The wife of a man who barely survived Covid-19 described how, when he was first rescued from sedation, he “spoke in a strange Scottish accent”.
Wayne and Louise Oldham may look back with amusement at the strange side effect now, but it came after the most devastating experience of their lives, when the salesman was admitted to Aintree Hospital on October 5.
Louise told ECHO that she was so convinced that her 26-year-old partner and 19-year-old husband would die that she planned her funeral, while trying to stay strong for her children Harvey, 19, and Freya, 15.
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Wayne, 46, spent 11 weeks in the hospital after the virus attacked his lungs, and described having “constant nightmares” while in a respirator-induced coma.
The father of two spent time at the Aintree, Royal Liverpool, Wythenshawe and The Walton Center hospitals while Covid-19 wreaked havoc on his body.
Wayne, from Aintree, was a rare case where doctors made the last bet of connecting to an ECMO machine – which takes on the functions of the heart and lungs.
But after the fight of his life, Wayne was discharged from the hospital and was greeted with emotion on Monday night (December 21), with friends and neighbors applauding standing in the door.
(Image: Andrew Teebay / Liverpool Echo)
The couple told ECHO how, even after the immediate danger had passed and Wayne was rescued from the induced coma, there was a long way to go.
Louise described how the hospital provided a video call with Wayne shortly after he was disconnected from the respirator.
She said, “He was really groggy, really crazy. It was a little unsettling to see.
“We didn’t know what was most disturbing, FaceTime with him when he was in a coma or when he was a little distressed and delusional.
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“He was trying to speak, but as he has the oxygen mask on, he can’t.
“At first he was very delirious, accused me of not coming to see him for 10 weeks and said he was going to run away and become a milkman, he called me everything under the sun.
“And when he took off his mask, he had a strange accent, it looked like a Scottish accent.
“But it was still the best surprise ever, because we didn’t know that he was coming out of the fan when the Facetime call was arranged.
“It was great to see the tubes and everything.
“We told him how proud we were of him, how much we loved him and how everyone was rooting for him.”
Wayne, a father of two, said he was under heavy sedation while unconscious and that the experience of returning to normal was traumatic.
He said, “When I woke up, I looked like a madman. He spoke with a Scottish accent.
“I couldn’t move anything, I just moved my head a little, I was paralyzed.
“I thought I would not get better, I had chronic pain in my feet, I was basically in constant agony.”
Wayne was suffering from nerve damage due to the long period in a coma, which means he needed weeks of rehab to learn to walk again.
The musician, who in his spare time plays in a band called Heart & Soul, also feared he could no longer play guitar due to numbness in his fingers.
But Wayne, who was a fitness and gymnastics fan before he contracted the virus, dug deep and fed his physiotherapist, determined to get home in time for Christmas.
He said: “It was just about having that positive mindset to be well and come home to the family and make sure they were okay.
“I was on a mission to leave before Christmas.”
Louise said the support of her friends and neighbors was invaluable.
She said, “My cousin Sue gave us Team Wayne bracelets that the kids and I get worse every day and her husband, Paul, even drove to Wythenshawe hospital so that Wayne could have his too.
“It was a way for us to connect with Wayne, and they put it on the side of his head.
“The team was amazing, always asking how I and the kids were doing when I called, my whole family gave me a lot of support, as well as outside friends, and our workplaces have been amazing too.”