Kate Garraway’s husband, Derek Draper, has been in hospital since the start of April with coronavirus, but the presenter has revealed he is one of five people in the world to have been so badly affected by complications of the virus.
The Good Morning Britain presenter, 53, has kept fans up to date with Derek’s condition since he has been ill, and the many other complications he now faces.
Derek, 53, was placed into an induced coma to help his body fight off the virus and has since been brought round but remains in a minimally conscious state with doctors unsure whether he will ever fully recover.
As well as this, he has been left diabetic from damage to his pancreas, as well as with holes in his heart and problems with his lungs and kidneys among other things.
Kate revealed to You magazine that he is one of only an estimated five people in the world to have been so badly affected by coronavirus but still be alive.
She explained that his situation still changes day by day: ‘If they say this has improved today you don’t feel the euphoria you’d like because you have this feeling the next day something else will have gone wrong.
‘At first it was all about Derek’s lungs,’ Kate explained. ‘But then his kidneys started failing and he was on dialysis.
‘Now they’ve realised Covid can affect every cell of the body: most recently Derek’s been having problems with his intestines.
‘The absorption of food and vomiting are problems and they’re trying to work out whether that’s because his cells don’t produce the enzymes to digest. His liver and heart and blood vessels have been affected.’
When he started feeling unwell at the end of March, Derek had initially thought it was a side effect of the new painkillers he was taking for a long-term shoulder injury and sinusitis as he didn’t have a cough or temperature.
Kate said she had called GMB’s Dr Hilary Jones who did breathing tests with Derek over the phone and advised her to call 999.
She revealed: ‘One of the last texts I have from him says, “The doctor says the lung X-ray is looking positive, I’m definitely not going to die”, however within hours his condition worsened and he was put into a coma.
Due to the pandemic, Kate and their children were not allowed to visit Derek, and she admitted it was a shock seeing him when she was finally able to call him via FaceTime with the nurses as he had lost eight stone and looked so ill and had tubes coming out of him.
He was brought round from the coma in July but it is still uncertain whether he can hear Kate speaking to him, but despite the serious state he is in, Kate is still grateful he is alive.
She added: ‘We’re lucky, so many people have lost loved ones. What you have to keep thinking is there were so many moments when doctors thought we’d lost Derek or were about to, and he’s still here. There is still hope.’
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