UK’s longest-known coronavirus patient, Jason Kelk, has died after choosing to withdraw from treatment, his wife said on Friday.
The 49-year-old man spent more than a year in intensive care at St James’ Hospital in Leeds after contracting coronavirus in March 2020.
He was transferred to a hospice yesterday morning and died surrounded by his family.
Announcing his death, his heartbroken 63-year-old wife, Sue Kelk wrote on Facebook on Friday;
It is with a very heavy heart that I have to share the sad news that Jason passed away peacefully at St Gemma’s at 12.40pm.
Kelk has been in the hospital since March fighting for his life on numerous occasions after the virus ravaged his lungs and kidneys.
He went on to develop such severe stomach issues that he was having to be fed intravenously.
Additionally, Mrs Kelk told Sky News that her husband was brave because “he didn’t want to live like this anymore“, adding;
He was my soulmate. We were opposite sides of the same coin – different but joined together.
The 63-year-old woman also told Yorkshire Evening Post;
It was so peaceful. It was definitely important for him to do it on his terms. But he is leaving an awful lot of people absolutely bereft. People might not think he has been brave but my God, he has been brave. I really think he has. He just wanted it all to come to an end. The antibiotics had worked but his spirit had gone.
Last month, Mrs Kelk told Sky News that she feared he had “given up” after his condition worsened and he started suffering “fainting attacks“.
She had earlier been making plans for his return home by launching a crowdfunding appeal to help convert their property.
Mrs Kelk said she was worried her husband no longer “believes in himself” in his fight for recovery.
Although he had spent several weeks off a ventilator in recent months, he needed to use one again after his condition worsened and he still required kidney dialysis.
Doctors believed the primary school IT worker would always need a tracheostomy tube to remove fluid that would build up in his throat and windpipe.
Before his condition worsened, Mrs Kelk said her husband had started drinking cups of tea and eating soup and was using Facebook Messenger “virtually every single day“.
However, she said when she last spoke to her husband he was “talking absolute gobbledygook“.
Kelk was admitted to hospital on 31 March last year – around the same time as Derek Draper, the husband of a TV presenter, Kate Garraway.
Draper was also left seriously ill after contracting COVID but has since returned home after a year in hospital.
Meanwhile, Kelk left behind a large family including two grandchildren he has never met who were born in the past year.
He also leaves five stepchildren and eight grandchildren – two born this past year who he has never met – and another on the way
