Kate Garraway’s husband Derek Draper plummeted when Covid shut down organs

Kate Garraway’s husband Derek Draper has plummeted eight stones since he was taken to the hospital on March 29 with coronavirus.

The former Labor lobbyist, whom Kate was told by doctors was the sickest patient they had ever treated and had managed to survive this long, has been through organ closure, lung and kidney failure and is now struggling to digest food since that Covid-19 devastated his body.

Although he no longer has the disease, the damage it has caused has been extensive and doctors do not know when or even if he will be able to make a full recovery.

Speaking about how she’s been trying to keep the fort at home for her two children, Darcey, 14, and Billy, 11, Kate told You magazine: “We hope and believe that he will come out of this, but I just don’t know. The heart of the family has been ripped out and we don’t know if we will ever get it back. ”

She continued: “At first it was about Derek’s lungs, but then his kidneys started to fail and he was on dialysis. Now they have realized that Covid can affect every cell in the body – more recently Derek has had problems with your intestines.

“Food absorption and vomiting are problems and they are trying to find out if that is because their cells are not producing the enzymes to digest. Their liver, heart and blood vessels have been affected.”

Kate, who has now returned to work at Good Morning Britain, said she has been “consumed with fear” during Derek’s illness, but must heal for the children.

“Kids don’t choose when they’re going to be upset; you say, ‘It’s 9pm, I’m going to bed, I have to get up at 2am to go to work,’ and that’s when they suddenly want to talk about dad, So of course you just have to say, ‘Okay, let’s talk about it,’ “he noted.

Cruelly, the couple was due to renew their vows on their wedding anniversary this Thursday, after Derek proposed again when Kate emerged from the I’m A Celebrity jungle last December.

Instead, she’ll juggle her work commitments with getting the kids back to school, phone calls with Derek’s hospital team, and endless legal consultations when dealing with a sick spouse.

“I felt like I saw everything in a new light [after the jungle]Kate continued.

“I always knew that family, friends and love were the most important, but after the jungle, that brought him even more focus. Darcey was very excited: I was planning a second wedding, God knows what she would have given me using. But now that will not happen and our anniversary will be very strange. “

And although Derek has come out of his deep coma, he is still minimally conscious and the children have not been able to see him in person for almost six months, although Kate can visit him in the hospital.

When she first saw him on a video call, she was shocked by his appearance.

“When I finally got to FaceTime, seeing him unconscious was a huge shock.

“He has lost nearly eight kilos, a lot of muscle all over his body. He looked tired, thin and pale with dark circles under his eyes and there were a lot of tubes.”

But, she added, neither she nor the doctors have yet given up on Derek.

“What you have to keep thinking about is that there were so many times when the doctors thought we had lost Derek or we were about to lose him, and he’s still here. There’s still hope.”