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A 34-year-old father who has spent nearly five months in hospital after he almost died with COVID has told of his “blind panic” after the virus left him “gasping for air” - and he is urging the government to be cautious over the lifting of all restrictions.

Graham Horsfall has been a patient at Warrington Hospital since 16 January after contracting coronavirus during the peak of the second wave, and is still barely able to walk.

The IT consultant, who has no known underlying health condition, spent more than four months in an intensive care unit (ICU) and was told by medics he had just a 16% chance of survival.

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Graham Horsfall spent more than four months in an ICU ward. Pic: Graham Horsfall
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Mr Horsfall spent more than four months in an ICU ward. Pic: Graham Horsfall

As the government considers whether to stick with its plan to remove all COVID restrictions on 21 June amid a rise in cases linked to the Indian (Delta) variant, Mr Horsfall has urged ministers to continue with some measures including rules on face masks.

“I think they should be cautious,” he told Sky News.

“I wouldn’t just go: ‘Right okay, back to normal.’

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“They could pick and choose things that could be relaxed a bit more, but also keep an eye on it.

“I think masks are here to stay for a long time… and they should be really.

“You’re not going to get rid of (the virus). It is going to come back again as it evolves and mutates as a disease.”

Graham Horsfall has urged the government to be cautious over the lifting of all restrictions. Pic: Graham Horsfall
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Mr Horsfall has urged the government to be cautious over the lifting of all restrictions. Pic: Graham Horsfall

Mr Horsfall has urged people to take coronavirus seriously after challenging COVID conspiracy theorists about their views online – including members of his own family.

“I’ve got family members on Facebook saying it’s all a conspiracy and a government plot to keep us all indoors and reset the economy,” he said.

“People are losing people day in a day out. It’s affecting people long-term. It affects everybody in different ways.

“I’ve seen people on Facebook saying: ‘No one I know has had it.’ I message them and say: ‘Well now you do.'”

Mr Horsfall, who has a five-year-old son called Ollie and six-year-old daughter named Lily, began isolating at home in January after a colleague contracted COVID.

Graham Horsfall could not see his children, Lily, six, and five-year-old Ollie, for months after falling critically with COVID. Pic: Graham Horsfall
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Mr Horsfall’s daughter Lily, six, and five-year-old son Ollie. Pic: Graham Horsfall

Three days later, he began coughing before his condition deteriorated and he started to “gasp for air”.

His wife Emma called for an ambulance and he was rushed to Warrington Hospital, where he continues to be treated today.

“All of a sudden I couldn’t breathe,” Mr Horsfall said. “It was really scary.

“At that point, they told me they’re going to have to put me on a ventilator because I need more oxygen.

“I am in blind panic at this point. The last thing I remember doing before they put me under was transferring money to my wife because it wasn’t looking good.”

Mr Horsfall’s wife and children were isolating themselves so they could not accompany him to hospital.

Graham Horsfall, who has spent nearly five months in hospital after contracting COVID, pictured with his wife Emma. Pic: Graham Horsfall
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Mr Horsfall pictured with his wife Emma. Pic: Graham Horsfall

After arriving at hospital, he says he was hooked up to a ventilator and sedated.

“Basically my breathing was being done for me by a machine. It’s the only thing that kept me alive,” Mr Horsfall said.

“It’s just full on fear. It’s the unknown. Am I going to come out of this or am I not?”

Mr Horsfall said he only regained consciousness again in mid-February but he was “dazed and confused” and his condition quickly deteriorated.

He was given a tracheotomy and had to be sedated again before he awoke to find he was “literally paralysed” after suffering from muscle atrophy, meaning his muscles had wasted away.

“I could move one arm,” Mr Horsfall said.

“I couldn’t move my other arm, I couldn’t move my legs, I couldn’t move my torso. I was literally paralysed.”

Mr Horsfall, who could not talk due to his tracheotomy pipe, said he initially thought he has having an hallucination when he woke up before he was handed his phone so he could text his wife.

Graham Horsfall's wife Emma and their children Lily and Ollie. Pic: Graham Horsfall
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Mr Horsfall was unable to see his children for months while in hospital. Pic: Graham Horsfall

He added: “One of the nurses turned around to me and basically said, based on the treatment I had…it had an 84% mortality rate – so 84% of people that had the same treatment as me, didn’t make it.

“It was a proper eye-opener.”

Mr Horsfall said seeing other COVID patients around him lose their lives was “harrowing”, including a man in his 20s who had recently become a father.

“You sit there thinking: ‘Bloody hell, it will literally take any age’,” he said.

“It’s not just taking the elderly, which people think.

“They would do their best to shield you from people passing away.

“Every time a curtain was shut, we knew someone had passed away on the ward. And that happened all the time.

