'I was in critical care for three weeks with Covid - four years on I still haven't recovered'

A Nottinghamshire grandad has opened up about the life-changing impacts of Covid, four years after spending three weeks in critical care due to the virus.

It was the early days of the pandemic, May 2020, when Ian Robinson fell ill. Aged in his early 70s, the retired Daybrook resident prided himself on an active lifestyle and a lack of need for tablets - except the odd paracetamol.

Little was he to know the whirlwind that awaited, one that would lead to numerous close shaves with death. “One day I collapsed on the bedroom floor, my wife and daughter rang an ambulance and they took me away to City Hospital," he recalled.

Mr Robinson suspected it was Covid, but hadn't had a positive test. “First they stuck me on a ward and they decided I definitely had Covid. They rushed me up to the ICU and put me on all these damn machines with needles and an oxygen mask."

The next three weeks, all which were spent in critical care, are a blur. “I was told they’d had to resuscitate me three times. I don’t remember," he said.

Eventually medics deemed him well enough to be transferred to a ward, where he tried to build up his strength over the next four weeks. But Mr Robinson admits this was difficult, especially given hospital rules at the time prevented any visitors.

"I remember they put me at the nearest entrance so I could see [my wife] Gaynor and the kids. Immediately I thought ‘why are they doing this? Am I terminally ill and they’re not telling me?’ No, they were just being nice.

“The nurses were absolutely phenomenal, as they always are. I remember one who held my hand for hours while she did a crossword. People like that give you strength and hope."

When he returned home to Sherbrook Road he was met by applauding neighbours - but it was by no means the end of his struggle with the virus. Mr Robinson suffered from "unbearable" flashbacks and nightmares over the next few months, and was also forced to face the reality of more permanent challenges.

As well as struggling with "dreadful anxiety", he was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis, a condition in which the lungs become scarred and breathing becomes increasingly difficult. There is currently no treatment that can stop or reverse the scarring, and the NHS says it is "very difficult" to predict how long someone can survive.

“You just have to come to terms with it. I can’t do anything really physical. If I walk up and down the road I start puffing and panting and my legs don’t walk too much," said Mr Robinson, now aged 77.

“It opens your eyes in that you know you won’t last into your 90s. I try to be more empathetic."

Earlier this week, people living in and around Nottingham were invited to share their experiences of Covid as part of the ongoing national inquiry. The Every Story Matters events took place at the Council House in Old Market Square on Thursday and Friday and were attended by dozens of residents.

Mr Robinson, who had previously been diagnosed with bladder cancer before being given the all-clear, said having Covid was "far worse" than the disease. “Covid is the worst thing me and Gaynor have been through," he said.

"We’ve been together 50 years and never been through anything like that and don’t want to ever again. It’s still upsetting. The annoying thing was people on social media were in denial.

"Some were saying ‘no it’s just a bug, it’s nothing serious it’s just a cold’. People lost relations to Covid, it’s heart-breaking really and I can’t imagine what they went through."

Covid inquiry secretary Ben Connah said: "It’s incredibly important that local people get the chance to inform the work we’re doing. Each of us has a unique story to tell about the pandemic. It affected everyone, in family life, in the workplace, in our schools and communities."