'You need to phone your wife': Covid ‘nightmare’ that almost took Gary's life

Birmingham business owner and keen cyclist Gary Moore didn’t think he would be affected by Covid-19, even after testing positive for the virus in November.

But, as his condition deteriorated, the 53-year-old was rushed to Good Hope Hospital where he ended up on a ventilator in ICU twice and left fighting for his life, with his worried family unable to see him for several weeks.

As a result of his ordeal, Mr Moore is now urging people to get the vaccine to help ensure they and others don’t have to go through what he did.

In addition to high temperatures and struggling for breath, he suffered from delirium while he was in hospital which saw him experiencing wild hallucinations.

Mr Moore, who owns Opal Contracts, which supplies commercial blinds to the health and education sectors, went into Good Hope on November 12. As his oxygen levels dipped, he was moved to ICU before being transferred to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital six days later.

He finally made it home on November 29, although chest infections resulted in him being readmitted on three separate occasions in the following weeks.

His wife Denise took over running the business in his absence with the help of University of Wolverhampton student Rachel, aged 20. His youngest daughter, 19-year-old Ariane also returned from Oxford University to join her family.

Mr Moore said: “I had been ill for a few days when I tested positive but I went to bed thinking I’d just shake it off. I felt exhausted and had a temperature.

“Denise eventually called 111 because I was dithering even though I had a temperature of 42. An ambulance came out straight away and I was rushed to A&E before being taken to an assessment unit.

“The following day, I was taken to ICU and the consultant was quite blunt. He said: “You need to phone your wife and tell her there is a good possibility you aren’t going to make it. And I thought, ‘well that’s not what you want to hear is it?’

“I rang her and Denise remained calm. She told me not to worry and reassured me that everything will be OK.”

Mr Moore spent a few days on a ventilator and woke up in the QE – something he immediately recognised having worked on fitting their curtain rails.

He said: “A lot of people in ICU get delirium and you believe something’s happened. When I spoke to a nurse on a later date, I told her I don’t really know what’s real or isn’t real. For example, I genuinely thought the consultant was trying to kill me.

“And with the drugs I was given, I’d look up and it was like something out the 60s with the kaleidoscope of colours. In the meantime you can hear the talking still.

“I heard them say things such as ‘time of death’ when talking about others because the beds in ICU are closer together than on a normal ward. You get involved in listening to conversations and you don’t know if they are talking about you. When you hear 'He isn’t going to make it', you do think ‘I am next’.”

Mr Moore’s frantic family and friends clubbed together and raised £3,000 to buy him an exercise bike for when he recovered.

Daughter Rachel, who is training to be a teacher, also kept a daily diary logging his condition as progress from when he went into hospital to his return home.

She said: “It was traumatic for all of us. My sister came home from university because of the uncertainty. He went in and we thought he’d get some oxygen and then come home.

“But then he was kept in for three weeks longer than we thought and he ended up on a ventilator. The most worrying thing is the uncertainty.

“The worry of not knowing had an impact on both of our studies, and we were also helping my mum keep dad’s company going.

“The hospital were very good, went above and beyond, in keeping in contact with us.

“As a family, we are all positive. We needed to stay positive for ourselves but we had it in the back of our minds that we didn’t know what was going to happen. So it was a huge relief when he finally came home.”

Mr Moore’s recovery is going well and he is already back working again, even returning to QE – this time in a professional capacity.

He said: “I had a nightmare time, I wouldn’t wish that on anybody. It’s not the kind of thing you want to be doing on a regular basis. I almost died, I’m not even joking. The nurse did say there were a couple of days on the ventilator when it was touch and go.

“I’m told only 15-20 per cent of people who go on a ventilator actually survive. So I did alright, to be fair, to go on a ventilator twice and come through it.

“Until you’ve been ill, you don’t appreciate the NHS. The nurses should be paid three or four times then what they are for what they do and what they put up with.”

Mr Moore still suffers the after effects of Covid and gets tired quickly. Having previously cycled 50 miles per day and completed John O’Groats to Land’s End challenges for charity, he can now manage 40 minutes at best on his exercise bike.

“If you’re someone who is relatively fit with no underlying health issues, then is as ill as I was, I don’t understand why you wouldn’t have the vaccine," he said.

“People can get sucked into all these conspiracy theories. They need to go to ICU and have a look for themselves. If having a jab can stop people going through all that, then why wouldn’t you?”