This poignant documentary follows four coronavirus patients in the intensive care unit at a London hospital, as they navigate a traumatic medical and emotional journey
We first meet 61-year-old Joaquín – hotel worker, widower, stepfather – on his 110th day in intensive care with Covid-19. He has had what his doctor calls “significant complications”. His lungs, heart, blood vessels and kidneys have been affected. He is unconscious and on a ventilator. “There is a much greater chance of him dying than surviving,” says Dr Tom Best, the clinical director of critical care at King’s College hospital. When the virus first appeared, they thought patients would need a few days on a ventilator and then recover. It has not turned out that way.
Joaquín is one of four patients in the intensive care unit at King’s whose trajectories are traced in Channel 4’s documentary Surviving Covid. There is also 62-year-old David, a builder, who has been with his wife Gill for 48 years. They thought the coronavirus was “just a story” when they first heard about it. But David caught it at the end of January, when his immune system was weakened by cancer treatment. His subsequent hospitalisation is the longest they have ever been apart. Gill is convinced he is going to make it. Her daughter Kelly thinks it will help when they are able to visit in person. “It’s not a measurable science, is it, unconditional love? But there is a value to it,” says Kelly.
