Kate Garraway has said she does not know whether her husband will ever have any kind of life again in an interview describing the “horror story” of his year with coronavirus.
The Good Morning Britain presenter recounted the months since Derek Draper, a 53-year-old former political adviser and lobbyist, was first hospitalised last March. A year on, he remains in intensive care, experiencing only “fleeting glimmers of consciousness”, Garraway told the Sunday Times magazine.
Although the virus has not been present in Draper’s body since the late summer, it has led to kidney failure, damage to his liver and pancreas and heart failure. He has holes in his lungs following bacterial pneumonia and several infections. Doctors do not know why the virus has had such a destructive effect on Draper’s health and have said it is unlikely he will make a full recovery, Garraway said.
Garraway, who has been unable to visit him since December, when the third lockdown was imposed, said his condition deteriorated dramatically without human contact. “I feel like he is in an ocean of unconsciousness and sometimes he comes up to the surface. In the run-up to Christmas there were moments of consciousness where I felt like we were really communicating,” she said.
The presenter described the early months after Draper was hospitalised and on a ventilator as “months and months of horror, of live-or-die phone calls”. She said she was told several times to prepare herself for his death, and on one occasion was told on the phone: “He may have died. Somebody will call you back.” She found out 24 hours later that somebody else with a similar sounding name had died.
When the doctors first withdrew the drugs that were inducing his coma in June, Draper did not regain consciousness. Garraway said: “The very worst moment was when they said he could be locked in for ever.” She said that she is conscious of having a voice that others do not, and therefore felt “it’s really important to say stuff that I’ve experienced because I will not be alone in those experiences”.
The couple, who have two children, will feature in a documentary aired later this month on ITV. Garraway has also written a book, The Power of Hope, which she hopes can help others facing crises.