KATE HUBBY OUT OF COMA
» TV star’s joy as he opens his eyes after three months in intensive care » Pressure grows for frontline health workers & carers to be given a pay rise
KATE Garraway’s husband is emerging from a coma after three months in intensive care with coronavirus.
Derek Draper opened his eyes, giving Kate and their kids hope he may recover. She said: “We’re keeping positive and doing all we can to bring him round.”
It came amid pleas for better pay for our medics as the nation
applauded the NHS yesterday. Good Morning Britain host Kate, 53, said: “The children and I communicate with him every day on FaceTime, while a nurse holds his iPad.
“I really believe he can hear. When medical staff say: ‘Good morning, Derek’ he sometimes opens his eyes.
“We and the doctors are doing everything we can so that he can start to recover.”
Derek, 52, was said to be in a “minimum state of consciousness”, but it is not known how long it will take him to beat the disease and return home to Kate and children Darcey, 14, and William, 10.
Doctors told Kate he will not be out before September, and warned he could take years to recover.
Now she is preparing to return to work on the ITV breakfast sofa as well as her show on Smooth radio.
She told Hello! magazine: “The doctors have been urging me not to put my life on pause. They’ve told me that I need to go back to work and create a routine in our lives again.
“I must create structure and normality. I also need to get back to work so that I can provide for the children and we can do things together, to make them feel that the light hasn’t gone out of their lives.”
Derek went into hospital in late March and was put into an induced coma on April 5, and Kate was told on six occasions she might lose her husband, who she calls her “rock”.
She said: “The doctors have warned his condition could persist for years so I have to get on with life while we’re waiting for him to get better. Billy starts secondary school in September, but Derek’s doctors say he won’t be out of hospital by then. My priority is to make the children feel safe.”
■ Full interview with Kate is in this week’s Hello! magazine, out today.
DOCTORS waking Derek Draper – husband of Good Morning Britain host Kate Garraway – from a coma to fight Covid-19 is a glimmer of hope in a dire situation.
Hopefully the couple and their two children are drawing comfort from the widespread best wishes and warm words of families who have gone through the same ordeal.