KATE Garraway has told of her devastation at being told husband Derek Draper may be “locked in” forever after his covid-19 battle.
After contracting the virus more than a year ago, Derek faced an uphill battle to survive.
It ravaged his body, his kidneys failed, he has liver and pancreas damage and his heart has stopped more than once.
Countless infections have left holes in his lungs and the battle has seen him lose eight stone.
However Kate has revealed that doctors still can’t tell her whether Derek will recover – and they have warned her he may remain “locked in” for good.
“The very worst moment was when they said he could be locked in for ever,” she told Trending In The Newsday Times.
“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.”
And now Kate has told how in the early months a hospital mistake saw her told her “may have died” – and she faced an agonising 24 hour wait to discover the truth.
Kate said: “I was just sitting on the phone, waiting to know if he’d died or not.”
She was told: “He may have died. Somebody will call you back.”
Kate was forced to wait more than a day for news about her husband’s condition and had no idea if he was even alive.
She added: “Then it turned out that somebody had died who had a similar name to his.”
Kate also told how she had been repeatedly told to prepare herself for Derek’s death during the last year.
But he clung onto life and eventually doctors removed the drugs keeping him in an induced coma – though unfortunately he failed to wake up.
I’m A Celebrity star Kate will star in a one-off documentary about Derek’s health battle – and the impact it has had on their lives.
Kate‘s unflinching account of her family’s trauma over the last 12 months will be laid bare in front of the cameras.
She will also meet survivors of the disease and discuss the long-term effects of the virus.
Whilst Derek has beaten Covid, he’s been unable to gain consciousness from his induced coma and is still in intensive care a year after catching the virus.
He remains in a critical condition and is now the UK’s longest surviving Covid-19 inpatient.
