TV KATE TELLS OF HUBBY’S VIRUS HELL
GMB’s Garraway tells of fear over potential after-effects of virus on her man
KATE Garraway’s husband begged his doctors to put him into a coma because he couldn’t breathe as he battled coronavirus.
The GMB presenter, 53, fought back tears as she told her studio colleagues how her husband had shouted: “I can’t stand this, I can’t take it, I feel like I’m suffocating every second of the day.
“Please let them put me in a coma so I can rest my lungs.”
Her husband, former political lobbyist Derek Draper, has been in intensive care in London for 10 weeks. Doctors put the 52-year-old into a coma when his condition deteriorated.
The couple spoke on the phone as he was losing consciousness. Draper thanked Garraway for saving his life – he thought that she had persuaded the medics to put him in a coma, rather than it being a clinical decision.
She recalled: “He shouted, ‘I love you. I’m sorry to have to leave you. You saved my life’.”
The presenter reassured him that it would only be for three or four days. Her last words to him were “I love you, I love you,” then the doctors told her that he had gone under.
Garraway appeared live on GMB to fill in her colleagues and viewers on her husband’s grave condition.
Presenter Ranveer Singh told her how hard it was not to give her a big hug.
Kate said she was able to give her workmates some good news – Derek has been tested and is now Covid-free.
But the after-effects of the virus are still ravaging his body and she admitted she’s not sure he will get better. Kate, who has two children Darcey, 14, and 10-year-old Billy with Derek, said: “He fought the virus and won. But it wreaked extraordinary damage on his body. We don’t know if he can recover.”
The I’m A Celeb...Get Me Out of Here star said: “They have never seen a case like this before. He’s the worst affected person they have seen who has lived.”
Now the long-term damage to Draper’s body is unknown. She said: “If it was another illness, they would know the long-term effects. They talk about an evil virus and it is. People think you live or it takes you. Some people have a very mild dose. I had it and it was mercifully mild.
“But now they are seeing people living with completely unforeseen consequences. Whether it’s physical or emotional, there are big consequences.”
Derek and Kate married in 2005. A former aide to MP Peter Mandelson, he was at the centre of the lobbygate political scandal in 1998. An undercover reporter exposed him offering business clients access to Government ministers and tax breaks.
He left politics and retrained as a psychotherapist.
Kate is the one in the public eye, going into the celebrity jungle last year – she finished fourth – and appearing in series five of Strictly Come Dancing with professional
partner Anton du Beke. As well as a weekly stint on GMB, she presents the mid-morning show on Smooth FM.
Kate stressed that her husband’s situation is very unusual and pleaded with viewers not to be alarmed.
She told how the family’s hellish experience started just before lockdown, when he had been suffering with a painful shoulder.
A planned steroid injection was cancelled as everything began shutting down. It was a normal Friday, with her working at GMB and Smooth Radio while he was homeschooling their children.
He didn’t have a cough or a temperature. But, over the weekend, she was worried that he didn’t look well. Derek thought it was “some weird kind of sinusitis”.
On Monday they were both home. Garraway was presenting her Smooth show from a makeshift studio. But her husand was visibly deteriorating. He had a terrible headache and numbness in his hand. And by this time he was struggling to breathe.
Kate tried, and failed, to get through to NHS Direct.
She laughed as she told Ranveer Singh: “I did what everyone on GMB does, I phoned Dr Hilary.”
After some breathing tests over the phone to try to gauge Derek’s lung capacity, the TV medic told Kate: “Call an ambulance.”
Paramedics confirmed Derek’s oxygen levels were dangerously low, although he still did not have a temperature or a cough. Kate said: “As he got into the ambulance he said to Darcey and Billy: “I am so proud of you. You are the best children anyone could have. Look after mum and be good for her.”
When Derek was first admitted to the ICU, Garraway took advice from her colleague Piers Morgan.
She recalled: “I spoke to Piers and he said, you’re a journalist, you know how to fight, you know how to gather information.
“So I went into breaking news mode, I shut out the emotional bit and thought about it as doing a job. What do I need to do next? What doctors do I need to speak to? What do the kids need now?”
This adrenaline kept her going through the first eight weeks. Then, a fortnight ago, it ran out. “I crashed,” she admitted on GMB. “No one can stay that way forever. Now I’m in freefall, fighting for Derek, trying to keep life safe for the kids.”
The family have kept their spirits up by joining in with the weekly clap for carers. Kate, Darcey and Billy held a private family one on Thursday, even though the official ceremony is now over.
Kate said: “We just wanted to have our own mini one as our heartfelt thanks to all fighting to keep Derek with us.”
Now she is left pleading with God to keep her husband safe and see him return home to them all.
She added: “I know I’ve had one miracle. I know I’m pushing my luck. But please, could I just have one more?”