Kate Garraway reveals her husband’s heartbreaking first word since start of covid-19 battle

Kate Garraway’s husband Derek Draper has had a “breakthrough” and uttered his first word since being hospitalised with covid-19 in March.

The Good Morning Britain star also revealed Derek is now able to breathe without a ventilator. But it’s still a “case of trying to balance belief, hope, optimism with reality.”

Opening up about the ground-breaking moment - which happened while Kate was on FaceTime to her husband - she told The Sun, “We have had a breakthrough which was both amazing yet heartbreaking.

“It happened when the nurses were moving Derek, as part of his treatment, to trigger the sensation of gravity because he's been horizontal for so long.

“Right from the beginning, when Derek couldn’t even open his eyes, the doctors and nurses have always talked to him to be respectful, and to try to trigger a response.

“As they were shifting him, they asked if he could feel anything — not expecting a response as he hadn’t previously. But suddenly he mouthed in a whisper, ‘Pain’.”

While Kate said it is “heart-wrenching” that his first word was “pain,” it’s a huge breakthrough as it means he is able to connect the feeling in his body to his brain and mouth.

Kate, 55 - who shares two children with Derek - said, “They called me straight after and I burst into tears. The staff told me later that they were so emotional as well.

“It breaks my heart that there may have been times that he’s been in terrible pain and wasn’t able to communicate it.

“But he’s said it twice now and I was there for the second one, watching him over FaceTime.”

WhileDerek is no longer ill with the deadly virus, Kate previously revealed he may never recover from the damage the disease has done to his body.

“The fight with the virus has been won and he’s still here but it’s wreaked extraordinary damage on his body and we don’t know if he can recover from that,” Kate said, getting teary.

Sending all the love!