Kate Garraway feels as though she is "trying to hold onto" her "trapped" husband Derek Draper, as he continues to battle the after-effects of coronavirus in intensive care.
Kate Garraway
The 'Good Morning Britain' co-host's 53-year-old significant other has been in hospital for nearly a whole year after contracting coronavirus last March, and she has likened the situation to being on a precipice waiting for Derek to "bubble up" to the surface so she can have some contact with him.
She said: "Derek is an extreme case. What he had is what is called a prolonged disorder of consciousness which means that there is some reaction.
"It is not like the coma we see in movies where people are lying in a vegetative state. He can open his eyes and before Christmas there was a lot of progress with words and communication and things.
"But what I feel like is that I am on a lifeboat somehow and he is coming up and down. Sorry, this seems very figurative but that is how it feels.
"You are on this precipice trying to hold onto him and there are moments when he bubbles up and you have some contact, predominantly at the moment on FaceTime because of the COVID restrictions."
Kate admitted the "damage" coronavirus has done to Derek and several others has left them unsure if they can "get their life back".
She said: "There is a whole group of people trapped in the middle ground where the damage is so great they aren’t sure if they can get their life back.
"It has affected people on a lot of levels."
Kate - who is to star in ITV documentary 'Finding Derek' next week about her husband's plight - admitted the situation must be "agony" for the former lobbyist, because his brain has "always been his best friend".
Speaking on 'The One Show', she added: "It feels like you are having to fill him with so much positivity because he is going to sink down. What you will see in the documentary is some of the better moments even though they are heart-breaking, I am afraid, where he comes up.
"Then you see what must be agony for him because he is somebody who, both in his time before I knew him when he was in politics and also since in all the work he has done in mental health, because that is his thing now, his brain has always been his best friend."
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