Woman's plea for people to take Covid seriously as she waits in car park outside hospital where husband is in a coma
A woman has filmed herself pleading with people who do not believe coronavirus is real to take the virus seriously.
Jayne Johns from Kenfig Hill was sat in the car park outside the Princess of Wales Hospital in Bridgend where her husband Craig is being treated for Covid-19 when she spotted some social media posts on her phone of people saying they thought the virus was 'made up'.
She said: "I was just sat in the car being reflective...I was sitting there thinking 'Craig's in there and I can't go and see him'.
"I was flicking through my phone and there were protesters outside a hospital saying 'coronavirus doesn't exist' or 'don't wear a mask' and I just thought I'd do a video to get it off my mind."
Jayne said the couple had both tested positive for the virus even though they had been "very careful" and Craig, 64, who has mild Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease but is otherwise "very fit and active", had only been leaving the house to go to the shops.Jayne only suffered mild symptoms including fatigue and a loss of taste and smell, but Craig fared worse and was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit soon after Jayne filmed the video, after being taken to A&E on Boxing Day. He is now in a coma.
She said she was "in awe" of the staff who were looking after Craig, who she has not had any contact with since he was admitted to ICU on Monday, January 4.
"He was moved from A&E to the high dependency ward and then to ICU. He was sending texts at first but they started tailing off and he asked me to let the family know 'I don't have the energy to answer texts can you tell everybody'."The phone rang on Monday and it was the nurse on the ward who said 'Craig's struggling, we're going to take him down to ICU but he wants to speak to you first'."I asked them whether they would be putting him in a coma and they said 'very probably'."On the Facetime the screen froze and I was desperately trying to get the picture back in the car park at work."Thankfully, the nurse called me back on the phone and Craig said 'they keep putting all these masks on me, I can't bear it now'.He was struggling to breathe but I said 'you fight, you have a little sleep and you come back to me' and that was it, he was gone."
Jayne said she was not one for speaking out and thought everyone was entitled to their opinion, but decided to upload the video she had recorded in the car park to Facebook after talking with her family."I was told 'you'll have people coming at you' but I said 'I can't care about that, if one person listens and realises that Covid is very real then it's worth it'.
Jayne says she hopes to have her "amazing husband" home soon and thanks her family and neighbours for their support.She is currently keeping a journal for Craig to read "messages of support and love" when he comes home."It will feel to him like he just went to sleep, I just want to put little notes down for him to read when he wakes up," she added.