Richard McKeag spent the last month of his life volunteering as a carer in his community until the telltale symptoms began. First came the dry cough followed by a fever and before he knew it he was struggling to breathe.
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McKeag had planned to marry fiancee Katie Martin but the 29 year-old died from COVID-19 complications just four days after being admitted to hospital..
Katie, 25, said: “He said that he wasn’t feeling well with a bit of a dry cough. We were joking about it. But he deteriorated really, really rapidly. He couldn’t sleep, he couldn’t walk. Eventually he couldn’t breathe.”
A woman whose fiance died suddenly and in isolation with #coronavirus warns "we're getting complacent" about lockdown.
Read her full story here: https://t.co/stzMvwvODo pic.twitter.com/lrBlDsi8aF
— SkyNews (@SkyNews) April 28, 2020
Miss Martin, a home care manager, phoned NHS 111 and an ambulance came to take Mr McKeag to hospital.
“Unfortunately, Ricky’s oxygen levels were quite low,” Miss Martin said.
“The nurse called me and she explained that and his body was tired and he was exhausted. So they made the decision to put him on a ventilator.”
From his hospital bed Mr McKeag wrote a text to his fiancee saying: “They are going to put me on a ventilator. I love you. Thank you for the best life. It’s a 50/50 chance – those aren’t great odds. Once I’m asleep it’s in God’s hands.”
Before being placed on the ventilator a nurse held his phone so he could video call. It was the last time Miss Martin saw him alive.The next day while driving, she received a call from the consultant at the hospital.
Miss Martin said: “The call was less than two minutes long. The doctor said he was sorry to ring. He said they were turning Richard back on to his stomach and he suffered a cardiac arrest. They weren’t able to resuscitate him.”
She added: “All me and his family want to do is stress to people: stay home. But people are getting complacent now. It’s been so long. People want to loosen the lockdown and reopen bars and restaurants. It’s not a good idea – more people will die.”
in a word …. NHS
To restate, most people dies when they were so sick that they had been placed on ventilators.
While there is some talk of damage being done by being on the vent, these were very sick people by definition.