Standing ovation from neighbors for dad who went to sleep and didn’t wake up for six weeks

The wife of a man who barely survived Covid-19 says she was so convinced he would die that she planned his funeral while he clung to life.

Wayne Oldham, 46, spent 11 weeks in the hospital after the virus attacked his lungs and described experiencing “constant nightmares” while in a medically induced coma on a ventilator.

Aintree’s father of two was a rare case in which doctors took their last risk by hooking up to an ECMO machine, which takes over the function of the heart and lungs.

But after the fight of his life, Wayne was released from the hospital and received an emotional welcome on Monday night (December 21), with friends and neighbors giving a standing ovation from his front door.

He was first admitted to Aintree Hospital, where his wife Louise works as a nurse, on October 5, initially because he feared he had accidentally overdosed on acetaminophen while burning with a fever.

But despite being told that he would be discharged a couple of days later, the last thing Wayne remembers is being told his temperature was a bit high.

Wayne, who was a fan of fit and healthy gyms with no underlying health issues, says the past three months have been “the craziest time of my life.”

He told ECHO: “They said they were going to discharge me the next day, but the nurse said my temperature was high and they were going to take my temperature again.

“I went to sleep and didn’t wake up for six weeks.

“But the whole time I was connected to the fan I had constant nightmares. I dreamed that I was kidnapped and locked in the trunk of a car, thrown out of a building.

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“I felt that this was my life forever, the dreams were infinite.

“My family was FaceTiming me while I was in a coma, and they thought I was lying there peacefully, but I was locked in this constant nightmare.”

Louise, who married the “perfect husband” Wayne 19 years ago, recalled how the hospital called her at 4 am to tell her that her oxygen levels had dropped and that she needed a respirator.

She said, “As soon as I heard the word fan I thought ‘that’s it.’ I called again in the morning and spoke to a nurse who was lovely and reassuring.

“She said ‘I’ll take care of it like it’s mine’ and that really helped.”

The couple’s son Harvey, 19, returned from Salford University to care for his mother and 15-year-old sister Freya, and the family was eagerly awaiting the news.

But things got worse and Wayne was transferred to the Royal Liverpool Hospital while on the ventilator.

Doctors tried a technique called “pronation,” in which the patient is positioned face-on to try to improve airflow into the lungs.

Louise said: “They told me he was seriously ill, critically ill. The doctors said they had no ideas.”

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“But one said they could try to transfer him to Wythenshawe Hospital to use an ECMO machine.”

Wayne was connected to ECMO on October 13, and the family continued to wait.

Louise said, “We were able to Facetime him. He was completely out of line, but we just chatted with him hoping he could hear us.

“He’s a musician, so we played his songs for him in hopes of trying to cheer him up.”

But Louise admitted that in her darkest moments she began to prepare for a future without the love of her life.

She said, “I was sitting on the couch thinking I was going to lose it.

“I even started planning his funeral, he was going through which 20 people would be invited due to Covid rules.”

But after some testing with the ECMO machine, Wayne was finally placed back on a ventilator and it soon became clear that he could breathe on his own.

Wayne’s troubles weren’t over for long, as the machine had caused nerve damage that temporarily paralyzed him.

He was taken to the Walton Center for rehabilitation and then back to Aintree, where he struggled to regain the ability to walk again.

He said that despite struggling to come to terms with the devastating experience he had been through, Wayne used his years of physical training to fight pain and fatigue.

He said, “It was just about having that positive mindset to recover and go home to the family to make sure they were okay.

“I had a mission to get out before Christmas.”

Wayne, who plays in a band called Heart & Soul, feared that the numbness in his fingers meant that he would not be able to play guitar again, but now he has managed to pick it up.

Wayne said: “When Louise told me how close I came to death, it was the worst feeling of my life. It was hard to accept.

“Is hard to understand”.

Despite losing three stones and battling chronic fatigue, Wayne says his main goal is to “keep going” and regain health.

Louise said that the support of her friends and neighbors has been invaluable.

She said: “My cousin Sue got us Team Wayne bracelets that the kids and I get worse every day and her husband, Paul, even drove to Wythenshawe hospital so Wayne could have his too.

“It was a way of connecting with Wayne, and they placed it on the side of his head.

“The staff was amazing, always asking how the kids and I were doing when I called, my whole family has been so supportive as well as our friends, and our workplaces have been amazing too.”