Kate Garraway’s COVID stricken husband Derek Draper breaks down in tears as he wakes from a coma
Kate Garraway’s husband Derek Draper husband breaks down in tears after waking from his coma in a new teaser for her fly-on-the-wall documentary Finding Derek.
The Good Morning Britain presenter, 53, filmed every step of Derek’s year long battle with COVID-19 following his hospitalisation with the respiratory illness in March 2020.
And in the latest clip from her ITV1 series, he is overcome with emotion after Kate video-calls him following his return to consciousness.
‘He’s back,’ Kate says. ‘We’ve been waiting a long time to speak to you. I’m so proud of you. I’m so proud of you.’
The heartbroken presenter can only watch powerlessly as Derek mouths the word ‘pain’ – his first communication since being stricken with coronavirus.
Derek is also seen sitting in his hospital bed as he talks to Kate via FaceTime, telling her: ‘Kate, there’s no way out. There’s no way out.’
The new documentary, filmed at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, will focus on Derek’s plight after falling gravely ill with the virus and Kate’s desperate battle to care for her husband while planning for an uncertain future.
Heartbreaking: Kate Garraway’s husband Derek Draper husband broke down in tears after waking from his coma in a new teaser for her fly-on-the-wall documentary Finding Derek
However it’s understood that the presenter has no plans to step down from her role at Good Morning Britain as Derek continues his slow recovery.
A spokesperson told MailOnline: ‘Kate will not be giving up her role on GMB, in fact, her job has been something of a lifeline and really kept her spirits up over this past year and she has no plans to change that.’
Discussing the new documentary on Good Morning Britain ahead of its airing on Tuesday evening, Kate admitted it was important for her to remain upbeat for the sake of her husband.
She said: ‘The footage you see was recorded by my personally. After six months we got an iPad into the hospital so I could talk to him while he was in the coma.
‘It was all I could do not to fall apart, and give him a positive energy, not a sad energy.’
Contact: An emotional Kate is filmed as she video-calls her husband from home following his return to consciousness
Support: ‘He’s back,’ Kate says. ‘We’ve been waiting a long time to speak to you. I’m so proud of you. I’m so proud of you’
She added: ‘We’re hearing somany stories about people who have lost people, and I am very aware that I am lucky because Derek is still here.’
Reflecting on her decision to film the documentary, Kate admitted she wanted to use her platform as a presenter to help those who have been most affected by the virus, which has so far killed 126, 172 people across the United Kingdom.
She said: ‘First of all I do have a job that puts me on the TV therewere many months where I was locked in that bubble that we all have been because of COVID restrictions and that was a very private time. When I got back to work I was moved by people’s reactions.
‘I was contacted by people who said you’re talking about what I’m goingthrough and it’s so great to hear, not just with COVID but with other long term situations that they are facing with potentially a life loss at the end of it. So this story, I thought I have a chance to tell it where they don’t.’
The presenter also confirmed she has no plans to step down from her day job in order to provide round the clock care for Derek when he is released from hospital.
She said: ‘You can’t get rid of me that easily! I’m not going anywhere. I saw it as I’ll have to change my future and alter my life. ITV and Smooth Radio have been so supportive, being here has kept me sane.
‘As much as I think I have the answers, Derek doesn’t need me. He needs ongoing specialist, medical professional support. There is a good chance that he can improve, but we need to make sure that the support is there now, whether he remain in hospital or something else.
‘I’d love to sit there and hold his hand but I’m not an expert.’
Kate previously recalled the ‘devastating’ moment her husband told her he feared he couldn’t go on while he was in hospital with coronavirus.
The presenter spoke to her husband on the phone from hospital where he has spent months in intensive care as he battles the virus.
She said: ‘Derek had been drifting in and out of consciousness and when he said that, it was absolutely devastating, but it showed me he was still in there. Even though it was terrible to think his spirits were so low’.
Viewers will see Kate speaking to Derek as he tells her he feels like there is ‘no way out’ and he has got to the point where he no longer knows how to cope.
Harrowing: Kate previously recalled the ‘devastating’ moment her husband Derek Draper told her he feared he couldn’t go on while he was in hospital with coronavirus
Tough: The TV presenter, 53, spoke to her husband, 53, on the phone from hospital where he has spent months in intensive care as he battles the virus
In the clip, obtained by the Daily Mirror, Kate then told her husband that he will get better and that he will come back to his old life with her and their children Darcey, 15, and William, 11.
Viewers then see Kate vowing to save Derek as she helped to bring him back from his lowest point back in November.
