UP HOPE praying for a Covid miracle
COURAGE AND SURVIVAL
survival. They talked about end-of-life medicine. We didn’t want to let him go so we begged the consultant to give him a couple of more days over the weekend to see if he got any better.”
The turning point came after Charlotte made an emotional phone call to her dad via the nurses and played one of his favourite swing songs called Missing You.
Charlotte said: “It was a really emotional call. Within 24 hours doctors saw an improvement.
“They said it was like a superhero recovery and he had a ighting chance. We were just blown away.”
And 43 days after going on a ventila“he tor, Steve was able to spend small amounts of time off it. Four days later he made a moving call to his children after doctors placed a speaking valve on his tracheostomy.
Charlotte said: “It was the best phone call ever. Dad couldn’t say much because he was getting very tired but just to hear him say hello was incredible. In a later call he told us he was missing his wife and his dog Mikki.”
Steve was taken fully off his ventilator on May 21 – 63 days after he was first sedated – and was reunited in the hospital garden with his children who were shocked by his three-stone weight loss. Callum said: looked 30 years older than he was. I’m quite a skinny lad but I was taking the mickey, saying he had little budgie arms. He’s not been that skinny for a long time – let’s say he enjoyed his pudding in hospital when he was finally able to eat properly.”
Steve was sent to a normal ward at Hereford, then to Leominster Community Hospital for intense physiotherapy.
Staff clapped him when he left. He’s now doing physio at home but is otherwise fine.
Steve is not the only Brit to spend months on ventilation but is believed to be the UK’S longest coronavirus hospital patient. John Betts, 59, left hospital in Northampton after a record 65 days on the device.
Steve is now staying with relatives while his wife Liz, 54, who has dementia, is looked after in a residential home. He said: “Despite having dementia she still remembers how to jive and I’m looking forward to having her in my arms again.”
Shirley Collins, senior sister at the community hospital, said: “He’s been absolutely amazing. He’s a bit of a miracle.”
They said it was end of life but we begged for few more days
Voice of the People: P12