Dr. Hilary Jones advised Kate Garraway to call an ambulance for her husband after he showed early signs of coronavirus.
The 66-year-old TV doctor spoke to Derek Draper on the phone, moments before urging Kate to call an ambulance as he realised how serious Derek’s situation was.
Speaking on ‘Good Morning Britain’ on Friday (05.06.20), he said: "She was telling me it was really difficult to get through to 111. She had seen him deteriorating so she called me, which I was very glad she did. I said, ‘Let me speak to Derek’ and it was very very clear he was struggling to get a couple of words out without being breathless."
After recognising one of the symptoms of breathlessness, Dr. Hilary advised Kate to rush him to the hospital before it was too late.
He continued: "I knew pretty quickly this was a significant respiratory infection. I said, ‘You can’t take any risks, Kate. You need to get him to hospital straight away. Call an ambulance.’ Thank goodness they did."
Derek, 52 – who has kids Darcey, 14, and Billy, 11, with Kate – fell critically ill after he contracted the virus, and he has been in an intensive care unit for more than 10 weeks.
The 53-year-old TV presenter has revealed Derek is now free of coronavirus, but she admits the disease has done "extraordinary damage to his body and we don’t know if he can recover".
She said: "He is very, very sick. And as time goes on … it’s a virus, it’s a little bit like a computer virus, there seems to be a flicker of hope and then other things emerge and he’s fighting that.
"It’s affected him from the top of his head to the tips of his toes."
And earlier on ‘GMB’, Kate’s co-host Ben Shephard fought back the tears while talking about her emotional interview.