Kate’s ‘anger and frustration’ over Derek’s agony
Did Derek need to become so gravely ill?
Over a year on since her husband Derek Draper was admitted into hospital with COVID, Kate Garraway has spoken out on how things could have been different. Following a series of shocking claims about the government’s handling of the pandemic, Kate, 54, said, “I spend a lot of time reflecting on how things might have been different, in lots of ways. Both in the government’s handling of it, the scientific advice, and the doctors’ advice specifically to Derek. It was definitely confusing, wasn’t it?” While Derek, 53, is now being cared for at home, he was placed into a medically induced coma and spent over a year in hospital, where he lost 8st and suffered with holes in his heart and lungs.
Kate said she has always striven to stay positive as she fears that if she didn’t, she’d be too angry at how things turned out. She said, “I’ve made a really conscious decision to not go down the road of looking to blame, and forgive. Because I just feel, on a personal level,
I would be consumed with anger and frustration about everything.”
Boris Johnson’s former aide Dominic Cummings furiously blasted the Prime Minister for not implementing lockdown sooner, not providing adequate treatment for COVID sufferers, and failing to test people going back into care homes from hospital. He said, “Tens of thousands of people died who didn’t need to die,” adding, “When the public needed us most, the government failed.”
Now, Kate questions the government’s actions throughout the pandemic. “I’m quite generous to the government generally, that they were looking at a situation and thinking, ‘What is going to be the most harmful?’ [But] if, as Cummings said, Boris Johnson was more obsessed with the economy, maybe he genuinely believed that was the biggest risk. It doesn’t mean to say that things like planning for a pandemic and lockdown, there should have been something in place.”
Speaking with Susanna Reid on GMB, Kate said, “The problem is, you have to do something about it or more lives will be lost. I can accept the fact no one knew what was going on and mistakes will have been made, but not being able to admit those mistakes until now I think is a problem, and he has to address it – and quickly.”
Susanna said, “You’ve heard it there, directly from someone whose life has been turned upside down by COVID. Hold the public inquiry now.” Kate went on to muse that Derek’s treatment could have been more effective. “Obviously, there were things that could have helped,” she added. “Just as there were doctors who said, ‘We could have given this medication at this point.’ We now know that it would have helped, but at the time, we feared it might have killed him. So, I think hindsight is a wonderful thing, but it doesn’t mean to say that we
don’t address what went wrong. There were things that could have helped, we now know.”
This all comes as Kate gave an update on Derek’s progress at their north London home with their children Darcey, 15, and Billy, 11. Kate converted the downstairs of their house to be accessible for Derek and now has round-the-clock help. Speaking to journalist Andrew Marr, she said, “He came home on 7 April, so we’re a few weeks into it now. How is he? Look, he’s devastated by COVID. He can’t really move, his communication is very minimal. There are moments where there’s up, you feel you know he’s in there. He has a lot of memory, but the accessing of it is very limited. He’s a long way from the Derek Draper that you know, but he’s home and he’s alive.”
Fans think Kate should be upset to learn that lives could have potentially been protected better. “She has every right to be upset and angry. It’s affected her family in a massive way,” said one, and another applauded how she remained “classy and calm all the way through, even though you have every right to be angry, as we all are”.