Linda Lusardi and Sam Kane: Surviving coronavirus brought us closer together

Linda Lusardi and her husband Sam Kane told the Loose Women that their harrowing experience with coronavirus had left them "inseparable".

The pair, who fell ill and were admitted to hospital in March, explained that when their son, Sam, called an ambulance for them, they were unsure if they'd ever come home again.

"As we left the house we were saying things like 'the wills are in the safe'," Linda said.

The couple were separated in the hospital, where Linda was taken to ICU with pneumonia and an infection in her blood, while Sam was cared for elsewhere. “It was comforting to know he was in the same building and we were texting each other when we could,” she said.

Linda admitted that she had sometimes been in so much pain that she felt as though she would rather pass away. "I felt really vulnerable and alone," she explained.

"I did text down to Sam and say I think you’d better come up because my vital signs are going downhill," she said. "That visit from Sam, when he came up to my room, really, really brought me through."

"Now I think ‘how could I be thinking like that?’ But you’re not in the frame of mind."

Sam, who was still ill himself at the time, said he'd had a "meltdown" when her message came through. "I was pulling the tubes out of myself to get to Linda because she had effectively told me she was just about to die."

Thankfully, they both pulled through and were eventually able to go home, where they have been recovering ever since.

"It’s just wonderful to be alive, I really feel like I have been given a second chance," Linda said.

"I watch the space that Linda fills, I know it sounds a bit mushy but the thought of her not being there is devastating," Sam added. "We’re inseparable now."

Check out the interview in full in the video above and watch the full episode on the ITV Hub.

Loose Women airs weekdays from 12.30pm on ITV, STV and the ITV Hub.