Happy return: Neighbours cheer bank man as he comes home after 39-day life-or-death coma fight

Rachael Burford, Chief Political Correspondent @RachaelBurford2 June 2020

A father was cheered by friends and neighbours as he arrived home after surviving “against all the odds” in a 50-day hospital battle with Covid-19.

Darren Moore, 47, spent 39 days on a ventilator in an induced coma at Darent Valley Hospital in Kent. His wife, Lisa, described the “emotional rollercoaster” she and their daughter Daisy, 12, had been through when doctors twice told her that her husband was “unlikely to survive”.

But Mr Moore, a controls manager at a bank in Canary Wharf, beat the disease and friends and neighbours lined the street to welcome him home last month. He today said he was “unbelievably grateful” to the NHS staff who saved him.

Mr Moore said: “It was surreal waking up and being told it was May. I had missed an entire month of my life and wasn’t aware how sick I was. My wife has told me there were many times when they didn’t think I was going to make it.

Darren Moore, 47, returns after spending 50 days in hospital with the coronavirus. His wife said he lost two stone and doctors feared he would die

“Words cannot describe how grateful I am to the doctors and nurses. One of the doctors in the intensive care unit actually thanked me for pulling through because it gave their team motivation. What they do is incredible.”

Mr Moore, from Swanley, had no pre-existing health conditions before he fell ill in March.

His wife said: “In 17 years he has been to the doctor once. It’s been a rollercoaster. I just want to say to other families in this situation that they should have hope because people can recover.”