Good Morning Britain's resident GP Dr Hilary Jones has spoken of the moment Kate Garraway turned to him for help as Derek Draper fell ill - and the simple test he did over the phone
Kate husband Derek contracted Covid-19 more than a year ago and spent 12 months in hospital - mostly in a coma - as a result.
He has just returned to their adapted home where he is undergoing constant care.
Now Dr Hilary has spoken on GMB of the moment he told Kate and Derek they had to get to A&E, reports The Mirror.
Speaking about the moment when Kate phoned him, Dr Hilary said: "I thought it would be better to speak to the person themselves to gauge what was going on. Kate was clearly uncertain as to what to do next.
"She was being stoical. They'd talked about it, they'd made some decisions; he was sleeping in his own bedroom to isolate from the rest of the family and she was unsure as to the next step to take.
"So I said, 'Let me speak to Derek'. She passed the phone to Derek and I could hear how breathless he was - I told him to hold his breath to see how long he could do that for and how he felt, generally. He could hold his breath for eight seconds.
"At that moment, and looking at the history, until that point, I knew that he needed to go into hospital."
He added that Derek had no usual symptoms, including a persistent cough.
"However, they had attributed some of his chest pain to a different situation - a shoulder injury, which they told me about. But this didn't add up to me.
"I thought it was a coincidental thing and I thought we needed to get him to hospital as soon as possible. So I spoke to him then and I said, 'Look, I think you need to make this call'."
*Good Morning Britain airs weekdays at 6am on ITV
