Kate Garraway’s husband Derek Draper has now been in hospital for a year and the family has only been able to visit him once.
Kate Garraway’s husband Derek Draper, 53, was admitted to hospital last year battling Covid-19. He was put into an induced coma and has been suffering from the effects of long covid ever since. Derek has now been in hospital for a year and is dealing with kidney failure, damage to his liver and pancreas, heart failure, and has lost eight stone.
Kate has revealed that though she has renovated their family home to be accessible to Derek, with wet rooms and wheelchair access, doctors have not confirmed when he will be able to return.
In fact, it might not be until the end of this year, which would mark nearly two years of him being in hospital.
Kate did reveal some positive news that has given her hope for Derek's recovery. She said on Good Morning Britain that she's been able to have little conversations with Derek, and even more miraculously he’s got his accent back.
She said, ‘He has even got his accent back, there is even some good old Chorley coming through. You can't take Chorley out of a man. So that is miraculous.’
Kate gave an insight into Derek's devastating condition in her ITV documentary ‘Finding Derek’ that showed the family’s journey through the year. The documentary saw the family talking to Derek over facetime.
The couple shares two children Darcey 14 and Billy 11, Kate said that the family has only been able to see Derek in person once, at Christmas. Kate has shared her heartbreak over not seeing Derek but did say their Christmas visit gave them all a boost.
Kate said, ‘There was a lovely moment which we did have over the period, we did get to see Derek and the children did, which is the first time they were able to do that, so that was amazing.’
She added, ‘it was very heightened with emotion because he is very changed.’ The family is hoping with the lockdown starting to ease they will be able to visit soon.
