The TV host was flying to Mexico to collect Derek, 56, from a pioneering brain cell clinic last December — only to be told he had died of cardiac arrest during her flight.
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He had shown “massive” improvement following treatment, according to doctors.
But when she rang from her car to say she had landed they told her he had died.
While she was still on the phone they managed to restart his heart.
But blood clots were circulating into his unconscious brain and he underwent 14 hours of neurosurgery in Mexico.
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Derek was then flown with Kate on a “terrifying” ICU plane to a London hospital, but he never reopened his eyes and died on January 3.
Before she flew to Mexico, Derek was looking forward to catching up with friends when he returned.
Kate, 56 — mum to their two children Darcey, 18, and Billy, 14 — told The Sunday Times: “We were in a very different place health-wise from the year before — and it felt like the happiest place.”
She will share her husband’s four-year struggle with Covid in the documentary Kate Garraway: Derek’s Story, which airs on ITV at 9pm on Tuesday.
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