First picture of TV Kate husband’s fight for life
ALMOST a full year after her husband was struck down by coronavirus, Kate Garraway has shared the first photograph of him fighting for his life.
Derek Draper, 53, taken to hospital last March, no longer has Covid-19 but it has ravaged his whole body and he is still seriously ill in intensive care.
In the trailer for a documentary, the Good Morning Britain presenter shares a picture of him in his hospital bed.
She says: ‘Derek is the sickest person the team of doctors have treated that’s lived. Is he going to be able to come back? Or will he be alive but no longer the person he was?’ The clip also shows the couple smiling at their wedding in September 2005. The hourlong film Kate Garraway: Finding Derek, on ITV next Tuesday at 9pm, shows how she has coped in the year since the former lobbyist and political adviser caught the virus.
Mr Draper’s heart has stopped, his liver and pancreas have been damaged and his kidneys failed. Bacterial pneumonia and infections left holes in his lungs and he has lost eight stone. At the weekend, Miss Garraway, 53, told the Sunday Times Magazine: ‘They said, “It’s highly unlikely he will make a good recovery but we can’t rule out that he’ll make a reasonable recovery.” I said, “OK, what does a reasonable recovery look like?” And they said, “Being able to hold a hairbrush”.’
Miss Garraway, who has a daughter Darcey, 15, and son Billy, 11, with Mr Draper, regularly updates morning viewers on her husband’s condition.