West Sussex family hit hard by 'cruel' Covid-19 but 'miracle' mum lives to tell the tale

Those were the words of Darren Stigant, from Chichester, whose dad died from Covid-19, and whose mum narrowly survived the virus after having her leg amputated.

Bob and Kate Stead, both 80 at the time, contracted coronavirus after a trip to Tenerife in March.

Having initially developed a cough, both Bob and Kate's health declined at their home in Bosham. Bob was soon taken to St Richard's Hospital in Chichester, where he was put on a ventilator. Kate initially remained at home but she developed a blood clot in her leg and was urgently taken to Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton.

“It just went from bad to worse on a day to day basis,” Darren said, speaking on behalf of his mum. "They couldn't operate on her as she was in such a bad state due to the virus. Her leg was getting worse and worse and they couldn't do anything.

"Seeing someone at that age, later in life, with this disease is so cruel. It's a sickening disease."

Darren said the family was not able to visit either Bob or Kate and he was on the phone 'every few hours', trying to find out what was happening.

He added: "We got the phone call from Chichester hospital to say my dad was getting worse and they didn't think they can do anything to help him. In the same breath, I'm told by Brighton hospital that my mum is in such a bad way.

"I had two choices at one stage. They either operate and she doesn't make it or they put her in palliative care. I was told my dad's dying and my mum's not going to make it."

Bob sadly died on Good Friday, April 10, but Darren said Kate wasn't told straight away as 'she might have given up on us'.

"We couldn't tell my mum, we had to keep her going," Darren said. "We couldn't tell her for three, four, five days."

Kate chose to fight for her life and had surgery, with her leg amputated above the knee, while she was still awake.

Darren said: "She had Westlife playing while they were doing the operation. The surgeons were singing to her.

"Half an hour after the operation, she was speaking to me. It was unbelievable.

"They were calling her the miracle lady."

According to Darren, Kate had forgotten she was nearly 40 miles away from home, and made her family laugh by asking to be delivered her favourite cosmetics.

"She was asking if there's any chance we could drop her green eye shadow up. At this point, we would do anything for her," Darren said.

"We dropped that up, and there was a different thing she would want every day. Myself and her grandkids were going up. People running up and down the South Coast dropping off individual items. We didn’t have the heart to remind her she was at Brighton

"We were just amazed she was alive, I think the hospital staff were also amazed, they asked permission if they could do a journal on her.”

The next task for the family was to make Kate's home wheelchair friendly.

Darren said: "You wouldn't even get a wheelchair into the downstairs toilet, so we brought it upon ourselves to do our own DIY SOS with distancing.

"I'm in the building trade, I had a friend who is an architect, he drew up plans for an extension. My brother Kev is a machine driver, so, as soon as the plans came through, he was in there preparing for the extension.

"Time was an essence to get Mum home. The support given by everyone was amazing to get this done. It was seven days a week.

"We managed to absolutely transform the house in about five weeks. It's unbelievable.

"Mum is in as good place as she can be right now."

Paying tribute, Kate said her husband 'was so good to her', having spent the last few years of his life taking her on holidays and cruises.

She added: "There's so many people, Bob and I used to know. We went to Tesco every Thursday and the people in there must be thinking 'I wonder where that old couple are' that we always had a chat with.

"I'm here but Bob's not with us. A lot of people don't realise what happened to us.

"They all miss him round here, he’d take others green bins out, he’d always help if asked, not one bad thing was ever said about Bob.

Darren said Bob was 'very well known for his green fingers', adding: "His garden is something else."

He was also remembered as a 'genuinely nice bloke', who always went out his way to help others.

Darren said: "He was not Kev’s or my real father, but we was always referred to others as him being ‘our old man’ which he was.

"He adored our mum. They both worked hard all their life, were both retired. He took her round the world in the last ten years.

"They are not wealthy people but he lived for his holidays. They met people over in Tenerife, which was almost their second home."

Only eight people were able to attend Bob's funeral, due to Covid-19 restrictions, but there are plans for a bigger celebration of his life next summer.

"I've seen first hand what this [the virus] can do and it's horrific," Darren warned. "It's really bad.

"It's been a hell of a year I just would ask people to be sensible, and if you've got these views that the virus is not that bad, please be aware that your comments are so hurtful to families who have had to go through this.

"When you lose someone with what's going on, everything on the news on a daily basis, there's no getting away from it. You're always reminded.

"This is the other side people don't realise."

Kate thanked St Richard’s Hospital staff for doing all they could for Bob, Brighton and Bognor hospitals, all those who worked tirelessly getting her home renovated and her neighbours, who put up with all the building works.

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