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Coronavirus: One of first patients to take dexamethasone says it 'definitely' helped save his life

Packages of Dexamethasone are displayed in a pharmacy, Tuesday, June 16, 2020,  in Omaha, Neb. Researchers in England said Tuesday they have the first evidence that the drug can improve COVID-19 survival. The cheap, widely available steroid called dexamethasone reduced deaths by up to one third in severely ill hospitalized patients. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)
Researchers have said they have the first evidence that the drug dexamethasone can improve COVID-19 survival. (AP)

After researchers found that dexamethasone helped reduce COVID-19 deaths, a man who took the steroid drug claims it “definitely” helped save his life.

Retired manager Peter Herring, who used to work at the John Lewis department store in Cambridge, was given doses of the world's first COVID-19 treatment as part of a trial at the city's Addenbrooke's Hospital.

The 69-year-old, from Little Downham, near Ely, was admitted to hospital on 28 April and given the drug in tablet form from early in his stay, in what he believes was a daily dose.

He was well enough to be discharged on 6 May, and it took a further fortnight of recovery at home before he felt "back to normal”.

Cranes over Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge UK
Peter Herring was given doses of dexamethasone as part of a trial at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge. (Getty)

Herring said: "I was struggling for breath really and I was on oxygen [when admitted to hospital].

"They said, would I like to do a trial? They didn't say what drug and it could have been one of three or four because they were trying different ones, which I agreed to.

"Obviously he gave me the right one. There was no magic switch, it was a gradual coming back really. It wasn't anything overnight.”

Asked if he believed dexamethasone helped save his life, he said: “Definitely."

He added: "I'm here to tell the story and I'm really thankful to the NHS for that. It's really, really good.

"I had no qualms about doing a trial because my way of thinking is it would hopefully help other people if they do find that it works, and it's worked and that's really brilliant.”

A study of dexamethasone, coordinated by Oxford University, suggests it is the first drug found to reduce deaths from coronavirus.

It has been described as the most important trial result for COVID-19 so far.

Researchers found that the drug reduced deaths by up to a third among patients on ventilators, and by a fifth for those on oxygen.

CARDIFF, UNITED KINGDOM - JUNE 16: A close-up of a box of Dexamethasone tablets in a pharmacy on June 16, 2020 in Cardiff, United Kingdom. Results of a trial announced today have shown that Dexamethasone, a cheap and widely used steroid drug which is used to reduce inflammation, reduced death rates by around a third in the most severely ill COVID-19 patients who were admitted to hospital. Researches have predicted 5,000 lives could have been saved had the drug been used to treat patients in the UK at the start of the pandemic.(Photo by Matthew Horwood/Getty Images)
A close-up of a box of Dexamethasone tablets in a pharmacy in Cardiff. (Getty)

It has been immediately approved to treat all UK COVID-19 patients admitted to hospital and requiring oxygen, including those on ventilators.

Scientists estimate that if they had known what they now know about dexamethasone at the start of the pandemic, 4,000 to 5,000 lives could have been saved in the UK.

They added that, based on their results, one death would be prevented by treatment of around eight patients on ventilators, or around 25 patients requiring oxygen alone.

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