A coronavirus survivor who was rushed to hospital alongside her dad, who is still fighting for her life, has told how she texted her mum to say a final farewell.
Grace Dudley, 29, spent ten days at Queen’s Hospital in Romford, east London, after she was infected with Covid-19.
As well as fearing that she was going to die, leaving her four year old son Vinnie behind, she has described the trauma of watching another patient on her ward die without any family present.
The terrifying account comes as her dad Graham Dudley, 65, is still fighting for his life in intensive care where he is dependent on a ventilator.
After leaving hospital on April 6, Grace has told Mirror.co.uk how the virus left her reliant on oxygen and bed bound within a matter of days.
As the devastating illness took its toll, an exhausted Grace texted her mum Maureen a final goodbye, fearing she was set to die that night.
But she is now recovering at home and has paid tribute to the NHS heroes who nursed her back to health.
Grace said: “I’m 29 years old and this has changed my life forever.
“My dad is still in intensive care, I am unable to properly take care of my son until I am better.
“We are all extremely scared about my dad and his recovery, we need him very much.
“Anyone not taking this seriously should know that nothing you think you need or want is worth having if you end up where I was and where my dad still is.
“Nothing matters more than family and health, and if you end up with the coronavirus, you will have neither.
“If you die, you may be alone, and I’ve witnessed it and it is heartbreaking, that was somebody’s mum, daughter, sister, aunt.
“It’s something that will forever live in my mind.”
Grace, of Romford, east London, was admitted to hospital on March 28 - just 24 hours after her dad.
She currently lives with her boyfriend James and son Vinnie, in the family home alongside driver Graham and mum Maureen.
She said: “We all live together under a two bedroom roof and it is seriously overcrowded.
“So we decided to lockdown ourselves before we were even advised to do so by the government.
“But my dad had to work to pay the rent and he went to work for two days after we started our isolation.
“On the third day, he came home and said he was feeling unwell so my mum demanded he stay home.
“As the days went on he got sicker, cough, high temperature, we realised quickly that he had all of the typical symptoms of coronavirus.
“After six days, I felt unwell and needed to lie down as my skin began to have this fizzing feeling.
“Within 24 hours I had never felt so ill, I was freezing but had four quilts and I couldn’t stay awake for long intervals.
“My mum called an ambulance because my dad has said on a scale of one to ten, he felt a ‘nine’ in terms of how ill he felt.
“He is a real strong man and he downplays everything so as soon as he said that we knew it was serious.
“We were told an ambulance was coming, but then hours later we got a phone call to say that unless he was set for the intensive care unit, they weren’t taking anyone in.
“So while he was still able to breathe, they wouldn’t send anybody, so we had another couple of days at home and it was clear that he was deteriorating quickly.
“I’m asthmatic so my breathing was getting worse.”
After a few days at home, Maureen was forced to call an ambulance again as Graham’s condition steadily worsened.
Grace said: “My mum was doing her very best to look after him but when the paramedics arrived, they said they needed to take him immediately to hospital.
“They checked me over too and told me that I needed to go to the hospital.
“When we were in the ambulance, my oxygen levels were really low but they levelled once they put me on oxygen.
“I remember lying in A&E next to my dad and remember him asking for some water.
“They put a cup in his hand and his hands were shaking so badly it spilled immediately and I knew at that point that he was very sick.
“They’re very keen for people to be able to recover at home, so they told me I could go, which I did but I was so scared to leave my dad.
“I knew I shouldn’t have been going home but they just needed the space and there were older citizens there that needed the beds more than I did.”
But less than 24 hours later, another ambulance visited the family home as Grace’s condition worsened.
She said:“I couldn’t breathe, my entire body, even my elbows and knees, were dripping with sweat.
“This time I was blue lighted to the hospital and put straight into the resuscitation area.
“This was extremely scary and before I knew it I had so many needles in me.
“My whole arm was bright red with blood and the doctors were apologising but it wasn’t their fault, they were trying to get medication in me as quickly as possible.
“Once they managed to give me oxygen and calm my breathing, they moved me to the major trauma ward where I spent the next 24 hours.
“It was manic in there, nobody was allowed in without the correct PPE.
“If they left the room, they would have to change again and from what I overheard, they just didn’t have enough of it to keep changing.
“I was given a paper mask but it was extremely difficult for me to wear because of my breathing difficulties.
“At this point, I couldn’t go to the bathroom, unless wheeled there.
