cardiology at the hospital.

“I want to thank Dr. Thampi and everyone in this hospital a million times,” Radhay said in the video.

Radhay, an immigrant and former farmer from the South American country of Guyana, moved to the US in 2011 and worked in auto repair until he lost his job because of the coronavirus, hospital officials said.

He has five kids, two of which are adopted — and lives with his wife, a daughter and two of his sons, who work as medical assistants for the hospital, officials said.

Two of his sons, as well as his wife and daughter, who both work in a nursing home, tested positive for the disease, officials said. Fortunately, only the father needed to be hospitalized.

Nazish Ilyas, division chief of the hospital and associate chair for inpatient medicine, described Radhay as a “special” patient who made a “remarkable” recovery.

“He came into the hospital pretty sick. He was in respiratory failure and had quite a complicated course. It’s really in the last 72 hours in itself that his trajectory changed,” Ilyas said.

Radhay received various treatments but at all times required very high amounts of oxygen, Ilyas said.

He was at the cusp of being intubated a few times and was enrolled in a clinical trial of plasma on Wednesday — when he made the speedy recovery.

“One of the challenges with this disease has been that in the sense of pharmacological therapy, we’ve sort of been in the dark. There have been various clinical trials around the country, with some of them showing promise. But definitive results for many are not out and some of them are still underway.”

Radhay’s release marked a “huge milestone” for the hospital — and the medical workers involved in helping coronavirus patients recover.

“He really embodies New Yorkers. … When you really talk about someone who’s had to face so many different pieces of this personally, with his family, and financially — he’s really been through a lot,” Ilyas said.