‘I’VE LOST MY MUM, DAD AND FATHER-IN-LAW TO THE VIRUS IN 4 WEEKS’
GLASGOW DAD MAKES AN EMOTIONAL PLEA TO OBEY LOCKDOWN RULES AFTER HIS 9-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER LOSES THREE GRANDPARENTS TO VIRUS
FOR Andy Leaman’s small, close-knit family, life will never be the same again. Andy’s mum, dad and father-in-law have died from coronavirus, devastating his nine-yearold daughter Anna who has lost three grandparents in four weeks.
Now the 42-year-old is telling his traumatic story to the Glasgow Times in the hope that people will continue to follow social distancing guidelines and help stop other families facing the same heartbreak.
On Saturday, March 7, this year, just five days after the first confirmed Scottish case of Covid-19, Andy’s family held a small 40th birthday party for his partner Lynsey Chamber’s sister Wendy.
Lynsey and Wendy’s dad, Dougie Chambers, came to dinner on the Monday evening and seemed, like the rest of the family, to be in good health.
Andy said: “There were no rules or regulations at that time saying that you couldn’t meet up. You weren’t allowed events of more than 500 people but this was just a small party for family and friends.
“We look back at that in hindsight and wonder if the government had moved faster and locked things down earlier, would have been different?”
On the Tuesday night, March 10, Dougie began to feel unwell with fever and flu-like symptoms, so he followed the government guidelines and immediately began to self-isolate.
The following day, Andy suddenly became ill too, quickly followed by Lynsey and Anna, who had a rash along with the flu-like symptoms her parents shared.
They began to self-isolate with Andy’s parents, Mary and Andy, both in their 70s, bringing them groceries and leaving them in the garden to be collected.
Dougie, who was the outcome active with volunteering and hill walking, had COPD and asthma and, after seven days at home, still felt unwell.
Lynsey drove her dad to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital on March 18 where he was put on a nebuliser and treated with antibiotics.
A test for Covid-19 came back positive and he was kept on a ward where the family was not allowed to visit, keeping in touch by WhatsApp messages and video calls.
The 66-year-old’s condition worsened and he was taken to the intensive care unit where he was placed on a ventilator.
Andy said: “It wasn’t until we lost contact with Dougie and he was on a ventilator in ICU that this really hit.
“Although he had other health conditions he was a really fit person. He volunteered for Wendy’s workplace in Cambuslang, Revolve.
“He had been in doing it up because he was a plumber but had a lot of other strings to his bow, like joinery.
“He was a fit person who enjoyed hillwalking. But it was so swift, so quick, that it caught him unawares.”
After 10 days of being in a coma, a doctor phoned Lynsey and Wendy to say that their dad would not recover and they would have to make the decision to switch support machine.
Wendy by this time was showing signs of having coronavirus also and so, at 6pm on March 26, Lynsey stayed alone with her father while he slipped away.
Meanwhile, Mary and Andy Snr were also coming down with flu-like symptoms and moved to self-isolating.
The couple had been married for more than 50 years and Andy described them as “inseparable”.
They utterly doted on their only grandchild, Anna, and Andy Snr would pick her up from school when her parents were working, and she stayed with all three of her grandparents at evenings and some weekends.
Mary, who also had COPD, had survived pneumonia three years ago, having been in intensive care, and so Andy became worried when she didn’t show any signs of improvement.
Andy said: “When my mum and dad started showing symptoms I’d kind of prepared myself after Dougie’s death for my mum being very ill.
“I’d prepared myself to think that if my mum gets this then there’s no chance of survival for her.
“But not being able to go and see them or be in the house with them, that was really, really hard to take. off his life