Coronavirus: Derriford Hospital garden key to explorer's recovery

Mr Hanbury-Tenison's wife Louella said: "We want to shout from the rooftops about the amazing care he has received"

Veteran explorer and writer Robin Hanbury-Tenison, 83, has come out of hospital after seven weeks fighting coronavirus.

His lungs and kidneys were failing and his family were told he had only a 20% chance of survival.

He said he finally came round when he was wheeled into the intensive care garden at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth.

"With the sun on my face suddenly I came out of it," he said.

Mr Hanbury-Tenison was one of the first people in the South West to become seriously ill with Covid-19, in early March, a couple of days after returning from a skiing trip in France.

He spent most of the time in hospital on a ventilator and eventually went home on Monday.

"I was in a pretty bad way and was put in an induced coma for five weeks," he said from his home on Bodmin Moor in Cornwall.

"I really didn't know what was going on, it's a nasty business.

"I very nearly dropped out a lot of times."

Garden designer Tom Massey with the plants donated to Derriford Hospital in Plymouth

Mr Hanbury-Tenison said "the big breakthrough" came "when they wheeled me into this wonderful intensive care garden where you're in the open air with flowers".

He said: "It sounds silly but it's really extraordinary, the moment I came through was when I was wheeled out into this garden.

"I had four people pushing this big bed with everything and with the sun on my face suddenly I came out of it.

"I think everywhere should have secret gardens in their hospital."

The garden was created with the help of designer Tom Massey after flowers grown for the cancelled Chelsea Flower Show were donated to the hospital.

Mr Hanbury-Tenison's wife Louella said: "We want to shout from the rooftops about the amazing care he has received and the incredible NHS staff both for five weeks in intensive care, and for the last two weeks on an acute ward with wonderful physiotherapists, rehabilitation teams and occupational therapists."

The explorer, known for leading a Royal Geographical Society expedition to Borneo in 1977 that helped to preserve the Mulu rainforest, celebrates his 84th birthday on Thursday.

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