Our first Covid-19 patient to need intensive care is now back at home.

James Dickson arrived at hospital on March 17 after first trying to deal with the virus at home. He was admitted to a ward and then transferred to our Intensive Care Unit....

James’ wife was self-isolating with their two boys so was unable to see him in person. The last thig James said to her on Facetime before he was sedated to be put on a ventilator was, “let’s do this!”...

Over the next two weeks James hovered between life and death and needed a tracheostomy to help him finally be fully woken up and weaned from the ventilator. He came off the ventilator on April 2 but remained unconscious until April 5...

After a few more days being looked after by our Critical Care teams, James was breathing for himself and ready to move onto a regular ward...

Our intensive care team performed a “guard of honour” for James when he left them, and the Respiratory team gave him another when he was discharged home last Friday...

James has nothing but praise for the “amazing” care he got from the teams at Barnsley Hospital. He wishes he had been able to hug everyone before he left, and because of all the PPE the staff have to wear, he wasn’t able to get to know the faces of the people looking after him.