“I couldn’t stand up, if I tried too, I would begin to choke and my breathing would just cease to function.
“It felt like my lungs were shrivelling up.
“They told me they needed to keep me in as if they sent me home and I had a coughing fit or my breathing went any worse, I could die.
“But they need to keep rotating the beds so they sent me to the Elderly Receiving Unit, which normally accepts just older patients and this is where things got really serious.
“The first night I spent in that ward on my own, I was having the worst fevers but there’s nothing they can do other than give you paracetamol.
“It got so bad I was hallucinating.
“The ward had no windows, no air, and as somebody with severe anxiety it was extremely scary.
“In the night I texted my mum saying that I didn’t know if I would make it home and that I loved her.
“I really felt I was going to die. I’ve never had that feeling before.”
During her first night on the ward, Grace says three more people were admitted, including a woman who was unconscious.
She said: "She was in her 50s and I never got to speak to her as she was unconscious from the moment she arrived.
“At one point I noticed her breathing had got a lot slower and she slowly stopped breathing for ten seconds at a time.
“Myself and another patient started shouting as loudly as we could, as we were hooked up to IVs and couldn’t leave our beds.
“A nurse briefly popped her head in and we said she needed help and she ran to find a doctor.
“But I watched her take her last breath and I knew she was gone.
“When the doctors and nurses came in, they confirmed she had died away.
“At that point, my anxiety hit the roof and I vomited everywhere.
“I wondered what could have been done but I knew she was extremely ill from the second I saw her, I just hope she rests in peace.”
“I couldn’t stop crying as the two other patients were moved and I felt stuck there.
“But a male nurse came by and saw me crying and when I told him I thought I was going to die, he took the time to comfort me and he said he’d take me to a nicer place.
“At this point, I could have jumped for joy except my body wouldn’t allow it.
“I moved to that ward and the second I entered it, I immediately felt better.
“The nurses said “We are going to look after you here” and the male nurse who portered me said “My friends here will take good care of you”.
“I trusted in that straight away, it felt like a weight had been lifted off of my shoulders.
"My new room which had a TV, windows and access to fresh air, it felt like heaven to me.
“My first night was difficult, I was vomiting for most of the night and had to spend it on a very high level of oxygen, but I felt better in the morning.
“But they thought I would have to go to intensive care for observation as my breathing was causing concern.
“Knowing that my dad was there, that didn’t even frighten me, I just hoped I’d be able to see his face.
“So even though it meant I was really sick, I wasn’t frightened, I was excited.
“Since entering the hospital, my dad has had little improvement, he is still on a ventilator and has pneumonia.
“Luckily, I started getting better and on the fourth day on this new ward, the nurses took my oxygen away.
“I spent the whole day without it and in the evening, they celebrated and danced for me as they thought it wasn’t going to be a possibility for me for a very long time.
“On my sixth day, they told me I could go home to my mum, my son, my partner, my brother.
“My initial thought was “Oh my God I lived. I survived this and I thought it was going to kill me.
“Eight hours later I was sent home with the rest of my medication and my boyfriend picked me up from the hospital.
“It was a tough journey home, every single step even now takes my breath away so I’m still resting.
“The treatment I got at the hospital on my final ward was second to none, there was always somebody to help me when needed and they always checked on me often.”
Currently, Graham is still fighting for the virus but the family have been given some good news.
Grace said: "We had a phone call on Wednesday to tell us that there has been a slight improvement which is fantastic news.
"They've said he’s got a very long way to go but if his blood continues to improve then he is on the right track."
Now Grace has issued a stark warning to those still flouting orders to stay at home and not meet up with other people outside your home.
She said: “Don’t risk anything, I have come home now and I am living with an awful paranoia about germs.
"I am absolutely terrified I will get it again.
“I can’t tell you how awful it is, how soul destroying and I can’t tell you just how much it affects you, not just while you’re sick, but afterwards too.”
It comes as Britain’s lockdown is set to stay in place with the peak of the outbreak still 10 days away.
Last night, politicians warned that strict measures could not be relaxed as yesterday’s death toll hit 887.
Speaking during the daily briefing on Tuesday, Chancellor Rishi Sunak stress that an imminent lift of lockdown was not expected.
He said: "Our priority right now is to stop the spread of this virus and get to the other side of this peak.
“And the best way to do that is for people to follow the advice, which is stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives."
