Children’s author Michael Rosen has recalled what it was like to be given a 50% chance of waking up from an induced coma when he was suffering from Covid.
Rosen, 77, praised the NHS, which is celebrating its 75th birthday in July, and said the service is “powerful” because “it’s for everybody”.
Appearing in a special episode of BBC show The Repair Shop, which was dedicated to the NHS and its staff, Rosen recalled being put into a coma and said: “The last conversation I remember (in the hospital) was ‘will you sign this piece of paper to allow us to put you to sleep?’
“I said, ‘will I wake up?’ And they said, ‘well you’ve got a 50/50 chance’, and I said ‘right, if I don’t sign?’ And they said, ‘zero’.”
“So, I signed. There I was for, I now know, 40 days approximately.”
On the show, the former children’s laureate brought in his NHS patient diary, which nurses wrote in when he was in an induced coma in 2020.
The Repair Shop is a TV show and workshop that is filled with expert craftspeople who repair people’s beloved possessions, with bookbinder Christopher Shaw fixing Rosen’s diary, which had pages that were falling apart.
In addition, Shaw also made a rainbow scrapbook for Rosen with all of the handwritten letters the author received from children wishing him a speedy recovery while he was in hospital.
Rosen, who is known for writing books We’re Going On A Bear Hunt and Sad Book, said he was in intensive care for more than 40 days after he contracted Covid.
Describing what it was like, he said: “This was March 2020 … I felt very groggy, a sort of flu-ey thing and then I started getting worse and worse, and then Emma started getting worried – that’s my wife.
“She expressed it later as saying it looked as if the shadow of death had crossed my face, and then Emma drove me to the hospital with Elsie (his daughter) in the back. I can see it now, the sort of lights flashing by in the night.”
Following his recovery from Covid, Rosen wrote a book called Many Different Kinds Of Love, detailing his experience with the virus.
In January, he marched with striking nurses from University College Hospital in north-west London to Downing Street out of “pure gratitude” for them saving his life.
Talking about the power of the NHS, Rosen said: “The way I see it is the NHS was wonderful when it came into existence.
“I’m born before it. I’m born in 46 (1946).
“My mother had lost a child during the war and one of the reasons why she lost her child was because they didn’t have the care and the medicines around, so they had a very emotional attachment to this thing that they’d always wanted that was a dream.
“The idea that you could have free healthcare from the cradle to the grave.”
The Repair Shop airs on Wednesdays on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
