Coronavirus survivor describes ventilator 'nightmare'

During his stay in intensive care, Roy Burton said he just "concentrated solely on breathing"

A coronavirus survivor has described being on a ventilator as "like driving down the motorway at 70mph and sticking your head out the window."

Roy Burton, 53, fell ill after having an operation following a mountain biking accident.

Mr Burton feared he was going to die while in the intensive care unit at Harrogate Hospital.

He was diagnosed with Covid-19 and was treated with continuous positive airway pressure or CPAP.

Mr Burton said: "It's like driving down a motorway at 70 miles an hour and you stick you head out the window and that wind's blowing in your face and down your mouth and into your lungs.

"I had that day and night for about nine days.

"One particular day in intensive care, I thought that was it for me, I just didn't have the energy to breathe, I just couldn't do it.

"But you think about your family, you think about your loved ones and you think 'this thing isn't going to get me'."

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Mr Burton said he would "never take a moment of life for granted again"

Mr Burton, from Harrogate, was fit and healthy with no underlying health conditions before his coronavirus "nightmare".

'Don't let me die'

After going into hospital to have surgery on his elbow he started feeling unwell and was struggling to breathe.

During his time in intensive care, Mr Burton said, a consultant asked him about resuscitation and organ donation.

"I'm a grown man but I held his hand and said 'don't let me die'," he said.

Mr Burton spent six days in intensive care and more than two weeks in hospital.

As soon as he was well enough to make a video call, he proposed to his partner of 14 years.

Mr Burton said the care he received from NHS staff saved his life and he now wants to buy them a drink to say thank you.

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