Piers Morgan has warned that Kate Garraway’s husband Derek Draper is not “out of the woods” after waking up from an induced coma.
Draper, 52, was hospitalised with coronavirus back in March and Garraway, 53, has spoken of the “extraordinary damage” that Covid-19 has caused to his whole body.
On Sunday, Garraway revealed to Hello! magazine that her husband has now regained consciousness, but doctors have told her that Draper has a long and difficult road ahead of him.
Speaking on Good Morning Britain on Monday morning, Garraway’s colleague Piers Morgan insisted that the update on Draper’s health is “not quite as positive a story as the papers believe” and shared a message of clarification from her representative.
“A few papers are doing a lot of coverage today on our colleague and friend Kate Garraway and the situation involving her husband Derek,” he said.
“It’s probably not quite as positive a story as the papers believe and we’ve just got a little clarification from Kate’s representative.”
He went on to read out a statement from Garraway’s spokesperson, which said: “These headlines do give a level of optimism that may not yet be justified.
“We hope, as does Kate, there will be more evidence of a recovery but it will be a very slow and uncertain path.”
Morgan, 55, revealed that he and his co-presenter Susanna Reid would discuss Draper’s progress with Garraway on Wednesday when she returns to the show, having stepped back from work commitments during her husband’s illness.
“We’re going to talk to Kate on Wednesday and I’m sure she’ll have something to say about this but it’s certainly premature at the moment,” he said.
“Derek isn’t in any way out of the woods, sadly, on this and he remains in a very serious and critical condition.”
Speaking to Hello!, Garraway said that she and her children Darcey, 14, and Billy, 10, have been speaking to Draper every day over FaceTime as a nurse “holds his iPad.”
“I really believe he can hear,” she explained. “When medical staff say, "Good morning, Derek!, he sometimes opens his eyes. We and the doctors are doing everything we can so that he can start to recover.”
She added that doctors have told her to “get on with life whilst we are waiting for him to get better” as [Draper’s] “condition could persist for years.”
