The 40-year-old London father of two was taken to hospital on Christmas Day 2020, and managed to have his oxygen mask removed this 2022, after spending 8 months in intensive care and two months on the ward before starting to recover.
World’s worst case of Covid-19: infected in 2020 and took off oxygen mask in 2022
Andrew Watts, 40, from London, has just taken off his oxygen mask after contracting Covid 19 in 2020. British tabloids have called him the “world’s worst coronavirus patient.”
The man fell ill on Christmas Day two years ago and was admitted to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich with pneumonia. After spending eight months in ICU and two months on the ward, Andrew has become one of the longest stays doctors have ever treated.
The man, a father of two, was in an induced coma for five weeks and suffered two collapsed lungs. At that point, the hospital called his wife Hayley to discuss the possibility of turning off his lung ventilator.
“I fought to the end, I wanted to get back to the kids and his wife,” Andrew told Metro.co.uk. “It’s a bit surreal for me, to be honest. I think, why did this happen to me, come out the other side and take my life back.”
The cab driver from Bexley, southeast London, was not vaccinated when he was attacked by Covid, although he has since been injected with the booster dose. He warned his fellow citizens about “vaccine misinformation and conspiracy theories,” urging them to do the same.
After being discharged, Andrew spent the last few months learning to walk and talk again. He, too, is recovering and mostly thanks to the support of his wife and sons Jack, 6, and Joshua, 3.
“I was able to get to and from my son’s school last Monday. I can walk for about 15 minutes before my legs start to burn.”
Andrew’s recovery came on the same days that Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the end of all anti-Covid restriction measures in the UK.
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