Man who caught Covid-19 in April still 'suffering from effects' of virus
6 August 2020, 14:15
David Hamlington 'still hasn't recovered' from Covid-19
A man from North Wales who left hospital in April after catching Covid-19 has revealed he’s still suffering from the effects of the virus.
David Hamlington, 51, from Wrexham spent two weeks in the ICU of Maelor Hospital, including nine days on a ventilator.
LBC News has caught up with Mr Hamlington four months on from leaving hospital, and he says he’s still struggling to live a normal life.
On his recovery journey so far he said: “It’s been very difficult. When you think I came out of hospital and I could barely walk or talk at all.
“I’ve quietly built that up from walking around the garden and now I can do two mile-and-a-half walks a day.
He continued: “Then I took on some extra breathing exercises – I started with massive headaches and dizziness.
“That set me back to just doing one smaller walk a day but after two months the dizziness and headaches have gone.”
The hospital which Mr Hamlington was treated in has now seen a spike in coronavirus cases, something he says concerns him.
He said: “I know how nasty [this virus] is and the last thing I’d want for anybody is for them to catch it and to be as poorly as I was and still am.
“My family and friends haven’t had it and ultimately the quicker we can get rid of it the better for everybody.”
It comes amid news that all the reported coronavirus deaths in Wales for the last week have been in Wrexham Maelor hospital.
The hospital has been the centre of the virus in Wales with one doctor working there telling Wales Online it is "rife" with Covid.
For the seven days, between July 29 until August 2, the 12 deaths were reported in Wales were all at the hospital.
One member of staff claimed to have worked on a Covid unit for 14 weeks and only received one test.
North Wales Plaid Cymru MS Llyr Gruffydd accused the health board of ignoring "fairly basic requirements".
"Covid-19 updates from Betsi Cadwaladr health board's management over the past week show that there have been 12 deaths in Wrexham Maelor hospital in the past five days," he said.
"As far as we can assess from Public Heath Wales's published statistics, these account for all of the deaths in Wales in the past week."
There were 56 confirmed cases at the hospital and there remains a small number of cases at Deeside Community Hospital, Chirk Hospital, and Mold Community Hospital.
A Welsh Government spokesperson said: “The operational response to the outbreak at the Wrexham Maelor Hospital site is being led by the Health Board. The Outbreak Control Team is meeting daily and Welsh Government officials are monitoring the situation closely.
"The NHS continues to provide services for patients with Covid-19 as well as those needing to access other essential services. We have a zero-tolerance approach to healthcare associated infections and health boards have created separate areas within hospitals to help protect patients and staff.
"This is to ensure that the environment is as safe as possible so that patients can be confident to receive the treatments that they need.”
