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Former political adviser Derek Draper has returned home after a year-long battle in hospital with coronavirus.
Mr Draper, 53, was taken by ambulance to the North London family home he shares with his wife, television presenter Kate Garraway and two children, Darcey, 15, and Billy, 11.
The former Labour Party front man has been taken off all life supporting machines.
And the home has been changed to make round-the-clock care easier.
Ms Garraway, 53, explained why her husband was released from hospital.
She said:
“It felt as though everything had stalled medically and, if anything, was going slightly back.
“The doctors decided to give this a go, get him home safely to see whether being in the family environment helps.
“Derek absolutely knew he was home.
“He’s absolutely responding and aware”.
Speaking about the return to their North London home Kate said:
“As we pulled up… I saw two little faces, Darcey and Billy looking out the window, and I could literally see them going, ‘He’s here’.
“And they ran out and ran to open the door and he immediately burst into tears and there was a lot of hugging.”
Ms Garraway described the “lovely moments” – like setting the kitchen table for four people, and giving her husband one of her casseroles, which “he loves”.
She said: “It feels like the start of a huge chapter but a really big and important one.
“He can’t really move, we do need a lot of help, it is 24-hour care, it’s going to take a lot of adjustment.
“I haven’t really slept as you can probably tell.”
“It does feel like the hospital has come home with me at the moment.
“We hope the move will prompt some recovery because he has definitely plateaued at this level.
“We’re hugely grateful for this level and not losing him.
“But we really want to see if we can move forward, if we can get him speaking more, if he’s able to move more – it’s going to be very slow and a bit of a wait-and-see”.