“It’s harrowing for people. You make friends with people. Even though you couldn’t talk, you would give them a wave. And then all sudden that person’s gone.”

Mr Horsfall said his wife – who also caught the virus in January but only suffered mild symptoms – was unable to visit him when he first gained consciousness in mid-February due to the hospital’s COVID rules.

He added: “She was having to deal with the fact that she thought I was going to die while looking after our kids as well, which isn’t easy.

“She’s done amazing. Absolutely amazing. She’s doesn’t think she has, if you ask her, but she has – she’s done amazing.”

Mr Horsfall was only able to speak again after his tracheotomy pipe was removed on 12 March.

At that point, he was allowed to have one hour-long visit per week, with Mrs Horsfall required to wear full PPE and undergo temperature checks before seeing her husband.

However, Mr Horsfall had to wait until the start of May to see his children in person again when his daughter visited.

“That was emotional,” he said.

“It was a massive boost for me, mentally and physically, because it makes you push that bit harder. You take those extra couple of steps when you’re doing physio.”

Mr Horsfall said he was the last COVID patient on the ICU ward when he moved out on 25 May and he is now being treated on a respiratory ward.

He said his muscles had “rotted away” due to his lack of movement while in hospital and that he was now doing rehabilitation work and seeing a physio every day.

“I walk with a zimmer frame now, that’s how I get around,” Mr Horsfall said.

“Because of the COVID, probably the furthest I’ve gone without being out of breath is about 15 metres.

“Then you just get so breathless you have to sit down because your lungs are knackered due to COVID.

“There’s a lot of work to put in yet.”

Mr Horsfall does not know when he will be able to leave hospital but doctors believe he should be able to make a full recovery due to his age.

They are now considering whether he will be able to continue his recuperation at home in the future or in a rehabilitation centre.

“I’ve been here long enough,” Mr Horsfall said.

“I just want to be home to see my kids.”

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Health secretary on Indian (Delta) variant

He recently had his first COVID jab “to be on the safe side” because he fears he would not survive catching the virus again.

The health secretary says the Indian variant has made the decision about whether to lift lockdown restrictions on 21 June “more difficult” due to its higher rate of transmission.

Matt Hancock told Sky News the Delta variant was 40% more transmissible than the Kent (Alpha) strain, leaving the easing of social distancing in the balance for the original target date.

Ministers are “drawing up other options” before a decision is made on the 21 June easing, a government official told Sky News.

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Mental health cases at A&E reach crisis level – as waits get longer and specialised beds dwindle

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Mental health cases at A&E reach crisis level - as waits get longer and specialised beds dwindle

“We’ve got two,” explains Emer Szczygiel, emergency department head of nursing at King George Hospital, as she walks inside a pastel coloured room. 

“If I had my time back again, we would probably have four, five, or six because these have helped us so much in the department with the really difficult patients.”

On one wall, there’s floral wallpaper. It is scored through with a graffiti scrawl. The words must have been scratched out with fingernails.

There are no other implements in here.

Patients being held in this secure room would have been searched to make sure they are not carrying anything they can use to harm themselves – or others.

A nurse in a special mental health A&E room
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Emer Szczygiel wishes the hospital had more of the ‘ligature light’ mental health rooms

Scratched words on floral wallpaper

There is a plastic bed secured to the wall. No bedding though, as this room is “ligature light”, meaning nothing in here could be used for self harm.

On the ceiling, there is CCTV that feeds into a control room on another part of the Ilford hospital’s sprawling grounds.

“So this is one of two rooms that when we were undergoing our works, we recognised, about three years ago, mental health was causing us more of an issue, so we’ve had two rooms purpose built,” Emer says.

“They’re as compliant as we can get them with a mental health room – they’re ligature light, as opposed to ligature free. They’re under 24-hour CCTV surveillance.”

CCTV security screens
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The rooms have a CCTV camera in the ceiling that feeds through to the main control room

There are two doors, both heavily reinforced. One can be used by staff to make an emergency escape if they are under any threat.

What is unusual about these rooms is that they are built right inside a busy accident and emergency department.

The doors are just feet away from a nurse’s station, where medical staff are trying to deal with acute ED (emergency department) attendances.

The number of mental health patients in a crisis attending A&E has reached crisis levels.

Some will be experiencing psychotic episodes and are potentially violent, presenting a threat to themselves, other patients, clinical staff and security teams deployed to de-escalate the situation.

A mental health nurse on a hospital ward
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The team were already dealing with five mental health cases when Sky News visited

Like physically-ill patients, they require the most urgent care but are now facing some of the longest waits on record.

On a fairly quiet Wednesday morning, the ED team is already managing five mental health patients.

One, a diminutive South Asian woman, is screaming hysterically.

