Survivor, 65, home after four days on ventilator

A GRANDFATHER who beat coronavirus after spending four days on a ventilator in intensive care has thanked medics who helped save his life.

Charles Mcmurdo, 65, was admitted to Inverclyde Royal Hospital in Greenock, Inverclyde after stomach and abdominal pains worsened and his temperature was “sky high”.

The former electrician tested positive for Covid19 and had to be admitted to an intensive care unit and put on a ventilator.

Grandfather-of-13 Mr Mcmurdo was left in isolation as he battled to survive with his wife Maureen, 66, and family unable to visit.

Mrs Mcmurdo was baffled as to how her husband could have contracted it, and said he had mostly been pottering about in his greenhouse in Largs, North Ayrshire.

However, he fell ill the night before he was admitted to hospital on Sunday, with pains in his stomach and a high temperature.

He was released five days later.

Mr Mcmurdo said: “When I arrived at Inverclyde Royal

Hospital, they told me that I had the symptoms of Covid-19.

“My temperature had gone through the roof and they did a test and told me it was coronavirus.

“I was given oxygen through my nose and monitored every three hours.

“I was still eating and drinking but you couldn’t taste much – I felt quite bloated, it was a horrible feeling.

“There were a lot of people coughing around about me, in the ward I was put on.

“My temperature eventually stabilised and I managed to get out of hospital five days later.

“I was desperate to get back home. I have no idea how I got it.

“If I hadn’t been taken to the hospital on Sunday who knows what would have happened?”

After overcoming the deadly illness, Mr Mcmurdo is now recuperating at home.

He aid: “I am still short of breath but I am feeling a lot better.

“I am very relieved.” His wife aded: “It was terribly frightening. I did wonder at one point whether Charles was going to pull through.”