Three heart attacks in intensive care as farmer Pip battled with COVID-19

As a lifelong farmer, Pip Collick is well known in his local area, but he feared he may never see his family and friends again after he was diagnosed with Coronavirus and had three heart attacks, as Jo Treharne found out.

Pip Collick fights back tears as he describes his battle with COVID-19, his three months in hospital and his long road to recovery – including three heart attacks while in intensive care.

“I’d had a cough since Christmas,” explained 71-year-old Pip, a sheep farmer from Ruckinge, near Ashford. “I’m not usually the sort of person who goes to the doctor, but it just got worse and worse.

“I went to the pharmacy a few times but they advised me to use cough medicine, as I didn’t have a very high temperature and I had no other symptoms.

“The cough got extremely bad right at the beginning of lockdown. I must have been worried about it as I said to my daughter ‘I think I’m going to die’.’’

Pip’s daughter Katie phoned the doctor, who advised him to go to the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford. It was the start of a three-month battle with what turned out to be Coronavirus infection.

Katie, an endoscopy nurse at the William Harvey Hospital, said: “We later found out that dad had a pneumococcal infection, which we think weakened his immune system. He then contracted COVID. His oxygen saturation was just 81 per cent when the ambulance service arrived.’’

Grandfather-of-four Pip was in intensive care but doesn’t remember anything about it.

“During that time I had three heart attacks. The staff at the Harvey were incredible, they saved my life multiple times.”

Pip spent a total of 62 days at the William Harvey Hospital and from there he was sent to Westview Integrated Care centre in Tenterden, run by Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust, to begin a month-long process of rehabilitation.

“Before this happened I was around 16 stones,” said Pip, an arable and sheep farmer who was previously fit and well. “When I left the Harvey, my weight had dropped by around four and a half stones. I needed physiotherapy and occupational therapy to get me to the point where I could return home.”

In all, Pip spent three months in hospital at the William Harvey and at Westview.

Katie said: “It was scary, but the staff kept us updated and we were able to have phone and video calls with dad both at the Harvey and at Westview. We clung on to these calls in a time when visiting was not permitted.

“When he was recovering we were allowed to see him at a distance in the garden. The staff at Westview changed his room, so he could see over the neighbouring farmer’sfield, who he knows, and they put his name in the window so his friend could wave to him.

“They took time to find out what was important to him and made it as easy as possible for him to stay in touch with us and with his friends.”

Finally, Pip was discharged from Westview. Staff clapped him out of the front door and Katie drove him home to Ruckinge, via Hamstreet, to a hero’s welcome.

“All the local famers lined up tractors and beeped their horns to welcome him home and people came out of their houses to clap and cheer,” said Katie.

“It was very emotional. He’s still in recovery and we have a long way to go, but the care he received in both hospitals was exceptional. It just proves what the NHS can achieve when we all work together. A huge thank you to all who made that day possible.”