Good Morning Britain presenter Kate Garraway has shared more details about her husband Derek's lengthy Covid battle, which saw him spend nearly a year in hospital.
Kate, 53, revealed in her new book, named The Power of Hope, that scans of Derek's brain showed "fluffy white clouds floating in the top part of his head", which his doctors were very worried about.
She explained that they had initially feared they were clots or bleeds on the brain, which can happen when a patient is on an ECMO, which is a machine is oxygenates the blood, bypassing the lungs and heart.
Derek did indeed have a small bleed on his brain, but the doctors told Kate that the clouds on his brain signified inflammation on the brain.
Kate wrote in her book: "This, they told me, was a unique historical event, a one-off splurge of inflammation, and the fact that it showed up in some form on the earlier CT scans from back in April meant it happened right at the start when Derek was first on ECMO."
Kate had been told that Derek had been lucky that the infection hadn't reached his spinal cord or brain stem, or his ability to move would be affected.
Doctors also told her that they hadn't yet seen inflammation on the brain due to Covid, but other medics in Europe had reported similar cases.
The mum-of-two had been warned by the doctors that the brain is the slowest part of the body to recover, as they told her: "We can’t rule out some kind of recovery, but we can’t rule out him never recovering."
Doctors said that Derek is not likely to make a "good" recovery, but they thought he could bounce back to the extent that he could hold a hairbrush himself.
Derek has since been released from hospital and is back at home with Kate and their two children Darcey and Billy.
He has not regained his speech and needs constant care, with Kate admitting there's a chance he might need to go back into hospital for treatment.
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Doctors have said that he is the sickest patient to have survived the virus after falling ill in March 2020.
However, Kate has noted moments of improvement from her husband, as she recalled him complimenting her on her dress and asking her if it was new as she headed out to work on Good Morning Britain.
GMB airs on weekdays at 6am on ITV.
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