Michael Rosen opens up about COVID-19 battle which left him 'hallucinating and delirious'
Writer Michael Rosen has opened up about his battle with the coronavirus, saying he has almost “no memory” of his seven week ordeal, which left him “delirious” and suffering from hallucinations.
Speaking on Good Morning Britain, the popular poet and former Children's Laureate talks about his brush with death and battle to recover from COVID-19, after spending weeks on end in an induced coma.
Speaking to Ben Shephard and Kate Garraway, he said: “For nearly seven weeks there, I have no memory of it. I’m being told I hallucinated, I was delirious, I was thrashing around but I’ve hardly got any memory of it.”
Read more: Michael Rosen 'poorly but stable' after spending night in intensive care
Asked if he had been hours from death on occasion, he explained: “Indeed, several times and sometimes, because of what Emma, my wife, has told me or the doctors have told me, they have this little phrase, ‘very poorly’. The doctors say you are ‘very poorly’… they were telling me my kidneys were in trouble, my liver was in trouble, that I had respiratory troubles and also, I got a secondary infection of pneumonia that worried them as well and they had to pack antibiotics into me.”
Despite the ordeal, he said he is feeling much better now, and hopes his story will give some hope to Kate Garraway, who’s husband Derek Draper has been severely unwell after contracting the virus back in March.
He said: “I’m feeling good. COVID has a long tail depending on how severe the infection was and if you were in intensive care, which I was.
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“But there are people all over the country, you know better than me Kate, that it isn’t an illness that you have and leave behind. I am feeling good, but I hope Kate, it gives you some hope too.”
He was also full of praise for the NHS staff who treated him. “Just massive and incredible, they saved my life several times,” the 74-year-old said.
Watch Good Morning Britain weekdays from 6am on ITV.
