A radiographer was clapped and cheered as he walked out of hospital after beating coronavirus.
NHS staff lined the corridors to pay tribute to Paul Skegg, 42, whose recovery was described as ‘just short of a miracle’.
He suffered a rare complication of Covid-19 that led to total muscular paralysis of the whole body.
After 11 days in intensive care – during which he proposed to his girlfriend over FaceTime – he walked out of Darent Valley Hospital on Sunday with a guard of honour.
In an emotional video shared by the trust, Mr Skegg and his now-fiancee Katy Lavender, who also works as a radiographer, can be seen leaving the hospital.
He has worked for the health service for 24 years.
Dr Jonathan Kwan, divisional medical director at the Kent hospital, said the radiographer was admitted on April 3 and later developed Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a very rare complication of Covid-19.
It is the first known case in Kent, if not the whole country, he said.
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Dr Kwan added: ‘He thought he was in his last leg and he took a deep breath and mouthed the proposal through his tracheotomy tube.
‘To no-one’s surprise, Katy accepted, to the immense delight of all the ITU staff looking after him.
‘It was an extraordinary happy occasion to otherwise sweaty hard-slog routines of ITU.’
Dr Kwan paid tribute to the critical care team as well as the hospital’s expert neurologists, who used a ‘groundbreaking’ therapy to treat Skegg.
It used an immunoglobulin infusion, a plasma extract from blood donations supplied by the National Blood Transfusion Service (NHSBT).
Dr Kwan said: ‘Without this, Paul might have been on the ventilator for much longer.
‘His rapid recovery is just short of a miracle.
‘Today, we lined the corridor for one of our own and clapped this front-line NHS staff home, following a 16-day stay at Darent Valley Hospital.’
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