Kate Garraway reveals that her husband Derek Draper fell out of his wheelchair

Kate Garraway has revealed that her husband, Derek Draper, fell out of his wheelchair after she tried to take him home from hospital in a taxi.

Facing a five-hour wait for an ambulance after being released from hospital, the presenter, 55, revealed that she tried to speed things up by taking her husband home herself as he continues to fight covid after contract the virus in 2020.

Kate’s revelation came as she and co-host Ben Shephard discussed the long wait times many patients have faced when calling an ambulance, with many booking taxis instead, despite advice not to.

Speaking on Friday morning, Kate was considering sending taxis to 999 calls.

GP Anita Rajaj, who works in Birmingham, argued that people should not be encouraged to get in the back of a taxi, but rather that emergency health services should be in a good position to deal with the volume of calls.

Kate said: ‘I understand Dr Anita and I think we would all welcome what she is saying, but what would you advise as a GP? Someone facing a wait, scared it’s cardiac arrest, not strong enough or not not driving What would you advise?

He then added: ‘What both have raised is that the pressure is increasingly being placed on the individual to make medical decisions.

“I have used a lot of taxis to get Derek to and from hospital appointments because mobility services are very, very late. And the ambulances are late.

“But if you try to book an official car, sometimes you can be waiting five hours for a ride home from the hospital.

“He was in a lot of pain, it wasn’t sustainable, so we took a taxi home from the hospital and we hit a pothole and he slipped out of his wheelchair.”

Co-host Ben Shephard asked: ‘[Is it] something you never imagined would happen?’

Kate replies: ‘Well, it’s hard, isn’t it? It is difficult to treat. You want someone with you to handle that.

“I was very lucky because the taxi driver was a black taxi driver who had a mobility access: his father had taken care of him after a stroke.

‘So he was really good at handling someone with that condition. The two of us would drag him back to the wheelchair, tie him up and take him home.

“But I thought, ‘God,’ because there have been many times when taxi drivers say, ‘I don’t want to deal with this.'”

‘I’m not even sure I was meant to deal with this!’

Asked if she felt she should have waited for emergency care, Kate said: “Well, I don’t know why he was so distraught and in pain.”

“I think you have to, all the time as individuals, make calls where you really know you’re not qualified for that and it’s very difficult.”

Kate did not specify when the incident occurred. MailOnline has contacted their representatives for comment.

Earlier this week, Kate clashed with Labor leader Emily Thornberry over her husband Derek Draper’s treatment at a private hospital during his tough battle with coronavirus.

She challenged the shadow Attorney General over Sir Keir Starmer’s radical plan to tackle the huge backlog by outsourcing to private hospitals.

Asked if the policy amounted to privatisation, Ms Thornberry insisted: ‘It isn’t.

“If you are waiting six months for your hip to be replaced and there are not enough beds in a NHS hospital and there are some beds in a private hospital, we are saying that the NHS will pay for the excess capacity in the private hospital.” hospitals to lower the waiting list. It’s just a completely pragmatic policy.’

In response, Ms Garraway said: “I know this from personal experience because when Derek first got sick and had to be taken to hospital, there weren’t any ward spaces for him to get the treatment he needed.” And so at that time, effectively everything was nationalized.

‘But after a while, the private hospitals said they couldn’t make him pay and so it was over, it was reversed. And that seemed like a sensible way to do it.

Last month, an emotional Kate broke down when she opened up about her husband Derek’s health battle.

The Good Morning host admitted there is “no end point” to her care and that her new way of life can be “exhausting” on those around her.

Derek is one of the longest-suffering covid patients in the UK after being admitted to hospital with the virus in March 2020, only returning to the family’s London home in April 2021, where he receives 24-hour care. .

She told host Lorraine Kelly: “The thing is, when it’s a long battle like Derek’s, there’s no end point and it can be exhausting for the people around me as well.” I know sometimes people say “oh she’s talking about that again” but what I’ve learned is that you only really know how she feels when you’re at it.

‘And now I am contacted by thousands and thousands of people who make me feel less alone.’

Speaking about Derek’s current state of health after being rushed to hospital with sepsis, he said: ‘It’s a prolonged attack. I can see that he has better days, he has worse days. Fortunately he is home now. It’s been a long battle to bring him back home.’