The Covid pandemic has taken a heavy toll on care homes across the county, claiming the lives of hundreds.

Here, one 96-year-old resident tells of lockdown life, how he thought he would die after catching Covid, and how Zoom calls have been his saviour in a world of growing isolation....

Unsure if his last gulp of air would turn out to be his final breath, Dick Barton thought death was approaching.

The 96-year-old had become the latest resident at Chaucer House care home in Canterbury to have contracted Covid-19.

It was a devastating blow for the grandfather, who had relied on regularly getting out of his room to cope with the growing isolation he had been experiencing since the pandemic struck.

The widower says after the first national lockdown was imposed last March, growing numbers of his neighbours at the St Martin’s Hill site started retreating into their bedrooms, with many remaining increasingly confined.

“You don’t get to talk to other people in the home,” he says.

“I think they’re fed up with the whole shebang and retreated into themselves, which is not healthy...”

“At one time, you had perhaps six or eight people coming along for lunch in the dining room, but now it’s only me – everybody else seems to be stuck in their rooms.

“I think they’re fed up with the whole shebang and retreated into themselves, which is not healthy.”

Dick, though, continued scooting through the home on his motorised chair to grab his breakfasts and have his daily glass of wine at lunchtimes in the canteen.

However, he found himself confined to his room for two weeks, struggling to breathe and feeling exhausted, after testing positive for coronavirus on December 11.

“You feel down, gloomy and enclosed. Bumping up and down the corridor on my buggy is a great relief, but I couldn’t do it,” Dick explains.

“My symptoms were breathlessness and feeling limp. The breathlessness was the worst bit because you felt you had to fight for every breath.

“It was really frightening because you didn’t know if you’d be able to get another. At my age, you almost expect to pop off.

“I got myself into a routine where I’d say ‘A – breathe in. B – breathe out’ and went through the alphabet like that. That helped because it gave me a sort of discipline.

“It was three to four days of hell.”

Over the fortnight that followed, Dick felt stir crazy. He had his temperature and blood-oxygen levels checked each day and was served his food on paper plates by staff dressed to the hilt in aprons, visors, masks and gloves.

Unbeknown to him at the time, he was one of a number of residents to catch the deadly disease. Bosses from the home have since confirmed that 19 were diagnosed with the virus between December and January.

“The home couldn’t have done more,” Dick says.

“The staff were fantastic, particularly when half of them were away with the virus themselves and the rest were doing extra shifts. They’re all so brilliant, friendly, helpful and caring.

“I don’t think anyone died from here and nobody went to hospital from here with Covid, so you could say it was fairly mild – but good God I wouldn’t like the other stuff.”

Dick later learned that others in the 60-bed home reported a variety of symptoms, including splitting headaches and weakness in their legs.

Specialists estimate that about 5% of coronavirus sufferers continue to be sick with Long Covid - the umbrella term for the enduring effects of the illness - for at least eight weeks.

A further one in 45 are unwell for more than three months, with symptoms ranging from chronic fatigue to brain fog and breathlessness.

“Zoom is great. We get our little family together and have a chat and share a joke, but it’s not the same as seeing somebody in 3D...”

However, Dick says that after about 10 days his condition returned to how it was before his bout with the illness and he quickly got back into his usual routine.

“It was bliss being able to leave my room again,” he recalls.

“Sitting in my room, I only have one view out of the window, but in the dining room you have three or four – it makes the whole world seem more open.”

To his dislike, though, Chaucer House was forced to cancel visits from loved ones, in accordance with Public Health England (PHE) guidelines.

This means he has gone without seeing any of his four children in person for more than two months.

“The visits are very, very important because otherwise you’re left totally on your own and you feel really miserable,” Dick says plainly.

“Zoom is great. We get our little family together and have a chat and share a joke, but it’s not the same as seeing somebody in 3D.”

PHE has told care homes that they should close their premises to all visitors for 28 days, after more than one positive case.

Chaucer House is aiming to reopen to visitors on February 28. Loved ones will be able to see each other in the site’s newly erected and specially equipped cabins outside.

With this to look forward to and fresh from receiving his first dose of the vaccine last month, Dick is hoping for life to return to a semblance of pre-pandemic normality in the spring.

“The home was declared free of any infections at the beginning of this month,” he continues.

“We’re hoping the cabin will allow us to see visitors through a glass division and then maybe once it’s summer time, we can have visits in the garden.

“I’m most looking forward to having a pub lunch with my children at some point.

“I’m hoping they will be able to take me out in the buggy for pub grub like they used to.”

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