Serge Lourie, former leader of Richmond Council, was hospitalised with Covid-19 in March, when the pandemic was still in its early stages in the UK. Here, he talks to Pippa Duncan about his experience of being in intensive care
‘I started feeling unwell in the middle of March. I had a slight cough, a persistent temperature and I felt nauseated by food.’ He began self-isolating with his wife, Julia, but over the following days his condition worsened. ‘I felt very cold and wanted hot baths and I started doing things, my wife tells me, that were completely bonkers – I was quite erratic. One morning I woke up with a great gash on my head, with no idea how I’d done it and we found blood on the carpet in a room we don’t usually use.
Despite having high blood pressure, Lourie, at 74, is pretty fit. He runs two or three times a week and does Park Run every Saturday in Richmond Park, but, he says, ‘I suddenly went downhill.’ After seven days at home, Julia called for an ambulance. ‘They checked my blood and oxygen levels which were very, very low and took me to hospital under a blue light.’
Lourie thinks the paramedics saved his life by taking him to hospital when they did, where he went straight into intensive care. He remembers little of his time there as he wasn’t fully conscious – it was his wife who was faced with the possibility of his death. When the phone rang at 5am one morning, Julia feared the worst. ‘She was told by the doctor that I’d deteriorated during the night. She was really worried, but they were very good talking to her and keeping her informed.’ Miraculously, after three days, his condition turned and Lourie began to improve. He was moved off ICU onto Blythe Ward, which usually treats dementia patients, but which had been taken over.
‘The people at Blythe – the doctors, nurses, cleaners – everyone just went of their way to make you as comfortable and happy as possible.’ Lourie spent 10 day in hospital and lost more than 12 kilos in weight. ‘I knew I must be getting better when I started looking forward to the food’.
Back home, Lourie could barely walk for five minutes before becoming exhausted, but gradually improved. He has since taken part in the 2.6 Challenge. Aiming to walk 2.6 km, he managed to do the longer 2.6 miles – still far short of the many marathons he has run over his lifetime, but raising more than £13,000 (with Gift Aid) for Kingston Hospital in the process.
Lourie says the experience has deeply affected him. ‘It’s made me incredibly grateful to the NHS and Kingston Hospital because the people were so fantastic. They were just so kind and were working their socks off. It has made me realise just how much life is worth living because it was really 50/50 for me, frankly.’
Serge Lourie is still fundraising for Kingston Hospital: https://home.justgiving.com/sergelourie
Find more stories about local people here: Local people