A father was clapped by friends and neighbours as he arrived home after surviving “against all the odds” in a 50-day hospital battle with Covid-19.
Darren Moore, 47, a controls manager at a bank HQ in Canary Wharf, spent 39 days in an induced coma in intensive care at Darent Valley Hospital, Dartford.
His wife, Lisa, described the “emotional rollercoaster” she and their daughter Daisy, 12, had been through when doctors twice told her that her husband was critical and “unlikely to survive”.
But Mr Moore beat the disease and friends and neighbours lined the street to welcome him home on May 21.
He today said he is “unbelievably grateful” to the NHS staff who saved his life.
He said: “It was a surreal feeling waking up and being told it was May. I had missed an entire month of my life and wasn’t aware how sick I was. My wife has told me there were many times when they didn’t think I was going to make it. Words cannot describe how grateful I am to the doctors and nurses who saved my life. One of the doctors in the intensive care unit actually thanked me for pulling through because it gives their team motivation. I just couldn’t believe it, what they do is incredible.”
Mr Moore, from Swanley, Kent, had no pre-existing health conditions before he fell ill in March. He was admitted to hospital on April 2 and then later, when he began struggling to breathe, he was taken to intensive care.
He is now having to relearn how to do everyday tasks and build up his strength.
“The stress it puts on your body is huge,” he said. “I’ve lost just shy of two stone and I had to relearn how to walk. I can go a few paces now but it really takes it out of me. It’s going to be a slow process but I’m just happy to still be here.”
“In the 17 years I have known him he has been to the doctor once,” his wife said.
“It’s still going to be a long journey for Darren because what people don’t realise is the fatigue that coronavirus causes and the stress it puts on your body. People who aren’t following the rules on social distancing should see him, because if they did they would be shocked. He’s had to learn to walk again and can just about hold a cup, the virus completely took it out of him. It’s been an emotional rollercoaster. We were told a couple of times he might not pull through this and was unlikely to survive. I just want to say to other families in this situation that they should have hope because people can recover.”
Sharing a video of his return home on Twitter, the Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust wrote: “Against all the odds and with a lot of intervention from our wonderful staff Darren pulled through.”
Video: https://twitter.com/DarentValleyHsp/status/1265554425571131398?s=20
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