Kate Garraway has recalled husband Derek Draper suffering a “distressing” accident, with the star opening up on the incident while presenting GMB today.
Derek has been in need of round-the-clock care since 2020 when he was struck down with Covid.
After a year in the hospital, he was discharged and sent home, but remains struggling and fighting for the life he once had before his illness.
On Friday (January 13), ITV star Kate recalled taking Derek home in a black cab after being told it would be up to five hours before they could get a medical car to help them.
Kate shared the tragic story during a discussion about the increase in ambulance wait times.
Kate Garraway recalls husband Derek’s accident
She explained: “I’ve used a lot of cabs for Derek for hospital appointments because mobility service and ambulances are very delayed.
“If you try to book an official car you can sometimes be waiting five hours to bring you home from the hospital. He was in a lot of pain,” she recalled.
“It wasn’t sustainable. So we took a cab home from the hospital.”
She then shared he “slipped” out of his wheelchair.
I should say Derek was fine by the way. Distressed, but fine.
“We went over a speed bump and he slipped out of the wheelchair. I was really lucky because the black cab driver who had mobility access, he had cared for his father post-stroke, so he was really good at handling someone with that condition.
“So the two of us were hailing him back into the wheelchair, strapping him in, and getting him home,” added Kate, admitting it was “distressing” for Derek.
“But there are many taxi drivers who would have gone ‘I can’t deal with this.’ I’m not even sure I was meant to be dealing with it.”
She did add that no harm came to Derek because of the incident.
“I should say Derek was fine by the way. Distressed, but fine.”
Kate shares horror story with daughter
Meanwhile, last week Kate shared she had rushed her daughter Darcey to the hospital. At the time, she had suffered a gruesome injury.
Kate said: “She went to pull it off and the whole earring went inside her earlobe.”
“We were there until 4.45am from 11pm. I knew that was fair enough because it wasn’t life or death.
“But there was only one doctor in A&E for kids. The waiting room was full of children coughing and wheezing. All of them said to me I would have gone to the GP but I knew I couldn’t get in.”
Read more: GMB presenters Kate Garraway and Ben Shephard spark chaos as she whacks him live on air
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