Hartlepool Covid patient given just hours to live leaves hospice after incredible recovery

John, 79, was given just hours to live when battling coronavirus in hospital and told to say goodbye to his family.

He was admitted to Hartlepool’s Alice House Hospice Covid-19 ward for end of life care in April.

But over the following weeks and months, John slowly recovered and on Wednesday (July 22) he was well enough to walk out to go home with his family.

He was applauded by the hospice’s staff who John credited with saving his life.

He said to them: “Thank you all for the care you have given me. Without it I don’t think I would have made it.”

John fell ill in March and was taken by ambulance to North Tees hospital where he tested positive for Covid-19.

He spent about two weeks in hospital and almost died.

John said: “I missed being at home with my wife, Joan, terribly. I have cared for her since she had a stroke a few years ago and hadn’t spent this long away from her since I was in the Army.

"I was desperate to go home but the Covid-19 had made me really poorly. I was so ill that they called my family.

“My son, Michael, came to see me but he had so much PPE on I thought he was the doctor and asked again if I could go home.

"That’s when he said ‘it’s me, Dad, Michael’. We laugh about it now but it was a very sad time.

“North Tees did a wonderful job and brought me back from death’s door. They gave their time, they stayed back after their shifts to help look after me and their phones for my family and I to say goodbye.

"At the time I was so ill they thought I was going to die.”

Michael arranged for John to go into Alice House Hospice which was commissioned to care for end of life Covid-19 patients at the peak of the pandemic.

His family including daughters Jackie Williams, 57, and Michelle McAllister, 54, did not expect him to come out.

John, who worked as a porter at Hartlepool General Hospital, was still on oxygen as the disease damaged his lungs.

But against all odds he slowly started to need less and less, and with physiotherapy was able to walk the length of the hospice's garden.

He added: “It’s like coming into a hotel. I can’t praise the lasses enough, the care I have received has been excellent.”

Cherly Dignen, Inpatient Lead at Alice House, said: “He really has had an amazing recovery and we are delighted to be sending him home Covid-19 negative.”

Jackie said: “We’re so proud of him. He's been through so much.”

Michael added: “It's beyond belief to how he was.”

Joan has also overcome Covid and spent a short while in Alice House while adaptions were carried out to their home in Seaton Carew.

The couple are now looking forward to celebrating their diamond wedding anniversary in August next year.

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