A man has told how medics saved his wife's life by putting her on her stomach for 12 hours during her coronavirus treatment.
Adam Fresco has revealed how the practice, known as 'proning', could have killed his wife Stacey, but he told the doctor they might as well try it as she was "going to die anyway".
He was desperate as he watched his sobbing daughters say their final goodbyes to their mum who only had two hours to live, and asked the doctor if he he had heard of anything "weird and wacky", any experimental treatment or something being used abroad in a "desperate plea that I knew he couldn’t answer."
However, the doctor did know of something - and it was a technique which has been used in ICU's for years, but not without risks in Stacey's case.
Adam, a former news editor with the Times and now a PR consultant, wrote in his former paper how his two daughters, aged 21 and 23, had read Mother's Day cards to their dying mum on Sunday, March 22, hoping to say everything they wanted to say before their mum passed away.
Adam later told Sky News this was "heartbreaking".
Mum-of-two Stacey was unconscious and on a life-support machine, in the intensive care unit of the Whipps Cross Hospital in East London, after her condition deteriorated two after having been admitted to hospital on March 20.
Stacey, who has type 2 diabetes, was dying from the coronavirus and bacterial pneumonia while Adam said her kidneys and heart "were not working properly".
Adam and his two sobbing daughters donned full personal protective equipment including gloves, aprons and facemasks having been called to the hospital - which was on lockdown - to say their goodbyes.
Adam told Sky News the PPE was "so claustrophobic" and he doesn't know how the NHS hero medics wear it "hour after hour".
Writing in the Times, Adam said: "A doctor had called and asked how quickly I could get to the hospital. When I arrived, he told me there was very little they could do for her and we should say goodbye.
"I remember asking if there was 'anything weird or wacky' he had heard about, anything experimental that was working abroad.
"It was a desperate plea that I knew he couldn’t answer."
It was then that the doctor, who Adam said was called Dave, told him about proning, but warned it could place such pressure on her heart - that it could cause a fatal heart attack.
Adam told BBC Radio 4's The World At One programme: "He (her doctor) explained what proning was, where you turn the patient onto their stomach for about twelve, fifteen hours and it promotes... it should promote oxygen flow, blood flow and improve the lungs.
"But he warned, because Stacey's heart wasn't working properly and her heart and her kidneys, it would probably kill her - the pressure on her heart would be fatal.
"But I remember saying to him, look, well she's going to die anyway and he said yes - so the three of us decided that there was nothing really to lose. We had to give it a shot."
Adam told Sky News he discussed the risk with his two daughters and came to the "only conclusion that there was nothing left to lose".
He said: "Doctor Dave said stay, because if anything goes wrong, it will go wrong really quickly.
"He came back after an hour and said she was still fighting, still surviving, go home and we'll ring you if anything bad happens."
"And that night the phone didn't ring. They turned her again the next day for about 15 hours and the phone didn't ring Monday night.
"Then on Tuesday evening the house phone did ring, and it could only the hospital. I remember running for the phone, my heart pumping - I couldn't hear what was being said.
"And it was a lovely nurse - I believe called Abby - who started the conversation with 'can I just say what a remarkable woman your wife is."
Stacey was responding well to being turned, said Adam.
"The oxygen was better, the blood flow was better, she was still on life support but the nurse said for the first time they were optimistic but they were not out of the woods yet."
Asked whether he believes proning saved his wife Stacey's life, he told The World At One: "I definitely do. One of the doctors told me at one point that Stacey was the sickest person in the hospital and the doctor, Doctor Dave, was as adamant as anyone can be that Stacey was going to die.
"And if they hadn't had done this, I'm convinced she would have done."
In recent guidance issues by the Intensive Care Society, the 'proning' technique - which has been used for unconscious patients in ICUs for years - was recommended to be considered for all coronavirus patients who need oxygen.
The guidance states the technique of flipping patients onto their fronts could also be used for conscious patients who need oxygen, to help them avoid the need for ventilation.
But it would not be suitable for all patients, including pregnant women or the obese.