The presenter told The Mirror: ‘After that call, it was then time to go into GMB and go on air, having been up all night, it was a tough night actually.
‘But everyone at ITV has been so incredibly supportive. I managed to get through. During this whole time, working on GMB and Smooth Radio has helped me to keep going and keep my spirits up.’
Low point: In a clip from her new documentary Kate Garraway: Finding Derek, Kate said it was ‘terrible’ to think her husband had reached such a low point
Doting mother: In the clip, Kate then told her husband that he will get better and that he will come back to his old life with her and their children Darcey, 15, and William, 11
While Covid is no longer in Derek’s system, the virus left him battling kidney failure, liver failure, heart failure and damage to his pancreas.
Kate added: ‘And in the end, I said to him, « Just stay with me, I’m going to keep talking to you ». And he was obviously exhausted. Because that’s the other thing, is that the tiniest thing completely exhausts him.’
The broadcaster said that even Derek voicing his feelings like that would have taken a huge amount out of him as he has such little energy.
Kate spoke to her husband on the drive into work that day and then told the doctor’s to put on Good Morning Britain so he could see her.
Heartbreaking: Viewers then see Kate vowing to save Derek as she helped to bring him back from his lowest point back in November (pictured together prior to Derek’s coronavirus battle)
The presenter first invited a film crew into her home last September with the hope that the film would end with Derek returning home.
But seven months later, the documentary will instead focus on Derek’s year in hospital as well as the many months of recovery that are left.
Derek has lost eight stone amid his health battle with Kate revealing the children have not seen him in person at all this year.
She added the kids did visit Derek over Christmas and described it as a ‘shock’ to see the physical change in him.
Kate has made the ground floor of her home wheelchair accessible and is looking ahead to visiting Derek in hospital as soon as lockdown is eased.
Tragic: Derek was admitted to hospital in March after contracting the respiratory illness and was subsequently placed in a medically induced coma before he awoke in July (pictured in hospital)
Kate, who acknowledges there is still a long way to go in Derek’s road to recovery, thinks the couple’s relationship may be changed forever.
The presenter said he will behave differently and be physically different but she thinks his return may be a ‘beautiful thing’ as they will have the chance to fall in love all over again.
During an appearance on The One Show on Thursday, Kate said Derek is ‘trapped in the middle ground’ as he is sometimes able to communicate with her before slipping out of consciousness.
Kate said: ‘One of things I’m here to talk about is the documentary and what you will see is that this time last year, I was, like a lot of us, wondering what was coming our way.
‘I was fearing the worst, on air reading headlines about the earliest cases of people contracting coronavirus and then I suddenly found myself right in the middle of it.
Finding Derek: Viewers will see Kate speaking to Derek as he tells her he feels like there is ‘no way out’ and he has got to the point where he no longer knows how to cope
‘And I’d say there was weeks and months of living minute by minute, wondering if I was going to get the call to say whether he lived or died.’
Kate went on to explain that while Derek has survived Covid, he is ‘trapped in the middle ground’.
Derek was admitted to hospital in March after contracting the respiratory illness and was subsequently placed in a medically induced coma before he awoke in July.
She said: ‘Derek is an extreme case, he has a prolonged disorder of consciousness which means that there is some reaction.
‘It’s not like what we see in movies where people are lying in a vegetative state, you know you can look at his eyes and before Christmas there was a lot of progress with some words and communication.’
Sad: Kate – who shares Darcey, 15, and William, 11, (pictured in 2019) with her husband of 15 years – admitted it is ‘shocking’ to see his current state, including his eight stone weight loss
Derek is considered to be the longest surviving COVID-19 patient in the country.
On more than one occasion his heart stopped beating, he battled bacterial pneumonia and fought multiple infections which punctured holes in his lungs.
Kate said: ‘What I feel like is that I’m on a life boat somehow and he’s coming up and down. You’re on this precipice trying to hold onto him.
‘There’ll be moments where he bubbles up and you have contact with him on FaceTime because of the Covid restrictions.
Health battle: While Covid is no longer in Derek’s system, the virus left him battling kidney failure, liver failure, heart failure and damage to his pancreas
‘It feels like you’re going to have to fill him with so much positivity because he’s going to sink down.’
The GMB host said there will be ‘heartbreaking moments’ in the documentary, as when he does regain consciousness, viewers will see ‘what must be agony for him’.
Kate continued: ‘His brain has always been his best friend. Suddenly his brain is no longer his best friend and he’s fighting to get out.
‘It’s very, very tough. But if it’s tough for me, it must be tougher for him.’
Kate Garraway: Finding Derek airs on ITV on Tuesday at 9pm.