Coronavirus: Dover man comes home after 147 days in hospital

Jim Beverton's wife Linda was twice told to say goodbye to her husband

A Covid patient who spent 147 days in hospital, including 53 days in a coma, said NHS staff "brought him back from death."

Jim Beverton, who is 62 and from Dover, Kent, contracted the virus in January, and left hospital last week.

His mother died of coronavirus while he was unconscious in February and his wife was twice told that she should say goodbye to him.

Hospital staff lined corridors to clap Mr Beverton when he was discharged.

He said he wanted to "give thanks to the NHS" and that he was "living proof" that medics work hard to bring patients "back from the dead."

Mr Beverton caught the virus along with other members of his family just after Christmas.

"Mum went into hospital for a couple of nights because she had a heart problem. We picked her up from hospital and then two weeks later we're all down with the Covid," Mr Beverton said.

"Mum and my wife Linda, they had flu symptoms but it really zapped into me."

'It was horrific'

Mr Beverton collapsed and was rushed to the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford.

On two occasions staff told Mrs Beverton that she should say goodbye to her husband.

She said: "Jim was face down and completely unconscious, his kidneys had failed, he'd got multiple pneumonias, his heart was messing around, it was horrific."

Mr Beverton's dog Caramel was allowed to visit him at the hospital

To help his recovery, staff arranged for Mr Beverton's dog Caramel to visit him, wheeling his bed outside the building.

Mr Beverton also had many people praying for him to pull through.

He said: "My wife's a lay preacher with the Methodists, so there were a lot of prayers from them and my cousin in London is a Buddhist, so they had all the Buddhists doing their chanting.

"Somebody meant me to survive all this."

Follow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to [e-mail]