Michael Rosen: It was luck that got me through coronavirus

Michael Rosen says it was “luck” that enabled him to survive coronavirus.

The poet and author, 74, spent almost seven weeks in an induced coma on a ventilator after falling ill in March.

He said NHS staff saved his life “several times”.

Rosen told Good Morning Britain: “Right from the very beginning, we followed the instructions, which was not to go to the GP and not to go to A&E.

“It was only because we have a friend on the patch here who is a GP and she tested my oxygen levels, and Emma (his wife) rushed me to A&E to get tested.

“In the end it was luck, I might have gone that night. At various stages over the three to four months, I might have disappeared.”

The former Children’s Laureate said: “I can’t actually see out of my left eye or hear in my left ear, so the virus or the intensive care took prisoners.”

He is “teaching myself to walk” again but is “feeling good”.

He told Kate Garraway, whose husband Derek Draper is in hospital with coronavirus: “I hope Kate, it gives you some hope too.”

Looking back at emails his wife sent to update his family about his condition is helping Rosen piece together what happened because “for nearly seven weeks there, I have no memory of it,” he said.

“I’m being told I hallucinated, I was delirious, I was thrashing around but I’ve hardly got any memory of it,” he added.

NHS staff also wrote down details for him about his hospital experience when they came off duty, and he said of their notes: “It’s so moving and so incredible, it’s wonderful.”

As the programme connected to two NHS staff who helped him recuperate, Rosen held back tears as he called the nurses and doctors “heroes”.

He is writing down notes from his experience, and said: “Maybe it will collect together to make an account of Covid or it might be something we just share in the family. I don’t know yet.”