Learning to live in a hospital again in a year

COVID-19 became the disabled wife of a TV presenter

Kate Garaway is one of the popular morning presenters of the British ITV. So when her husband contracted COVID-19 a year ago, she decided not to hide what was happening to him. He believes that speaking publicly about his encounter with the infection can help many other people be better prepared for the challenges it poses.

However, the 53-year-old journalist does not allow for a moment that this will turn into a one-year battle to save her beloved Derek Deeper, to which even a documentary will be dedicated. The 53-year-old financial adviser turned out to be the worst coronavirus patient in the UK. He spent more than a year in intensive care, infections affecting his lungs, heart, kidneys and pancreas. Six times the doctors told his relatives that they had to say goodbye to him because the chances for life were running out.

Miraculously, Derek Deeper survived. And although he is still unable to move, speak on his own and needs round-the-clock care, he was returned to the family home in London a few days ago. According to his doctors, closeness to loved ones and the home environment can help him continue the struggle for his recovery.

Kate also thinks like them, as she has had to encourage Derek several times through a video call in intensive care that she should not refuse to fight. One time he just cries and says that he no longer has the strength to do so, but she manages to calm him down through memories, stories about children and plans for the future.

Their house has to be rebuilt mainly to meet the needs of Derek, who is in a wheelchair. The first floor has been turned into a family bedroom, with a medical bed for him and another for Kate. Larger windows have been installed so that he can look at the back garden, where he loved to stand, watching his two children play. The garage has been turned into a bathroom and toilet with aids to immobile people.

But it was not this spectacular renovation that was the biggest challenge for the family, but the thoughts and feelings on how to deal with the new situation. The TV presenter compares it to the moment you return home from the hospital with a newborn baby – you seem to have planned everything for 9 months, but suddenly you say to yourself: “What the hell are we doing now?”

“It was fantastic, amazing and challenging to meet him at home after everything he went through in the last year, but obviously we have a long way to go to see more than Derek, whom we love, and the father we love. We will probably learn to understand our feelings in a new way, ”admits Kate Garaway. According to her, Derek realizes that he is at home because he cried when he was brought into the house, but he cannot speak. He reacted very emotionally when their children – 15-year-old Darcy and 11-year-old Billy – rushed to hug him and when before dinner they wanted to put a fourth cutlery on the table, which has not happened for a year. And although their father could not use it because he ate only porridge, the feeling that they were together around the table again was magical.

Such unique situations are the thing that can mobilize Derek’s body destroyed by the coronavirus to fight, doctors say. Physiotherapists and speech therapists will continue to work with him, but the family is expected to be the main driving force in the recovery process. So when Kate showed up a few days ago in her TV studio instead of working from home, as she had done in the last year to take care of her children, dozens of viewers started calling ITV and asking what was going on with him. She had to explain on the air that she had left people at home for both Derek and the children, and that this was likely to be the model for the family to function in the future.

British tabloids have revealed that she faces bills of thousands of pounds a month in order to provide specialized care for her husband at home. She borrowed from friends. In addition to her television work, she has taken control of Derek’s business affairs. The financier has a lobbying firm, but after a political scandal around it in 1998 he graduated in clinical psychology and became a psychotherapist. So the impact of emotions on the human body is not alien to him at all. The question is how much of his knowledge in this area has been preserved after the 7 months of coma in which he was maintained, while one after another his main organs were affected by infections after infection with COVID-19.

“It feels like it’s in an ocean of unconsciousness and sometimes comes to the surface. On Christmas Eve, there were moments of consciousness when I felt that we were really communicating, “said his wife. She is aware that it is unlikely that he will fully recover. Doctors have admitted that they do not know why the virus has had such a devastating effect on his body and whether it will not lead to even more serious health problems.

However, Kate is determined to take this path to the unknown with him. “We want to see if we can move forward, if we can make him talk more, move more and see what we can get. It will be very slow and we must all be patient. I am aware that our marriage will already have a different dynamic and we will probably have to learn to love each other in a different way, ”explains the TV presenter.

It is accepted as an inspiration by many families, who have to deal with unexpected consequences after their loved one was disabled for months due to the coronavirus. In addition to the emotional side of this challenge, there are a number of purely domestic obstacles. The presenter, for example, is left without access to family savings, without the opportunity to receive compensation after their car was stolen, because she has no power of attorney from her husband, and during the 7 months in a coma he is unable to sign any documents. So she advised people to make their wills, which Derek and I often talked about having to do, but kept postponing because they were young.

Every seventh suffers from a long COVID, but receives little help

One year after the start of the pandemic, there are more and more reports of people continuing to be ill for months due to coronavirus infection.

A study in the UK showed that every seventh person has symptoms such as fatigue and muscle aches 12 weeks later, which prevent him from leading a full life. The age group between 35 and 69 is most affected.

In addition, about 90% of people with long-term symptoms have not been able to access medical care because no regulation has yet been developed on which specialists and how they will alleviate their condition.

NGOs have urged the government to seriously review the social security system, as it does not provide support for people with long-term illness but with changing symptoms and complaints such as chronic fatigue. They propose to introduce flexible work models for those who have suffered from COVID-19, so that they do not feel forced to give up their work duties because they cannot fully perform them.

The Guardian reports that there are around 700,000 people in the UK who have been adversely affected by their months-long symptoms of COVID in their daily activities, with around 70,000 being a year-long problem.

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