Kate Garraway told Derek Draper has 'little chance of recovery' if he doesn't make progress in two years
Derek is still struggling (Picture: Rex)
Kate Garraway was told that her husband has 'very little chance' of a 'meaningful recovery' if he doesn't make progress in the next two years.
Derek Draper is now back at home with his family receiving round the clock care after spending a year in hospital with complications from Covid-19.
The 53-year-old suffered from rare brain inflammation and the virus attacked his lungs, heart, kidneys, liver and pancreas, with doctors saying that Derek had the worst Covid infection of any surviving patient.
In her book, The Power of Hope, Good Morning Britain star Kate explained that doctors said they couldn't yet chart Derek's recovery as they had 'never seen anything like this before so can't personally chart the recovery'.
The 54-year-old wrote: 'I had already waited so long. "How long before you know more? Not how long will it take for him to recover, because you don't know if he can even recover, but how long before you might know more?"
'After another long pause, he looked straight at me, then away. "Well, Kate" – the first time he had used my name – "I think it's fair to say if he is still like this after two years we will know there is very little chance of him making any meaningful recovery."'
Kate has been told that Derek needs to make progress within two years (Picture: ITV)
The star continued: 'Up until now I had been living by the minute, hours on the phone monitoring infection levels and statistics, trying to get a handle on where Derek was, wondering every time I went to sleep if he would still be alive in the morning.
'How could I go on like this for another two years? Worse still, how could Derek be trapped like this for two years? The timescale winded me and I'm sure I must have slumped a bit in the chair.'
Since then, Derek has been discharged from hospital, after it was decided that his 'cognition and consciousness had stalled and, if anything, was going backwards' while in hospital without visitors during lockdown.
The family home has been adapted for Derek's hospital bed, wheelchair and wet room, and he will still receive round the clock care.
While he has been able to speak a few words to Kate and their kids Darcey, 15, and Billy, 11, Kate admitted that her husband is still 'devastated' by the effects of Covid.
Derek spent a year in hospital (Picture: James Gourley/ITV/REX)
She told GMB last month: 'He can't really move, his communication is very minimal. There are moments when there's up, in those moments you feel you know he's in there. He has a lot of memory.
'But the accessing of it is very limited. So how is he? He's a long way from the Derek Draper that you know Andrew, but he's home and he's alive and he's asleep now.'
Derek, a former lobbyist and political advisor, contracted coronavirus in March 2020 and was later placed in an induced coma, having one of the longest hospitalisations for a Covid patient in the United Kingdom.
Kate married Derek in 2005, and after she left the I'm A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! jungle in 2019, Derek proposed all over again, with the couple planning to renew their vows.
Kate Garraway's The Power of Hope is out now.
Derek DraperKate GarrawayShowbiz
Friends cast belt out I'll Be There For You with James Corden in emotional Cart-pool Karaoke
Andrew Neil hits back at notion GB News 'peddles hate' as brands pull out: 'Have a look at our content'