COVID NEARLY GOT ME TWICE - BUT GLENFIELD SAVED MY LIFE
PHIL, 40, RELIVES ORDEAL THROUGH ‘SURVIVAL DIARY’ KEPT BY MEDICS
A MAN who contracted Covid and spent five weeks in an induced coma, being kept alive by medics and machines at Glenfield Hospital, has spoken of his experience, writes Asha Patel.
Phil Bainbridge’s family were twice told to expect the worst before he pulled through. He now has a tattoo thanking the staff at the hospital.
A DAD-of-two says he has had a huge “life lesson” after being on the brink of death twice during his battle with Covid - including five weeks in a coma.
Phil Bainbridge, 40, was rushed to hospital in January after what appeared to be an ordinary cold quickly turned more serious and he found himself fighting for breath.
Even then, Phil expected his stay in hospital to be brief. But this was just the beginning of his ordeal.
In hospital, he was dealt a series of setbacks, suffering sepsis, organ failure, pneumonia and bleeds on the brain.
His wife and daughters were called on two occasions and told it was time to say their final goodbyes - but Phil battled through both times and has emerged to tell his tale.
He has been able to learn about his Covid-19 survival thanks to a patient diary which was kept for him by hospital staff.
“When I read that diary I thought ‘surely it didn’t happen,’” he said.
“But as time has gone on I realised just how bad it was and it’s scary to think I almost died. It’s so surreal.”
Initially, he was admitted to the Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham before being transferred to Glenfield Hospital.
There, he had to be put on an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation machine (ECMO) to keep his lungs and heart working.
Being comatose for the majority of his treatment, Phil was unaware of his condition and the huge effort under way to save his life.
He said he remembered vivid dreams of travelling the world while he was in fact, hooked up to numerous machines keeping him alive.
There was one particularly poignant dream which has stayed with him.
“In this one dream, I was actually in the hospital and a doctor came over and said ‘If you just get into this coffin everything will be fine.’
“I told her ‘I’m not getting in’ but she kept saying I’d feel all better if I just got in the coffin.
“I wonder if I had got in that coffin, would I have died that day?”
For his wife, Jodie, 39, the patient diary is a painful reminder of what her husband went through.
“The day he was admitted he rang me and said they were going to put him in a coma,” she told the Mercury.
“I put the phone down not knowing if I’d ever speak to him again.”
When he was transferred to Glenfield, she thought his condition would start to improve.
However, just days later, she received a call from a consultant who told her it was time to say her final goodbyes to Phil.
“My world just shattered when
they called me - I had to get the girls and rush to the hospital and they asked if their dad was going to die,” Jodie said.
Later that day, signs of slight improvement came as a relief to the family - only to be told in the following hours that his condition had worsened again.
“I would go to bed every night and think I was going to get that phone call - but every morning I woke up and hadn’t and it was a huge relief,” she said.
Jodie and the couple’s two daughters - Holly, 12, and eightyear-old Naeve - could only communicate with Phil through video calls facilitated by nurses on his ward.
“The nurses were brilliant and the family liaison team called me every day - I formed quite a bond with them,” Jodie said.
The day he woke up, Phil did not know where he was and he could not walk or talk.
After five weeks of being on ECMO he spent several weeks rehabilitating in Nottingham, where the family live.
He returned home to his family in April and is now looking forward to celebrating his 41st birthday next week. To thank the hospital staff, Phil has since had a tattoo dedicated to them.
It reads reads: “On our way up any high mountain, sometimes it’s good to look back and remind ourselves just how far we have come. Thank you Glenfield.” By sharing his story, he hopes that anyone who still hasn’t had the Covid-19 vaccine will do so.
“Just think about your family,” he said.
“They are the ones who will suffer if something happens to you do it for them.”
The hospital shared the family’s story as the vaccination programme goes on across the city and county.
Phil said: “I couldn’t move or talk, I didn’t know where I was.
“I’d had sepsis, been in a coma, multi-organ failure, pneumonia, bleeds on my brain. I had to learn to do everything for myself again. And it all started with Covid.
“My message is ‘get the vaccine.’ At the time I was poorly it hadn’t been offered to my age group.
“I’ve had both doses now – this virus nearly killed me. Don’t let it do the same to you.”
I would go to bed every night and think I was going to get that phone call Phil’s wife, Jodie