Kate Garraway’s ‘eight weeks of Hell’ as she tried to save beloved husband Derek Draper

The Good Morning Britain star had returned to London to care for their children Darcey, 17, and Billy, 14, but as she was catching a connecting flight inside Mexico to reunite with Derek, she received a harrowing phone call informing her that her husband had suffered a cardiac arrest.

Draper was stabilised and granted access to a medical-evacuation plane for the 12-hour flight home.

Kate was reportedly by his side for the 5,500 mile flight in mid-December and managed to spend Christmas with him in a London hospital.

However, Draper tragically passed away, aged 56, on Wednesday evening.

“It’s been an unbelievably gruelling eight weeks for Kate, and how she is still going is quite remarkable,” a source told The Sun on Sunday.

“Derek and Kate made the trip to Mexico in November. They did it without fanfare as they didn’t want to get up everyone’s hopes.

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“The treatment went incredibly well, and his doctor and all the consultants were hugely optimistic about his long-term progress, and future.

“Unfortunately as Kate excitedly returned to bring Derek home he suffered a cardiac arrest.

“Doctors confirmed this could have happened at any point over the last four years due to the damage to Derek’s organs inflicted by Covid. Quite simply, it was unavoidable.

“Kate was by his side in intensive care in Mexico and worked with Derek’s UK consultants who oversaw his treatment and his return, which was a military operation.

“Under his UK doctor’s guidance, he was flown home by medevac — a specialist and extremely costly, air ambulance — to be put in intensive care at a London hospital.

“This in itself was a huge undertaking and ordeal.

“Unfortunately, despite the doctors in Mexico getting his heart beating stably again, Covid damage meant further complications ultimately affected his chance of recovery.”