An induced coma, a resuscitation and a death: a year after the start of the outbreak in the United Kingdom, the most affected country in Europe, the family of Darren Buttrick, 49, a survivor of covid-19, reviews a “horrible” year.
When he fell ill in March 2020, the sales director had no idea what ordeal awaited him. The epidemic was still in its infancy in England.
The first death attributed to the coronavirus was announced on March 5, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson declared the first lockdown on March 23.
It was difficult to imagine then that the epidemic was going to contaminate more than four million people in a year, that it would cause more than 125,000 deaths, that it would cause three lockdowns – the last of them still in force – and that it would plunge the country into its worst economic crisis in three centuries.
Darren Buttrick is athletic and has no medical history. However, after a positive test for covid-19, he is soon burning with fever and completely out of breath.
In the hospital, the verdict is clear: his oxygen level is too low, his organs are in danger of failing, and he has to be hooked up to a respirator and put into an artificial coma.
“You have 15 minutes to call your wife and parents to prepare,” says a nurse. “This could be your last call.”
“It was the worst 15 minutes of my life, hearing my wife cry,” remembers Darren on the porch of his home on the outskirts of Wolverhampton, in the west of England. She recounts her “fear” of “never waking up” and of not seeing her three daughters grow up.
– Enjoy the life –
After several days at the limit, he finally comes out of the coma and some time later he leaves the hospital.
His wife Angela recounts the slow recovery of her husband who “could not walk or breathe” properly. “It took him six weeks to recover physically. But he still has not advanced emotionally,” he told AFP.
A year later, this “ex-workaholic” believes that having been so close to death “gave him a different perception of life.” She has reviewed her “work-life balance” and is spending more time with her family.
Very grateful to the health staff, Darren now wants to “give back what they have given him.”
“Donating my blood plasma is my way of overcoming covid-19,” he explains, stroking his red beard. With 24 donations in ten months, Darren holds the British record, and the antibodies in his blood will allow, according to the Public Health Service (NHS), to save about 50 people.
However, the Buttrick family was not out of the woods yet. With the appearance of a new, more contagious variant in late 2020 in Kent, Angela and her father, both at risk, are also infected with the coronavirus.
Angela managed to overcome, with great difficulty and, like more than 25 million Britons, received the first dose of the vaccine against COVID-19.
His father, who died in February, was not so lucky.
“Crushed”, this 40-year-old man blames the government for the relaxation of the measures at Christmas.
“We have had a horrible, terrible year,” he admits, hugging his little white dog. Thinking back to the last year – “a chapter in my life” – Darren wants to use it to become aware of the risks of a virus “that strikes at random”.
“I wish I hadn’t had covid-19,” he says. “But I think it made me a better person,” he concluded.
cdu / gmo / mab / mis
–
