A mum has given a harrowing account of the final visit she and her children made to their dad as he lies dying in hospital with coronavirus.
Cardiff mum Sue Martin spoke to the BBC's Today programme about the fateful call from doctors telling her that her husband was being put on a ventilator, and the shell-shocked family needed to say goodbye.
Sue described her 58-year-old husband Mal Martin as "fit and healthy."
But the devastated family has been told he has 'zero chance' of survival.
The mum gave an emotional interview recounting the family's final phone call, and a ten-minute visit behind screens around Mal's hospital bed.
Her description of the moment she and the couple's two children, aged 13 and 16, stood behind screens around a sleeping Mal's bedside to say their goodbyes moved listeners to tears.
The family was allowed to go into hospital in full protective wear for what is likely to be the last time they are all together.
Mal's wife and children could not even touch him to say farewell as they stood around his bedside at the Princess of Wales Hospital in Bridgend.
Sue recalled: "We just told him that we loved him. It was heartbreaking to hear the children tell him that they were going to make him proud."
The family have been left to prepare for the beloved husband and father's death as he lies in intensive care "on the brink" of organ failure.
Despite being told there was no way he would pull through, Sue says the family is living in hope of a miracle.
According to the Independent, Mal is chairman of a recruitment firm and Sue is a communications manager at the Department for Transport, and the couple have been together for 28 years.
Mal has Type 2 diabetes and had suffered a heart attack four years ago, but had lived a "very, very healthy" life, his wife told the Today programme.
Sue said Mal first began feeling unwell with cold-like symptoms on March 19, and his condition got progressively worse.
After about a week, his condition declined so badly he could not get out of bed.
Sue told the Independent Mal had a persistent cough, a headache and a temperature of 38.8C.
She added in the BBC interview: "The cough was the worse thing for him. It was like nothing else I've heard before."
'I wish we had been able to give him a hug'
Mal began self-isolating to keep the rest of his family safe as soon as he began feeling unwell.
But when his condition did not improve after another week, Sue said she tried to seek medical advice.
However she claimed she struggled to get through on attempts to call NHS 111 services, saying she kept being put on hold for more than an hour each time then was cut off.
She then rang a doctor at the local surgery, who encouraged her to keep a record of Mal's symptoms and check on him every second hour throughout the days.
But Mal's symptoms went into sharp decline on March 29 and Sue said she stayed up all night anxiously checking his condition.
At this stage his breathing rate was normal, and the doctor seemed satisfied by his condition and recommended he stay at home at that point.
By the early hours of Sunday morning, ten days after he first began showing symptoms of coronavirus his condition was so poor, Sue called an ambulance.
She described how his breathing had become rapid, and when the paramedics arrived she and the children were not allowed to go near him.
As he was rushed to hospital, they had to say their goodbyes there and then, Sue recalled.
She said: "It was awful because I wish now that we had been able to give him a hug."
She did not know that the worst was yet to come, explaining that the family believed once Mal was admitted to hospital his condition would improve.
Sue said: "I really thought that a couple of days on oxygen and he'd be back home with us."
But within around an hour of Mal's arrival at hospital, she received a call from the A&E at the Princess of A&E Hospital saying he had whisked straight to intensive care (ICU) and put on a ventilator.
Sue said a doctor told her Mal was "very, very sick" and the family needed to be prepared that he might not pull through.
Sue told Today she never thought her husband would be among the patients fighting for their lives in hospital.
She described being shocked to hear that he may not survive, after he had been able to walk out of the family home to a waiting ambulance.
Sue recalled: "The nurse said that she had spoken to him and he was aware of what was going to happen to him, and that they were going to put him to sleep and put him on a ventilator to do the breathing for him because his body was very tired and extremely poorly."
The last time the family saw each other
Sue was surprised to learn that he would soon be unconscious, saying "I think I just assumed that a ventilator was like another type of oxygen mask, I didn't realise it involved him being put to sleep."
The nurse told her that Mal had asked for her to call him as he was "too upset" after he was told he may not ever come off the ventilator.
Sue and her children called him over FaceTime, where they saw him struggling to breathe and already wearing an oxygen mask.
The family were in tears, realising this might be the last time they were all together again as they were forced to say their goodbyes to Mal.
Sue said: "We just told him how much we loved him and I said how much I was really sorry that I hadn't sent him in earlier... They said in hospital that I'd done everything that I could have. He promised he would fight it."
