Kate Garraway shares heartbreaking images of her husband Derek Draper
Kate Garraway shares heartbreaking images of her husband Derek Draper, 53, fighting for his life with Covid in hospital – a year after being admitted to ICU
- GMB host says in new documentary, ‘Derek is the sickest person the team of doctors have treated this year’
- On clip for Finding Derek, Miss Garraway speaks of fears he will not be able to return as ‘the person he was’
- Mr Draper no longer has Covid but suffers from after-effects including diabetes and holes in heart and lungs
Kate Garraway today shared shocking images of her husband Derek Draper fighting for his life in hospital a year after contracting Covid.
The Good Morning Britain presenter tells of her fears for the 53-year-old’s future as he battles long Covid from an ICU bed.
In the first clip of a new ITV documentary, Finding Derek, Miss Garraway, 53, says: ‘Derek is the sickest person the team of doctors have treated this year.’
‘Is he going to be able to come back or will he be alive but no longer the person he was?’
Photos are shown from the couple’s wedding day in 2005 before the screen goes blank and a message reads: ‘One year later, Derek is still in hospital.’
Mr Draper is thought to be the longest surviving Covid patient in the country. While he is no longer has the virus, it has left him suffering from multiple health conditions including diabetes and holes in his heart and lungs.
Kate Garraway’s 53-year-old husband Derek Draper is seen seen fighting for his life in hospital in an image released by the Good Morning Britain presenter
In the first clip of a new ITV documentary, Finding Derek, Miss Garraway, 53, says: ‘Derek is the sickest person the team of doctors have treated this year’
Miss Garraway recently admitted she fears what her husband’s life will be like if he is able to leave hospital.
She said Mr Draper’s current state is something from a ‘horror story,’ as she tries to come to terms with the possibility that his health battle could leave him suspended between life and death.
She said to The Sunday Times: ‘The very worst moment was when they said he could be locked in forever. And I just thought, this is a horror story.
‘I don’t know if he’ll ever have any kind of life again. We just don’t know.’
Mr Draper was admitted to hospital in March after contracting Covid-19 and placed into a medically induced coma a month later before he awoke in July.
The virus caused havoc throughout his entire body, resulting in kidney failure, liver and pancreatic damage.
On more than one occasion his heart stopped beating, he battled bacterial pneumonia and fought multiple infections which punctured holes in his lungs. He is considered to be the longest surviving Covid-19 patient in the country.
Miss Garraway- who shares children Darcey, 15, and William, 11, with her husband of fifteen years – admitted it is ‘shocking’ to see his current state, including his dramatic eight stone weight loss.
She revealed that on multiple occasions the hospital told her: ‘Prepare yourself, he’s going to die.’
Miss Garraway with Mr Draper in ‘I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!’ on December 8, 2019
During one incident, the TV presenter was told ‘he may have died’ and that ‘somebody will call you back,’ as she spent countless hours calling the hospital to get an answer, to no avail.
She eventually got through and discovered someone of a similar name had passed away.
But the worst was yet to come as Miss Garraway had to learn to accept the possibility that Mr Draper could be frozen indefinitely between life and death.
‘They said, ‘It’s highly unlikely he will make a good recovery,’ she recalled the comment from doctors while they confirmed they couldn’t rule out a ‘reasonable recovery.’
When she asked what that would look like, the mother-of-two was told that being able to lift a hairbrush would be an example of a ‘reasonable recovery’.
Trying to make sense of her husband’s current condition, Miss Garraway said it appears he is in an ‘ocean of unconsciousness,’ and only manages to rise to the top for air on rare occasions.
However she did note some tentative progress with her husband during the Christmas period. As she pretended to forget her accountant’s name, Mr Draper was able to fill in the blank and vocalise the name.
He also heartbreakingly mouthed the word ‘pain’ in October.
Miss Garraway – who shares Darcey, 15, and William, 11, (pictured in 2019) with her husband of 15 years – admitted it is ‘shocking’ to see his current state, including his eight stone weight loss
By the end of last year, he had had reportedly made some small steps towards recovery. He was able to breath naturally throughout the day and was able to swallow his own saliva – despite still being fed by a tube through his stomach.
Mr Draper no longer required kidney dialysis and had managed to increase his movement on one side, allowing him to move his glasses on his nose.
He was even able to recognise some faces and add snippets to conversation before sinking back into the deep waters of his unconscious mind.
She is still not allowed to visit her husband due to coronavirus restrictions.
Miss Garraway said she tried to keep his hopes up by promising things would improve, but tragically his only response was: ‘How?’
When Boris Johnson enforced a new lockdown in December, Miss Garraway wasn’t able to see her husband at all, as she revealed his health worsened ‘dramatically,’ counteracting the progress they had made.
‘I have tried to sort of wake up from that and think about the future,’ Miss Garraway added. ‘But nobody can tell you what the future is.’
Finding Derek will air on 23rd March, and will show Miss Garraway giving an ‘unflinching account’ on the past 12 months.
In the special one-off film, she will offer an ‘intimate insight’ into coping with the impact of Covid-19 on her family, as well as meeting survivors of the disease.
ITV said in a statement: ‘Kate offers an unflinching account of the profound effects on her family and on others as she opens up on camera for the first time on the reality of the past 12 months.
‘As Kate lays bare in the film, her family, along with many others who have suffered the effects of the virus, is now facing the reality of adjusting to a very different way of life to the one they lived before the pandemic hit.’
During one of her darkest moments Miss Garraway was told her husband may ‘never come out of a coma’ amid his ongoing battle.
Mr Draper has regained minimal consciousness from his medically induced coma and while he has not been speaking, he heartbreakingly mouthed the word ‘pain’ in October last year.
Last week, the Smooth presenter shared her heartache about not being able to visit her husband due to coronavirus restrictions.
She said to her co-host Ben Shephard: ‘Well, I haven’t been able to see him, Ben. I haven’t seen him since Christmas, which of course means he’s back into a situation where he’s looking at strangers in masks…
‘And I think that’s the situation for everybody, they’ve got somebody in the hospital at the moment, it’s not unique. It’s tough…
‘It’s also the same for people in care homes. And when you’re someone like him who is dealing with a consciousness problem and trying to emerge, I can’t help but fear it’s not helpful.’
In September, Mr Draper, passed the grim milestone of becoming the longest patient battling coronavirus in hospital in the UK, with doctors telling Miss Garraway that his infection was the ‘highest they had seen in a patient who had lived’.
Reflecting on her last hospital visit with their children in December, Miss Garraway admitted the family reunion was ‘heightened with emotion’ because they saw how Mr Draper had been ravaged by the virus.
‘It was very heightened with emotion, because he’s very changed,’ she told viewers.
‘So all the routines that we’d normally do, it was one of those moments that it was so wonderful but also it amplified how sad everything was.
‘And how different it is. But it was still fantastic, and we’re very grateful to have had that opportunity.’
Kate Garraway: Finding Derek airs March 23 ITV 9pm.
