Yahoo Finance 'This is not propaganda': Mum, 44, issues harrowing COVID plea from hospital bed
Watch: Mother’s harrowing COVID plea from hospital
A mum has pleaded with people to follow the government’s coronavirus advice in a harrowing video filmed from her intensive care bed.
Allie Sherlock, 44, said she had been “floored” by COVID on Christmas Day, and had been warned if she hadn’t been put on a ventilator she would have died.
The mum of two said during her time at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital she had seen two other coronavirus patients die in beds either side of her
Her plea comes after the head of the NHS said people who deny the existence of COVID-19 are “lying”.
In the video, shot from her hospital bed by Dr David Windsor, the Gloucestershire Royal Hospital’s critical care lead, Sherlock said: “It's been horrendous. My whole family have tested positive. I've been very, very unwell. This is very real, this is happening.”
She added: “This has completely floored me. I was told just two days ago that if they didn't put me on a ventilator, I would die.”
Her plea comes amid conspiracy theories that the coronavirus crisis is not as bad as the government and health service are claiming.
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Sherlock said: “Don't be fooled, this is happening and this is serious. The NHS will not be able to cope if people do not take this seriously.
“This is so important, keep your distance, stay at home, protect your loved ones. Please, please follow the rules.
“This is not propaganda by the government, this is happening to everyday people. I have seen two people die in beds either side of me while I've been in this hospital, and not elderly people either. People with families, children.”
At a Downing Street press conference on Thursday, NHS Chief Executive Sir Simon Stevens said people who peddle the idea that COVID-19 is a hoax are responsible for deaths.
He said: “Let’s just be completely straightforward about it when people say that it is a lie.
“If you sneak into a hospital in an empty corridor at 9 o’clock at night and film that particular corridor and then stick it up on social media and say this proves the hospitals are empty the whole thing is a hoax.
“You are not only responsible for potentially changing behaviour that will kill people but it is an insult to the nurse coming home from 12 hours in critical care having worked their guts under on the most demanding and trying of circumstances.
“There is nothing more demoralising than having that kind of nonsense spouted when it is most obviously untrue.”
Watch: What you can and can't do during England's third national lockdown