Yahoo Finance Kate Garraway shares first picture of husband Derek Draper in hospital
A year after her husband Derek Draper was first admitted to hospital with coronavirus, Kate Garraway has shared the first photo of him lying in his hospital bed.
Opening up about her family’s agonising ordeal in the trailer for new ITV documentary Kate Garraway: Finding Derek which airs next Tuesday, Good Morning Britain host Garraway says: “Derek is the sickest person the team of doctors have treated this year.”
Speaking out in the heart-breaking new documentary, the GMB presenter admits that it's unlikely Derek will make a full recovery.
Read: Kate Garraway writing a book about husband's COVID battle
"Is he going to be able to come back or will he be alive but no longer the person he was?"
Derek, 53, has spent the last 12 months in hospital fighting for his life. Although the virus has not been present in Derek's body since the summer, it has left the dad with kidney failure, damage to his liver and pancreas and heart failure.
The former political lobbyist also has holes in his lungs from bacterial pneumonia and fighting off several infections.
Garraway said doctors have no idea why the virus has taken such a hold over Derek, who is the longest-surviving COVID-19 patient in the country.
Speaking to the Guardian ahead of the release of her documentary, Garraway said: "I feel like he is in an ocean of unconsciousness and sometimes he comes up to the surface. In the run-up to Christmas there were moments of consciousness where I felt like we were really communicating."
Watch: Kate Garraway gives thanks for 'kindess of strangers'
While there have been brief moments of hope, Garraway said she's been told several times over the last year to prepare for the worst.
She described the first few months after Draper was first hospitalised and put on a ventilator as "months and months of horror, of live-or-die phone calls".
In one horrifying mix-up, she was even told that her husband 'may' have died before she got a phone call 24 hours later confirming that it was another man with a similar name.
Under current lockdown restrictions, the presenter has not been able to see her husband of 16 years since December.
Read more: Kate Garraway struggles as sole parent as husband remains hospitalised
The mother-of-two said it's been especially hard as Draper's condition deteriorates without human contact.
He has also lost eight stone in weight, with Garraway admitting the visual changes to his body are "shocking".
Kate Garraway: Finding Derek airs next Tuesday at 9pm on ITV.
Watch: Piers Morgan says Kate Garraway is being given hope over her critically ill husband
