coronavirus

As Prime Mininster Boris Johnson battles coronavirus it is painfully clear the Covid-19 virus can attack anyone.

While the deadly bug has had a devastating impact on the elderly, vulnerable and those with underlying health conditions, deaths of young and healthy people are now being reported daily.

Yesterday a five-year-old boy with underlying health issues became one of the latest victims of coronavirus.

And in the last week a 13-year-old boy from Brixton in south London, 19-year-old chef Luca Di Nicola, 21-year-old Chloe Middleton and NHS nurse Areema Nasreen, 36.

All of them were believed to be young and healthy with no sign they would be affected in such a tragic way by Covid-19.

Britain is in lockdown with people being told to stay in their homes unless they need to buy essentials or for one trip out for daily exercise.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has warned he may ban outdoor exercise if people don’t stick to the social distancing rules.

One doctor, Dr David Hepburn, ICU Consultant at Royal Gwent Hospital in Wales, has warned that every patient currently fighting for his life in his intensive care unit is under the age of 50.

Dr Hepburn, who himself has suffered from coronavirus and returned to work after he recovered, explained: “The patient population a lot of people in work, younger, the pattern of illness we’ve seen is much younger patients than we were expecting.

“We were led to believe this was much more dangerous to older people but all the patients we have in intensive care are 50 or younger.

“It surprised us, our youngest patient is early 20s. A lot of patients are very healthy, one is a personal fitness trainer, there are a lot of patients who don’t have pre-existing medical conditions.”

The hospital’s intensive care is now operating at full capacity and the Royal Gwent Hospital has been forced to open additional wards to cope with the demand of new, and seriously ill, coronavirus patients being admitted.

Dr Hepburn is a consultant at Royal Gwent Hospital in Wales

Dr Hepburn, who has worked in the NHS for 20 years, said: “We are definitely seeing a large number of cases. We have filled our intensive care unit above our normal capacity.

“Usually we have 13 ventilated patients, patients who need maximum organ support, that’s our usual maximum that we can take.

“We have 16 ventilated patients in the unit at the moment, which has led us to completely run out of space, so we have taken over theatre recovery and have another eight there.

“By the end of today we will fill recovery, so that’s another 25 patients and then we have another are prepared, which is the old HDU and coronary care, so that’s a further 22 patients.

“The way things are going and the rate of growth we will fill that by the end of the week – quadrupled our capacity – and then we will have to find somewhere else.”

Heroic staff are working round the clock to care for the growing numbers of patients being admitted to the hospital – but intensive care is very different to its pre-coronavirus activity.

The PM has been taken to hospital having had significant coronavirus symptoms for over 10 days

Dr Hepburn said: “It’s controlled chaos at the moment, space is at premium. Normally our patient population is made up of people who are acutely unwell and on ventilators, kidney machines, strong drug to support blood pressure.

“There will be a few people who are recovering and getting ready to leave the intensive care unit. Then there will be a few who need supportive care, who maybe aren’t as unwell as the others.

‘The difference now is everyone is desperately unwell, everyone is on a ventilator.

“The staff are all wearing full PPE. Gown, goggles, respirator masks and two pairs of gloves. It’s hard to identify which staff members are which so we’ve taken to writing our names and roles not the front of the gowns so we can identify people.

“We’re doing what we’re best at doing so morale is high, there’s a great deal of camaraderie but everyone is aware of the severity of the situation now and everyone is focused on delivering the best care we can.”

And one of the most heartbreaking things for the courageous doctors, nurses and other hospital staff working on the ward is having to ban the loved ones of seriously ill patients from visiting them.