She said her husband promised their children he would pull through and be there for him.
"He said to my daughter who was 16, "Don't worry, I'm going to be around a while yet and be here for your wedding and for you both growing up and see William play rugby for Wales - he's 13."
He was told that if he did recover it would take over a year.
Mal texted the family, promising he wouldn't leave them, Sue said.
"He said it wasn't his time, that he missed me too much and that he was coming home."
When the text messages ceased, they knew it was because he had been put on the ventilator in ICU.
Saying goodbye through a hospital screen
She said: "That day really was when everything changed for us and we have just been existing since."
She said the hospital had been "amazing," with a consultant ringing every day with an update.
At first the doctors told the family Mal had 50/50 chance of survival.
But the 58-year-old dad is "strong, fit and healthy," Sue said.
She said the family kept faith when doctors said they would do everything they could to help him.
But after a few days on the ventilator, the doctors told her despite their best efforts they had been unable to take him off the ventilator.
Then Mal's kidneys failed, and he was put on dialysis.
After that, Sue received the fateful call from the doctors informing the family there was 'almost zero chance' Mal would survive.
The doctors told her they were giving him the maximum adrenaline they could to keep the blood pumping to his vital organs.
But he was "on the brink", and they told Sue they didn't think they could do anything more for him as it was likely his organs begin failing.
Reeling from the news, she rang the hospital again and begged to be able to see her husband.
A nurse told Sue if the family could get to the hospital quickly, they could have 10 minutes with Mal and even stayed two hours after her shift to ensure they fulfilled their desperate wish.
The nursing sister helped the family dress in full personal protective equipment (PPE).
Sue said they were taken in to say goodbye to Mal: "we weren't allowed to touch him, but we could speak to him."
"Essentially we were going in to say our goodbyes. I said to the children... 'you absolutely don't have to do this, this is a personal choice, there's no right or wrong. You have to do what you feel.'
"But they both wanted very much to come and see him. because they hadn't been able to really hug him before he left."
The family were forced to say their final goodbyes to Mal through screens around his bed.
Sue said the medics were "wonderful" and "compassionate."
She recounted the awful scene as she and her children stood around his hospital bed, unable to touch him.
"It was just like he was asleep. he had so many tubes and obviously wires in him and everything - it was like he was fast asleep."
"We just told him really that we love him, and it was heartbreaking, really, to hear the children (say) they were going to make him proud."
She added: "It was very hard not being able to touch him but we were glad to get to see him."
'A little glimmer of hope'
The family had expected he would not survive Monday, but have since been told his condition has been improved slightly.
Doctors said Mal's lungs and kidneys had failed, but they had noted a slight increase in his blood pressure and were able to reduce his adrenaline .
Sue said the family had accepted this did not mean he would survive.
She said there had been no improvement or deterioration by Wednesday.
"He is still extremely, desperately ill and there's still almost zero chance of him pulling through."
As the emotional interview came to a close, Sue said the family had not yet given up hope.
"Although everyday we prepare for the worst, there's a little glimmer of just maybe, just maybe, he might turn a corner."
Chances of survival after ventilation slim
The latest report into patients admitted into critical care in the UK showed that of those who required ventilation so far, just under a third have survived.
Figures for England, Wales and Northern Ireland, from the intensive care national audit (IANARC), showed that as at Friday, April 3, of 2,249 patients for whom data was available, 346 had died.
Another 344 patients were discharged alive from critical care and 1,559 patients were last reported as still being in critical care.
The NHS requires an estimated 30,000 ventilators to meet the demand predicted for the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic in the UK.
The government has been under pressure to meet a shortfall, as senior doctors have made grim warnings that if they don't have enough they could be forced to ration ventilators for the patients with the best chance of survival.
Global trends have revealed the elderly and vulnerable people with underlying health conditions are most at risk of dying from Covid-19.
Why Brits 'must listen to Sue's story'
Sue's account left BBC listeners heartbroken for the family's plight.
LBC host Shelagh Fogarty wrote that the broadcast: "stopped me in my tracks."
She added: "It should be played every day before and after the Downing Street daily briefing. Praying for Mal Martin and his family."
And Pen Thompson wrote: "She spoke so movingly that I and so many were in tears . We wish her family well . If anyone needs persuading to follow #StayHomeSaveLives....listen to her story."
