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.

Apologies if this has already been asked but did the poor guy have any underlying health conditions? He seems to have been very unlucky in the severity of his case. Poor Kate and they’d children. Hopefully he’ll make a great recovery soon, bless them all.

Ventilation is hard on the body its every day on a ventilator is like running 10k, you loose muscle mass very quickly, think if you have ever had (genuine ) flu, 3 days in bed you can hardly walk or stand. Thers a long recovery period,physio.Every bodily function has to be taken care of for you.

I think one of the reasons Covid-19 is so scary is precisely because there's a lottery like aspect to what you get- you could be asymptomatic and not even know you'd had it, have a mild illness and be over it in a few days, have a more severe illness which goes on for weeks and is scary but you don't need hospitalization, all the way up to needing intensive care and what has happened to Derek Draper, poor man. Or, in some cases, die.

Some of these outcomes are more probable, depending on your demographics. But it's scary.

I was on a ventilator for 6 weeks last year due to a nasty bug that turned into sepsis. Then I got pneumonia from the ventilator, and then 2 more bouts of pneumonia, all hospital acquired. I couldn't move at all when I finally woke up out of the coma. I had to be fed and washed and everything for about another 5 weeks, plus learn to walk again as all my muscle mass had gone. I nearly died a few times and my little boy had to come and say goodbye to me in ICU.

I'm just over a year on now, and only just getting back to normal. It's a very, long, hard recovery and I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. I really hope Derek pulls through, it's just awful for the family xx

@Starcup

Kate said he didnt have any underlying health problems...

I’m glad you are on the mend, it’stheyearzero.

I watched this too and was in tears. I am not someone who gets easily upset, but I felt so much for Kate. I wish them all the best and hope for a good outcome for Derek.

@Starcup - no, no underlying health conditions and 52 years old. Kate Garraway said he'd barely been to hospital at all in his life and was rarely ill.

The thing that made me gasp is that she said his liver enzymes were checked to find out infection levels. Now, I know there are at least a couple of tests that work with these enzymes but don't know much about either. Anyway, she said that a person with something like tonsillitis or a normal infection would have an enzyme count of around 100. If it gets to 200 you probably need a hospital bed. Derek's was over 1000 (yes 1K). So it's not just the ventilation. This is the Covid 19 causing multiple infection in the body. If you are unlucky, even if you're well normally, this virus can be devastating.

I really keep my fingers crossed for him. She and her family have been amazing and her kids seem lovely.

I'm not saying this is a reputable source because I haven't fully checked it, but there are people suggesting this might be a vascular condition rather than a respiratory tract infection elemental.medium.com/coronavirus-may-be-a-blood-vessel-disease-which-explains-everything-2c4032481ab2

I was on a ventilator as well as filtration for three days 3.5 years ago and they said that it was like running five marathons.

I had pneumonia then and a blood clot in my heart.

Went back on to the vent a year ago after a cardiac arrest but was only for a day, but again developed pneumonia.

I now need a heart transplant.

Ten weeks doesn’t bear thinking about, but I do think that what we need to consider is that this man is still alive and has beaten a lot of odds so far.

I have no doubt any recovery will be slow and might in fact never happen, but I also think that we need to consider that the human body is in fact remarkably resilient at times.

My heart has been through so much that it’s a miracle I am alive and at the moment am able to live a fairly normal life. So however badly it is damaged (and it is badly damaged, trust me) it’s clearly made of some strong stuff.

I really hope that he can make a full. Recovery, and while there is undoubtedly a long way to go, I think that everything is worth celebrating.

This and other posted on here is such a sad story. And why I'm worried about it as it can be do devastating...

Even just reading this thread has made me well up again. I just want him to get better. I wanted to reach through the screen and give her and her two lovely children a hug. It's devastating, cruel and unfair.

My friends teenage son has been in hospital for months, it's not looking at all good for him. He was perfectly healthy before.

He's covid free but it's destroyed his digestive system........my heart absolutely goes out to Kate and everyone else affected by this horrible disease.

