The 69-year-old cellist, who serves as artistic director of the Montreal Chamber Music Festival, is recovering after 38 days on a ventilator

Denis Brott

Denis Brott

The Canadian cellist Denis Brott has been released from a Montreal hospital, where he spent more than a month in intensive care battling COVID-19.

The 69-year-old cellist, who has won two Juno awards as part of the Orford String Quartet, serves as artistic director of the Montreal Chamber Music Festival and is professor of chamber music and cello at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal, first showed symptoms just after returning to Canada in late March from the Netherlands, where he had been performing.

He drove himself to Hôtel-Dieu hospital, where he collapsed and was taken to the Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal hospital. He was intubated and sedated in an induced coma.

He spent 45 days in ICU, 38 of them on a ventilator.

‘I am COVID-free now,’ Brott told the Montreal Gazette. ‘I expect to make a full recovery.’

He continued:  ‘I am so very grateful for the overwhelming expression of love and care by so many, but especially from my incredible family who have been steadfast and are now invaluable in guiding me along the road to recovery. I am also profoundly grateful to the doctors and nurses for their selfless dedication.  The doctors are truly heroes:  I would NOT be alive but for their persistent care and belief that I could beat this horrible monster. Courage to those victims and their families who continue to suffer.  And profound condolences to those who have suffered the ultimate loss.’