Derek Draper has passed away - Kate Garraway's husband

[Zingy123]

How sad he wasn't very old.

@Augustus40 Doubtless there will be - it must have cost Kate a fortune to provide Derek with 24/7 care, to say nothing about the home adaptations and the equipment he needed. There is also a huge debt to be paid off following the winding up of Derek’s business. The illness and/or disability of a family member is unbelievably expensive as well as being emotionally and physically exhausting. After everything that Kate and her kids have been through, I don’t grudge her a penny of any money that she is able to earn to provide some future security for her family while she is still grieving for the husband she so obviously loved.

Very sad for Kate and her family I wish them
well. I hope the media leaves them alone to grieve in peace. RIP Derek such a brave man.

So sad, such a long battle he had.

We also have to be aware of the damage caused by rushed, experimental treatments, that can be passed as long Covid.

Indeed, no saint at all. And many who knew him know that very well. And why is it such big news - because of who he was married to. It’s getting an odd amount of attention, in my view.

I just see it that he represents those who were hit so hard by Covid. I thought it was pretty tasteless that negative things were said about him on daytime news just after it was announced he'd died.

It’s getting attention because she’s high profile and made two TV programmes about Draper’s illness and how the family coped with it. He was just a political back room boy who nobody would have heard of or cared about without her profile. The attention is good for other people suffering from the effects of covid.

And why is it such big news - because of who he was married to. It’s getting an odd amount of attention, in my view.

It's partly that but I think it's also because of her documentary and because he was such a high profile case of the serious ravages that Covid can leave behind.
Although his high profile-ness was obviously because he was married to a current TV presenter.

Even his obituary said
when friends visited him in San Francisco, Draper recounted the story of a university colleague who told him they had been searching the web and found there was someone of the same name as him in the UK who was an “absolute bastard”.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/derek-draper-dies-kate-garraway-husband-cardiac-arrest-covid-czhqq52c0

People don't have to be saints or perfect when they die, they can just be complex human beings, in this case one who was well-known and his terrible health ordeal well-documented. No mystery to me.

I admired Kate Garroway often on GMB in the last few years when she had to interview certain politicians about COVID.
Ok she wasn't always on every day and I'm sure people will come along and naysay. But I have watched her holding it all together and not making it personal over things like Party Gate. Personally I felt she must have wanted to just scream at them.

No because everything would have been done to save and preserve life irrespective of a persons background- this is my experience from working in the medical field.

The DM are reporting today that he had the heart attack after medical treatment in Mexico and had to be flown back for the good old NHS to pick up the pieces and try to save him. Poor guy, that must have been terrifying for him.

So likely to be an experimental treatment that the NHS doesn't offer.... not sure I'd take that gamble personally, but I guess some people will try anything when they're desperate.

No because everything would have been done to save and preserve life irrespective of a persons background- this is my experience from working in the medical field.

With respect this is nonsense. The worse someone's condition is and the older they are, the more there is encouragement towards DNR and pallative care dressed up as 'ending suffering' - which I agree in true end of life cases is quite right - but I've seen a lot of medical staff encouraging families to treat something as 'end of life' when it isn't really warranted and in the face of family opposition, treatment continues, person pulls through and goes on to live many happy healthy years.

When you get into the very elderly, 80+ this approach powers up to the nth degree. I'm not talking about cases where it is warranted because I agree it may well be. I'm talking about a virtually blanket approach of any illness + hospital + 80+ = well its better to let them go.

I’m sorry but this is just absolute bollocks and that’s from years working in the NHS and personal experience .

That is clearly your experience. I currently work as an ITU nurse, and I don’t agree with you.

Perhaps it’s different hospitals @Sudoku88 or just very different experiences .

It’s baffling how Covid could kill some people while others didn’t even know they had it and were completely symptom free. It’s so sad for his loved ones left behind, all the occasions they’d have wanted him at… but also no doubt somewhat of a release for him from his suffering 🥲 poor man is at rest now. Sympathy to his lovely family and friends

Wow I know which of you two I’d want as my nurse/doctor.
tha ms @Sudoku88 for your service to the NHS

You say that as if it’s my decision , it wasn’t . I fought like mad to keep my family member alive but her local hospital wasn’t the slightest bit interested in doing so because of her co morbidities and she had a very unpleasant last few months . I fear for elderly people who don’t have someone to advocate for them . I will also point out that pre covid (2016) my local trust had no interest in my health problems , I spent a week in hospital and as a then middle aged woman was discharged with a BP of 60/ and in a wheelchair because I couldn’t stand without fainting . I went private a couple of days later and got my diagnosis ( which I knew , familial disease which I had informed the ward I’d been on ) instantly - that saved my life not the NHS .

I fear for elderly people who don’t have someone to advocate for them

100% this is my experience too with the elderly. There is very much of an operating assumption that an old person has no quality of life so should be left to die.

I've seen this too much I'm afraid. Remember one man in his 90s who was basically fine but came in delirious needing antibiotics - so in a total state and unable to articulate for himself. If you've never seen it, delirium is like a mad person from the worse sort of old films showing an insane assylum.

The drs were like well what's the point (they didn't say that in so many words to the relatives - much more presented as it would be kinder to let him go). The relatives were reduced to showing the consultant videos of the man the previous week laughing and playing with his grandchildren and great grandchildren to persuade him that this was a person with quality of life.

They fought for him as his advocates and he was discharged after antibiotics and recovery.

GMB really sickening this morning, Saint Kate really is having her halo polished.

Nothing about the fact that she'd dragged him across the globe again for treatment that hadn't worked before and he'd had a heart attack alone. But hey, let's not muddy the waters with truth

She cared for him devotedly for nearly four years. No amount of nasty spiteful comments will change that.

What an utterly vile comment @FlyingCherub . You must feel very proud of yourself. Please show your comment to all your friends so they know what you're like. Hope you never need any help.

@FlyingCherub You really are a nasty piece of work, aren't you?

Has your shitty comment made you feel better now!?