Hero nurse who found elderly man with coronavirus symptoms who hadn’t eaten for 10 days reveals he has died in hospital
A PENSIONER who was thought to have coronavirus when he crashed his car into a nurse has died.
“Hero” nurse Lucy Duncan, 24, tended to the OAP for five hours in hospital, where he told her he had not eaten for up to ten days while in self isolation with symptoms of the virus.
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After the crash in Wigan, the 73-year-old told Lucy he had no family he was still in contact with and had not eaten for up to ten days because he was self-isolating during the coronavirus crisis.
He also told her he feared he had contracted the deadly virus because he was struggling with his breathing, the BBC reported.
The kind-hearted nurse took the OAP to hospital, where she stayed with him for five hours.
Lucy told the BBC that she had received the tragic news of his death this morning.
She said: “I managed to get a message to him last night that I was asking about him.
“And I found out this morning that he had passed away in the early hours of the morning.
“I’ve a had a little cry before I came on the show.”
She added: “I know that he was also very fond of me. He was almost very surprised when I kept running back to him and I kept showing up.
“I had to tell my family I was okay. His eyes lit up every time I went back into the hospital. It was amazing to be part of his life.
‘STRUGGLING TO BREATHE’
Lucy, a mental health nurse at the North West Boroughs NHS Trust, was heading home from Wigan Infirmary after a 12-hour shift when the crash happened.
She was driving her Fiat 500X at about 7.45pm on Thursday night when she spotted a red Vauxhall Corsa coming in the opposite direction.
Lucy said: “I could see he was veering onto the wrong side of the road and then, as we passed, the front end of his car hit the side of mine.
“I wasn’t hurt, only shocked. I turned the car round and thought that he had pulled over too, but actually he was driving very slowly.
“I followed and he came to a stop. As I approached the car I could see that he was an elderly man.”
Lucy said the pensioner was “grey and streaming with sweat”.
She added: “He was in poor shape. He was also struggling to speak and breathe.
“I told him he needed an ambulance. I went to my car and luckily had a mask with me but no further personal protection equipment.
“He had gone out in his car to get some food and essentials, as he knew he would die without them.”
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Paramedics arrived and took the man to hospital with Lucy following in her car.
She stayed there for several hours while he underwent various tests including one which showed that his lungs were only working at 50 per cent capacity.
Lucy, from Atherton in Lancashire, is now self-isolating for the next fortnight which has meant her mum, brother and his girlfriend have had to move out of the family home.
Thousands of well-wishers told Lucy she is a “hero” for what she did off-duty after she posted about the incident on Facebook.
Lucy said she was “overwhelmed” by the response and added: “What people have said has been wonderful and I have cried.
“But really I can’t think anyone else would have done any different if they had been in my situation.
“It didn’t look like he would make it through the night but the last time I rang he was sitting up in bed having a cup of tea.”
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Simon Barber, Chief Executive at North West Boroughs Healthcare, said: “Lucy’s story is absolutely fantastic. It brought a tear to my eye.
“I and the rest of North West Boroughs Healthcare are so very proud of Lucy’s quick-thinking and selfless actions to help someone in need.
“She is everything we could possibly want our staff to be and is a shining example of true NHS compassion in these difficult times. What a superstar.”
