Coronavirus Kent: Frontline NHS worker completes 'miracle' recovery from illness at Darent Valley Hospital in Dartford

By: Jack Dyson jdyson@thekmgroup.co.uk

Published: 17:30, 19 April 2020

Updated: 17:33, 19 April 2020

An NHS frontline worker has completed a miraculous recovery from coronavirus - after mouthing a marriage proposal to his girlfriend over FaceTime while paralysed in intensive care.

Radiographer Paul Skegg was admitted to Darent Valley Hospital in Dartford on April 3 with the deadly illness.

Watch the moment Paul was applauded by hospital staff after being discharged

The 42-year-old developed an extremeley rare complication of coronavirus called Guillain-Barré Syndrome - where the body's immune system attacks its own nerves, leading to "total muscular paralysis".

Fearing he was "in his last leg" during his 11-day stay in intensive care, he asked girlfriend Katy Lavender to marry him.

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Darent Valley medical director Dr Jonathan Kwan said: "He took a deep breath and mouthed the proposal through his tracheostomy tube.

"To no-one's surprise, Katy accepted, to the immense delight of all the ITU staff looking after him.

"It was an extraordinary happy occasion to an otherwise sweaty hard-slog routines of ITU."

The complication of coronavirus Paul Skegg developed is said to be the first known case in Kent "if not the country"

Dr Kwan says Paul's condition was the first-known case of a patient developing Guillain-Barré Syndrome as a result of the virus "in Kent, if not the country".

A video released by the hospital on its Facebook page shows the moment the long-serving hospital worker was discharged earlier today.

Nurses and doctors lined a corridor to applaud the Canterbury Christ Church University graduate as he left the hospital.

"His rapid recovery is just short of a miracle," Dr Kwan added.

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"Apart from intensive respiratory management, he was also treated with a ground-breaking therapy on the advice of our neurologists, an immunoglobulin infusion, [which is] a plasma extract from generous blood donations supplied by the National Blood Transfusion Service.

"Without this, Paul might have been on the ventilator for much longer."

Katy Lavendar shared this picture of her and fiance Paul Skegg on the Darent Valley Hospital Facebook page as she thanked a member of staff

Katy posted a picture of her and Paul on the hospital's Facebook page today, thanking a staff member who had helped Paul propose.

"It was a wonderful moment," said Katy.

The couple are both radiographers at Medway Maritime Hospital.

On April 8, the Society of Radiographers shared a message which Katy had sent in about Paul's condition.

It said Paul was in a critical condition in a medically-induced coma.

"I am hoping beyond hope that he makes it through but we have been told his prognosis is poor due to his body trying to fight both Covid-19 and Guillain-Barré syndrome and doctors have told us the next 24/48 hours are critical," said Katy.

"I hope beyond hope he will survive this.

"He is an amazing radiographer who has been glad his patients have been recovering even as he was becoming more sick."

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