'The mental health side is worse' caller who was in two month coronavirus coma tells LBC

6 August 2020, 19:46

Caller who was in a coma due to coronavirus tells LBC what happened

By EJ Ward

A coronavirus patient who was in a coma for two months has told LBC the mental health effects of Covid-19 are still impacting his life.

Scott from Chelmsford called LBC to talk about his horrific experience with coronavirus and the lasting impact of Long-Covid.

It comes after previously fit people have said their lives had been turned upside down by a horde of symptoms and MPs have been warned up to 500,000 Brits could be suffering.

Caller Scott said his journey started when his girlfriend called an ambulance for him on the 26th of March, just one day later medics put him on a ventilator.

Scott revealed to LBC's Eddie Mair that just two days after that his kidneys failed.

The caller told LBC that the ventilator "wasn't working" for him so he was "very lucky and got into a programme at Royal Papworth hospital on ECMO".

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is a life support machine. People who need ECMO have a severe and life-threatening illness that stops their heart or lungs from working properly.

He said he was on the life support measure for "all of April."

Extra corporeal means 'outside the body', a membrane oxygenator is a piece of equipment which delivers oxygen into the patient's blood. Picture: PA

Scott described the process where the machine "takes the blood out of your body, oxygenates it, and puts it back in."

The caller told Eddie that without the treatment "he wouldn't be speaking" to LBC.

"I woke up on the 8th of May," he said, joking "I pretty much missed the lockdown."

When Eddie asked what it was like waking up after a coma the caller said "weird."

Covid-19 contact tracer "has made just two calls since May"

He went on to explain "it felt like just a nights sleep," revealing to LBC when the doctors told him what had happened, he "pretty much broke down."

"The hardest bit is not having anyone there, and everyone is dressed in a spacesuit," Scott said.

He revealed it has been three months since he came out of the medical coma and he still has a little bit of a cough and some tightness in his chest when he walks far.

But, he said the mental side was "much much worse" he told Eddie he has a two-year-old son and "some days I wake up and I don't even want to look at him."

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Scott said the mental side of things feel like they are "here to stay," revealing he is receiving specialist help from a psychologist.

He told LBC people don't realise "how bad this is."

The coronavirus victim said, "there's a lot of idiots who still think it is a hoax."

"This is killing people, I was very lucky not to be one of those."

Watch the whole call in the video at the top of the page to see Scott's moving story.