Kate Garraway's husband- so upsetting

[Rory786]

Did anyone see Kate's interview. Her husband Derek is now covid free after battling it for 10 weeks but his body has been ravaged by it. It was so sad to watch as she was fighting back the tears and trying to stay brave for her girls. I was fighting back the tears too.

Thumb I’ve been following the story of Nick Cordero via his wife, Amanda Kloots instagram and it’s horrifying how ill he is. Still he is critically ill, just yesterday his wife posted that he cannot release carbon dioxide from his lungs and was begging anyone researching this to get in touch with her. He had his leg amputated too, it’s awful to read.

Here's another one - Broadway actor Nick Cordero
He had to have one of his legs amputated. He's only 41

@LouLouLoo

I suppose it helps to remember that's it's an artificial way of keeping your body going.
A bit like CPR can technically help pump blood around your body but it's no way as good as a healthy heart doing it. Ventilation isn't like breathing and the pressures required to force air through poorly lungs can damage them during the process. Keeping someone's blood pressure up with medication isn't as good as if the circulation system does it itself, just like dialysis or ECMO isn't as good as your kidneys or lungs doing the job themeselves. Physio in bed isn't the same as walkibg. They're such amazing, fine tuned processes and we can artificially replicate them to a certain extent to buy time to see if the body can recover its own way of doing things but it leaves the body with a huge uphill battle - to recover from the initial insult and also the ways the treatment has damaged it too.
Both the original illness and the treatment/induced coma can affect the brain too. An ITU admission is just a huge deal for a human body.
I wish this family all the best.

I watched it this morning and cried. A lot.

What an ordeal for them and what an enlightening interview for all of us - especially those who think Covid is little more than a bad cough.

I sincerely hope he can recover.

I didn't watch it but have been wondering how they were getting on. How desperately sad that he is not getting any better.

It was so sad. 10 weeks is such a long time and if he comes out if it his recovery is going to be really slow. It's an artificial way to keep the body alive and people I've known who have been on ventilators for less time have needed rehab to walk, talk again. It's also unknown what impact it will have had neurologically. I really do hope he comes out if it and makes a good recovery.

Hard enough to go through in private. Very brave to share it

I think it's important she has shared. It shows very clearly the effects of this virus on so many. It is all too frequently dismissed as 'not very much at all' when clearly, on someone healthy and not very old at all, it is very much something.

I have everything crossed for them. He might just be a covid miracle.

It's really really awful, and I feel so sad for her and her children. A close relative of mine was on a ventilator before they died a couple of years ago and it was explained to us that the longer someone is being kept alive by a machine, with drugs to maintain metabolic functions the less likely they are to make a recovery - and this was in reference to days on a ventilator, not months as Derek Draper has been. From her interview it seems like his lungs are badly damaged. Of course miraculous recoveries do happen, and where there is life there is hope no matter how small. A desperately sad situation.

I didn’t see the interview but have seen clips. I know of Derek from his time in the Labour Party.

I think Kate Garraway was “preparing”the public for the inevitable bad news that is going to come. I don’t know who ultimately makes the decision, I assume the doctors.

Why isn't there money being poured into finding a decent alternative to ventilation?! We know they're contributing to the death toll as much as they are the survival rate

She said there are five people in the country like this I read. Heartbreaking for those families.

I didn't watch it but have just been reading a few articles about it. I'm not usually someone who cries when reading an article but I did about this. How devastatingly sad for her and her kids.

It said on the news that he isn't in an induced coma anymore, so presuming he must be weaning very slowly from the ventilator. They don't turn off the sedation if patients are still requiring high levels of respiratory support.

That said the recovery and rehabilitation will be a long process, but if he is now awake then he must be at least stable.

It’s not just deaths is it? It worries me that the UK is so focused on death rates as the only measure. Stories like this show that the utter carnage it leaves behind can be an even greater burden. How many lives will be left like this for every death?

Strong chnce of multiple small blood clots which would cause damage to get and brain. I don't know his chances but those in this situation often have the blood clot complications. I hope for the best for all in this situation 😔

He has been ill for so long, it’s horrendous.

There was another story in the news today which was presented as a recovery story but the man had had a leg amputated and could barely sit up in his wheelchair. He looked so ill it was shocking and completely unrecognisable from the ordinary healthy person he was in the picture of him before.

Didn't see the interview, but I do keep an eye out for updates on Derek as it is terribly sad and can't help but hope for a positive outcome. Very sad.

It’s incredibly sad

I know someone researching the virus in Italy and it’s not just being in the ventilator that’s the problem . The virus can affect every organ in the body and sometimes the damage is irreversible . The scientists were still learning so much but unfortunately that won’t help those who have already sadly died.

Why isn't there money being poured into finding a decent alternative to ventilation?! We know they're contributing to the death toll as much as they are the survival rate

There is, but stuff we’re chucking at it isn’t really working much better either yet. This is a new disease and it’s going to take time to work out what will work.

@SusieOwl4

I know someone researching the virus in Italy and it’s not just being in the ventilator that’s the problem . The virus can affect every organ in the body and sometimes the damage is irreversible . The scientists were still learning so much but unfortunately that won’t help those who have already sadly died.

It seems like such a strange virus that we still know so little about. As more emerges it sounds like it's not just a respiratory disease but also vascular so all sorts of possible impact on future health - cardio/stroke etc.

Even for those who get it mildly, some seem to take months to recover. My friend had it 11 weeks ago and is still suffering breathing problems now. She is a healthy 40 year old and has never suffered with her chest before. Who knows what the long-term lung damage will be even for those who haven't been ventilated.

Very brave of KG to share publicly and raise awareness. Hoping for the best outcome for all of them and the others in similar positions.

Anybody who minimises this to 'just a cold' or 'like a bad case of the flu' should be made to read these a million times until it sinks in. Even this morning some idiot posted something like that. My heart goes out to anyone suffering the after effects of covid 19 - and obviously their families.

As more emerges it sounds like it's not just a respiratory disease but also vascular so all sorts of possible impact on future health - cardio/stroke etc.

I think there’s some thought that it’s behaving more like a blood disease than a respiratory one. They were looking into the use of Heparin & warfarin to solve the clotting issues. Although I’m not sure they’re having much success.

The longer term physical and psychological effects of this must be huge.

I was reading something the other day by a doctor who said it really isn't "flu like" at all, but more akin to something like polio or HIV.

Thank you for explaining @Xiphisternum