She is clearly very agitated and becoming more distressed by the minute. Despite her size, she is surrounded by at least five security guards.

She has been here for 12 hours and wants to leave, but can’t as she’s being held under the Mental Capacity Act.

Her frustration boils over as she pushes against the chests of the security guards who encircle her.

“We see about 150 to 200 patients a day through this emergency department, but we’re getting on average about 15 to 20 mental health presentations to the department,” Emer explains.

“Some of these patients can be really difficult to manage and really complex.”

Emer Szczygiel, emergency department head of nursing at King George Hospital
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Emer Szczygiel says the department gets about 15 to 20 mental health presentations a day

“If a patient’s in crisis and wants to harm themselves, there’s lots of things in this area that you can harm yourself with,” the nurse adds.

“It’s trying to balance that risk and make sure every emergency department in the country is deemed a place of safety. But there is a lot of risk that comes with emergency departments, because they’re not purposeful for mental health patients.”

In a small side room, Ajay Kumar and his wife are waiting patiently by their son’s bedside.

He’s experienced psychotic episodes since starting university in 2018 and his father says he can become unpredictable and violent.

A man and woman sit by a hospital bed
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Ajay and his wife were watching over their son, who’s been having psychotic episodes

Ajay says his son “is under a section three order – that means six months in hospital”.

“They sectioned him,” he tells us.

“He should be secure now, he shouldn’t go out in public. Last night he ran away [from hospital] and walked all the way home. It took him four and a half hours to come home.

“I mean, he got three and a half hours away. Even though he’s totally mental, he still finds his way home and he was so tired and the police were looking for him.”

Ajay Kumar, whose son has been experiencing psychotic episodes since starting university in 2018, speaks to Sky News
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Mr Kumar said his son ran away from hospital and walked for hours to get home

Now they are all back in hospital and could be waiting “for days”, Ajay says.

“I don’t know how many. They’re not telling us anything.”

Matthew Trainer, chief executive of Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust, is at pains to stress nobody is blaming the patients.

“We’ve seen, particularly over the last few years, a real increase in the number of people in mental health crisis coming into A&E for support,” he says.

“And I don’t know if this is because of the pandemic or wider economic pressures, but what we’re seeing every day is more and more people coming here as their first port of call.”

Matthew Trainer, Chief Executive of Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust
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‘More and more’ people in mental health crisis are showing up at A&E, says Mr Trainer

The hospital boss adds: “If you get someone who’s really distressed, someone who is perhaps experiencing psychosis etc, I’m seeing increasing numbers of complaints from other patients and their families about the environment they’ve had to wait in.

“And they’re not blaming the mental health patients for being here.

“But what they’re saying is being in a really busy accident & emergency with ambulances, with somebody highly distressed, and you’re sat there with an elderly relative or a sick child or whatever – it’s hard for everyone.

“There’s no blame in this. It’s something we’ve got to work together to try to fix.”

New Freedom of Information data gathered by the Royal College of Nursing shows that over the last five years, more than 1.3 million people in a mental health crisis presented to A&E departments.

New Freedom of Information data gathered by the Royal College of Nursing ONE

That’s expected to be a significant underestimate however, as only around a quarter of English trusts handed over data.

For these patients, waits of 12 hours or more for a mental health bed have increased by more than 380%.

Over the last decade, the number of overnight beds in mental health units declined by almost 3,700. That’s around 17%.

The Department for Health and Social Care told Sky News: “We know people with mental health issues are not always getting the support or care they deserve and incidents like this are unacceptable.

“We are transforming mental health services – including investing £26m to support people in mental health crisis, hiring more staff, delivering more talking therapies, and getting waiting lists down through our Plan for Change.”

Claire Murdoch, NHS England’s national mental health director, also told Sky News: “While we know there is much more to do to deal with record demand including on waits, if a patient is deemed to need support in A&E, almost all emergency departments now have a psychiatric liaison team available 24/7 so people can get specialist mental health support alongside physical treatment.

“The NHS is working with local authorities to ensure that mental health patients are given support to leave hospital as soon as they are ready, so that space can be freed up across hospitals including A&Es.”

Patients in a mental health crisis and attending hospital are stuck between two failing systems.

A shortage of specialist beds means they are left untreated in a hospital not designed to help them.

And they are failed by a social care network overwhelmed by demand and unable to provide the early intervention care needed.

Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK.

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Greg Monks: Body found in search for missing Scottish man in Portugal

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Greg Monks: Body found in search for missing Scottish man in Portugal

A body has been found in the search for a missing Scottish man who disappeared while on a stag do in Portugal.

Greg Monks, 38, was last seen in Albufeira during the early hours of Wednesday, 28 May, while enjoying the first night of a five-day stay.

