“It was a nightmare situation,” Kim Cook said after coronavirus hit her and her parents hard.

Her mother Patricia has recently been discharged after 20 weeks in hospital – four of those on a ventilator in intensive care.

Miss Cook also spent more than a week in hospital and her father James, 73, was also poorly at home. He has been plagued with joint pain all year after suffering from coronavirus.

She said it all started with headaches, and at first the family from Loughton in Essex didn’t think that was out of the ordinary.

Mrs Cook was admitted to Whipps Cross and later tested positive for coronavirus – just months after finishing a series of gruelling treatments for breast cancer.

Epping Forest Guardian:

A family photo taken in January

The 68-year-old had only just had a text telling her to take extra shielding precautions against coronavirus at the beginning of lockdown when she was taken ill.

But then 38-year-old Miss Cook  said her eyeballs hurt and then she noticed she was really out of breath.

“My bedroom is about five paces to the bathroom and I felt out of breath going there,” she recalled.

“It was taking me a few minutes to get my breath back. When I was resting my breathing was ok.”

She was taken to Whipps Cross Hospital and put on oxygen therapy.

“At that point they were not sure if I would be ventilated or not. I was really worried – my mum was ventilated.”

And the key worker said things were so unknown – she did not know what the lasting effects of coronavirus might be.

“The first couple of days at hospital I was very tired. I spent a couple of days sleeping. They told me to lie on my front more. I was pretty poorly the first couple of days.”

According to the NHS, laying on your front ­— or prone positioning ­— helps improve the amount of oxygen that gets into the body.

“This is because laying on your front stops your heart and stomach from pressing down on your lungs and allows the air sacks within the lungs to fully inflate,” said Miss Cook.

Coronavirus affects the lungs, which is why patients are given oxygen or ventilated if they cannot breathe easily themselves.

After several days on the acute assessment ward,  Miss Cook was moved to another ward and began to feel better and was able to do things for herself such as washing herself.

She said her time in hospital was “pretty surreal” as staff had to wear so much PPE (Personal Protection Equipment).

“You understand why they are dressed how they are. It’s sometimes hard to understand the doctors and nurses because the oxygen makes a noise too. They were all very kind,” she added.

Meanwhile her mother had been transferred to the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel.

“At one point they told us her kidneys were failing,” said Miss Cook.

However the family were able to keep in touch via Zoom calls set up by the ICU staff as they were unable to visit because of the coronavirus restrictions.

Eventually they got a phone call from the hospital physiotherapists.

“They said they were taking her outside for some fresh air and we could come and see her. It was like a military exercise, the amount of time and equipment that she needed for them to be able to bring her down.

“It was the best ten minutes ever,” she said.

Once she left hospital herself her recovery was not yet over.

“When I left hospital I was still very tired. I had a lot of fatigue and was still breathless. I had another two weeks just resting in bed and catching up on sleep.”

Epping Forest Guardian:

Kim Cook

Since then she’s started using a Covid recovery app developed by Barts Health with University College London researchers and UCL Partners.

They developed it to help the Covid “long haulers” with reports of survivors suffering from debilitating symptoms of tiredness, breathlessness and anxiety many weeks and months after the peak of their infection.

Dr Paul Pfeffer, respiratory physician at St Bartholomew’s Hospital and Queen Mary University of London, said: “The proportion of people needing further help is really high. We’re finding that half of the patients we discharge from hospital, are still experiencing significant symptoms after three months.”

The app includes support from  physiotherapists, psychologists, dieticians and respiratory physicians to create bespoke treatment plans for each patient. It targets three primary on-going symptoms being reported – fatigue, anxiety and breathing problems.

Miss Cook said: “I was scared. I did not know whether to go out if I had it. I did not want to pass it on to anybody. I was so worried about catching it.”

She found the app’s fatigue tracker helpful as her recovery progressed and to boost her confidence.

The app also looks at breathing. Miss Cook said: “You can see week by week you are getting better. It’s helped to see how you’ve improved because sometimes it’s not easy to see how you are feeling.”

Thankfully her lungs do not seem to have long-term damage and she is gradually building up her strength through exercise and breathing practice.

She is now back at work in accounts in the food industry.

“I am still not 100 per cent. I still get out of breath quickly and get tired,” she said.

As the rates of coronavirus rise again, Kim urged people to be on their guard.

“Just because you do not have any symptoms does not mean it isn’t there. People are blase about it.”

She added: “This is not a conspiracy – wear a mask, keep your distance. How would you feel if you took it to your mum, to your nan. My Mum was in hospital for 20 weeks and we are the lucky ones –  because she came home.”

“The sacrifice is worth it to keep you safe. I’ve seen what this virus can do to you.”