A dad-of-two is lucky to be alive after being put on a ventilator due to coronavirus - and then suffering two severe strokes due to a double blood clot on his brain.
Omar Taylor, 31, spent almost a month in intensive care fighting the virus, and the blood clots that almost took his life.
Now his wife Kaitlyn, a student nurse at Colchester General Hospital in Essex, has paid tribute to the NHS staff who saved her hsuband's life.
Kaitlyn, who lives in the village of Rowhedge in Colchester, with Omar and their two children, said: "The ICU staff at Colchester Hospital are the best in the world.
"I am so appreciative of everything they have done for us."
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Speaking of the traumatic month Omar spent in ICU, she added: "They didn’t think he was going to make it and neither did we.
"I used to sit by the phone waiting for the call to say he had passed away."
Omar, who has a daughter Vivienne, four, and son Harrison, two, became unwell after birthday celebrations on March 13, and made the decision to self-isolate at his mother’s home.
Kaitlyn said: "At first I told him to get a grip and told him he was hungover - but on March 14 he called an ambulance which brought him to hospital.
"They kept him in less than 24 hours and sent him home saying he probably had a chest infection.
"He went home and for a whole week he could not get out of bed."
On March 19, Omar, a Care UK regional manager, was rushed back to hospital and admitted to Mersea ward, where three days later it was confirmed he had Covid-19.
Kaitlyn said: "He was transferred to ICU on March 22 and he was unconscious. One morning I woke up at 4.45am and I had ten missed calls from the hospital.
"I rang them and they said they were laying him on his stomach and he was on a ventilator."
Omar’s condition did not improve for more than a week and doctors became concerned about his brain activity.
A CT scan then uncovered the true extent of the damage done by Covid-19.
His wife said: "He had a double blood clot on his brain which caused two severe strokes. After the scan they started waking him up and weaning him off the sedatives."
But, against everyone's expectations, Omar survived and has already made remarkable progress on the hospital’s stroke ward, where he has been since April 18.
He has now had two negative Covid-19 tests, and Kaitlyn said he is walking again already.
She said: "He can’t talk but he never lost cognition, so he understands everything which is going on.
"Doctors say it’s going to be an intensive, long and very slow recovery process.
"He will be on this stroke unit for several weeks and then go to a rehab facility to continue his recovery.
"But, the big picture is that he is lucky to have made it through this horrible ordeal with this virus.
"The cards were stacked heavily against him. I'm so proud of him."
He will require help to complete his recovery - but Omar hopes to go home with his family soon.
And Kaitlyn has said a huge thank you to friends and neighbours, who have rallied round the couple, raising £14,000 for the family.
She said: "Everyone in Rowhedge has been so wonderful to us. I am so grateful. All of Omar’s close friends got together and donated £1,000 to help us pay bills and things."
To donate to the Taylor family click here.