A major search was launched for the Cambuslang man, with his parents and girlfriend flying out to Portugal to also provide assistance.

Greg Monks with his girlfriend
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Mr Monks and his partner. Pic: Family handout

His sisters, Jillian and Carlyn, previously spoke to Sky News about the family’s devastation at his disappearance.

Speaking to The UK Tonight with Sarah-Jane Mee before the police’s announcement, they described their brother as a “big part of our family”.

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Mr Monks’ sisters spoke to The UK Tonight with Sarah-Jane Mee

Local police confirmed on Wednesday that a body had been found in the Cerro de Aguia area, where Mr Monks was believed to have been last seen.

A statement by Portuguese police said the body was located on a vacant and uneven lot.

The force added: “After the competent judicial inspection has been carried out, the body will be removed to the area’s legal medicine office for an autopsy to be performed.”

Read more from Sky News:
Man jailed for murdering wife after remains found under stairs
Two men charged with murder after boy, 4, died in crash

Greg Monks on holiday with a burger and fries in front on him
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Pic: Family handout

Mr Monks was earlier described by his sisters as a “real family man”.

When his family arrived in Albufeira, police told them they had spotted Mr Monks twice on CCTV footage walking around the residential area.

The area where he was last seen – more than an hour’s walk from the Albufeira Strip – had a lot of rough terrain, including rocky outcrops and cliffs.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said it was supporting Mr Monks’ family and was “in contact with the local authorities”.

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Truck driver Richard Satchwell jailed for murdering wife Tina after her remains were found under stairs

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Truck driver Richard Satchwell jailed for murdering wife Tina after her remains were found under stairs

A truck driver found guilty of murdering his wife, whose remains were found under the stairs at their home in Ireland, has been sentenced to life in prison.

Richard Satchwell, originally from Leicester, had denied the murder of Tina Satchwell on a date between 19 March and 20 March 2017.

Her skeletal remains were discovered at the Co Cork property in October 2023, six years after her husband reported her missing.

During his five-week trial, jurors heard from more than 50 witnesses, including police officers involved in the investigation.

Police had discovered Mrs Satchwell’s remains buried under the stairs in the living room of their home. Her badly decomposed body was wrapped in a soiled sheet and covered with black plastic.

She was wearing pyjamas and a dressing gown, with the belt of the gown wrapped around her.

A state pathologist said she could not establish the exact cause of death because of how decomposed the body was.

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During police interviews, Satchwell, 58, said that on the morning of 20 March 2017 he found his wife standing at the bottom of the stairs with a chisel in her hand, scraping off the plasterboard, and claimed she came at him with the object and he fell back on to the floor.

He said Mrs Satchwell tried to stab him multiple times with the chisel and he grabbed her clothing and restrained her by putting the belt of the dressing gown against her neck.

Satchwell said that in a very short period of time she went limp and fell into his arms.

He said he put her body on the sofa in the living room, before moving her to the chest freezer and then burying her under the stairs.

Relatives of Mrs Satchwell wept as the guilty verdict was returned on Friday 30 May.

Satchwell did not react as the unanimous verdict was read to the Central Criminal Court in Dublin.

Following the sentencing, the family of Mrs Satchwell described her as a kind and gentle woman who loved animals.

Tina’s cousin, Sarah Howard, said that Mrs Satchwell was murdered “by someone who claimed to love her”.

“The emotional toll of her loss is something I will carry with me always,” she said.

Tina Satchwell..
Pic; Family Handout/PA
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Tina Satchwell. Pic: Family Handout/PA

Her half-sister Lorraine Howard said the way Mrs Satchwell was buried in plastic in her own home “sends shivers down my spine every time I think about it”.

“I will never be able to forgive Richard Satchwell for what he has done.”

Satchwell’s barrister Brendan Grehan SC told the court that Satchwell intends to appeal, and that he “never intended to kill Tina”.

Mr Grehan also said that Satchwell said “despite anything he said in the trial, Tina was a lovely person”.

Read more from Sky News:
British man goes missing on stag do
Two men charged with murder after boy dies in crash

The court was told the couple married in the UK on Tina’s 20th birthday, and later settled in Co Cork, first in Fermoy before moving to Youghal in 2016.

The trial heard that on 24 March 2017, Satchwell went to Irish police and claimed his wife had left their Youghal home four days ago because their relationship had deteriorated.

Satchwell had also claimed Mrs Satchwell had taken €26,000 euros in cash from savings they kept in the attic, which the court later heard they did not have the capacity to save.

He formally reported his wife missing in May 2017 and claimed to investigators that his wife was sometimes violent towards him.

In the following years, he made over a dozen media appearances in which he spoke extensively about the morning he claimed Mrs Satchwell left the house and never returned.

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