I’m so very sorry for those of you who have suffered the after effects of hospital treatment in the past. Several good friends have lost their dads to Covid-19. None got to say goodbye in person, obviously.

I guess many of us with no experience of this imagine a ventilator as a magic bullet. There was a definite sense at the beginning of this crisis that “all” we had to do to resolve the issues was get more ventilators. Then you hear that the Nightingale hospital in London had barely any patients because there’s no point having ventilators without highly trained specialist staff to care for the patients.

I can’t imagine how it feels to fight this very personal battle in the public eye, while seeing media coverage of crowds enjoying the sunshine. Poor Kate and anyone in the same situation.

@AlternativePerspective

Wishing you all the best, you’ve been through so much.

My 75 year old dad had Covid 19 in March. I think the only reason he's here is because he has sleep apnoea and uses a Cpap machine at night. He's had a heart attack, stents, radiotherapy and brain surgery to remove his pituitary which was destroyed by a benign tumour. He's on steroids for life. Developed diabetes secondary to the steroids. Has high BP. And he's very overweight. Now his heart rate is slow and he's getting dizzy spells even after his GP reduced his dose of BP meds. My mum was tested but the test was negative possibly due to delays in her being tested. She had radiotherapy for breast cancer over the last few weeks and her BP was found to be high and remains high even with extra BP medication. She's having a 24 hr BP monitor and a holtor monitor for her heart. Also neither of them had a high temperature or a dry cough. This disease is awful. And the long term effects are unknown, so anyone who goes out without a face mask or doesn't wash their hands could literally be responsible for someone's death or permanent damage to their health. Oh and my dad caught Covid on a plane as the man sitting beside him coughed the whole way from Spain to Dublin and my parents cocooned when they came back to Ireland. My dad had symptoms on day 6 after he returned. Also his gp gave him sxtra steroids and an antibiotic. Loss of appetite and a weird feeling of not being right and a very slight chesty cough were his symptoms. I think older people don't get high temperatures or dry coughs with it and this is why its rampant in nursing homes. Sorry ranting a bit here but that's my families experience with Covid 19 so far. It's just devssting for Kate and her family and I really hope her husband makes a full recovery.

It’s really sad, heartbreaking situation for Kate & her family.

Lets just stay positive .Some success stories where people seem to beat the odds ,so where theres life theres hope . All good wishes to Kate and her poor family ,we are all rooting for you and for a good outcome xx

Really really sad.

I hope the IDIOTS who are meeting friends and ignoring the guidance/rules think twice after seeing this.

While he may not have had any underlying conditions, his weight, age and being male will have unfortunately increased his risk of a poorer outcome. Very sad for the family and for all those who have lost loved ones.

'We know they're contributing to the death toll as much as they are the survival rate'

Fortunately, higher standards of knowledge are being applied. In general, it looks like the survival rate for ventilation have been reported from 50% to 12% though early studies with lower survival rates were skewed by the rather large length of time some patients spent on ventilation and these were not being counted as surviving and coming off ventilation during the period of study (a poor metaphor but the equivalent of counting 100 cars joining a motorway and counting those that had successfully left a junction during the period of the study as surviving and saying the rest crashed but the remainder were a mix of crashed cars and people still driving).

Ventilation isn't 'contributing to the death toll' as almost all the patients put on ventilation would have died without the support hence why they were put on ventilation in the first place. Ventilation then ECMO are last resorts but they beat the alternative for those with a substantial chance of survival.

Regarding outcomes for patients successfully coming off ventilation, they range from a full recovery over time to permanent impairment with a somewhat increased likelihood of mortality.

How many people on different threads on here said a couple of weeks ago, that we should get a grip, and get on with life,work, etc, I put that I knew a couple of people, not elderly,no underlying health issues, who are desparately ill on ventillators.

@Zilla1Of course it's contributing to the death toll if it's causing irretrievable damage to the lungs, as detailed in the posts above, where another treatment would not. It's not fair to pretend the only choice is ventilation or certain death, if no discernable funding or effort is being put towards a different treatment path.

Dreadful. Just dreadful.