MOSCOW — A Russian woman who was admitted to hospital heavily pregnant and with what doctors said were potentially fatal levels of Covid-19 lung damage was reunited with her newborn baby after spending 51 days on a ventilator and giving birth by C-section.

Ms Oksana Shelomentseva was hospitalised in the Siberian city of Irkutsk in the 32nd week of her pregnancy, having had a high fever for three days. A scan showed catastrophic lung damage and that her unborn baby was not receiving enough oxygen.

"My temperature rose to 38°C and I battled with it for three days, but it became clear I could not do that independently," Ms Shelomentseva said.

Doctors immediately performed a Caesarean section to deliver baby girl Liza, but still feared for the recovery of the mother who went on to spend almost two months on a ventilator to help her breathe.

"It was a very serious case," said Galina Shkandriy, head of the Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Department at the hospital where Ms Shelomentseva was treated. "The entire ward is to thank for the patient recovering from 100 per cent lung damage," the RIA news agency cited her as saying.

"When we consulted doctors from around the city, they all said 'you probably won't be able to do anything because with those indicators, people don't survive.'"

"Oksana spent 51 days in intensive care in a most serious condition. We were able to save her from the most severe lung damage and multiple organ failure," said Shkandriy.

Ms Shelomentseva was discharged on Monday and returned home to her husband and three children, including baby Liza.

At 3,448,203, Russia has the world's fourth-largest tally of coronavirus cases after the United States, India and Brazil, and has reported 62,804 deaths from the virus. REUTERS