Surviving COVID
A series of short films on the impact of severe illness with COVID-19
About 5 mins
Created alongside Surviving COVID, a Channel 4 documentary supported by the Health Foundation, these short films highlight the different ways that severe illness with COVID-19 has affected people, their families, health care workers and the health system.
Research, statistics and data are important, but nothing captures reality in the same way as seeing and hearing from individuals and their families who have directly experienced the most severe effects of the virus during this pandemic.
The Health Foundation’s mission is to improve health and care for people in the UK. We hope that the deeply personal stories and perspectives raised in these films will provide important insights into just how devastating this virus has been. We hope it will also improve understanding of the long-term effects of COVID-19 and how hard recovery will be for some people and their families.
Watch our short films
We’ve released a series of four videos to follow on from the documentary. These draw from footage captured by the filmmakers, Sandpaper Films, as part of Surviving COVID, along with additional perspectives and experiences.
Filmed over the course of six months at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at King’s College Hospital London, the series offers an intimate and hard-hitting insight into the virus. It combines lived experience with expert perspectives to enhance understanding of the brutal realities of COVID-19.
The themes arising in the series include the human stories behind the statistics, the psychological impact of delivering care in a pandemic, long-term impacts on individuals and our health care system, and the impacts of having a seriously ill parent on young people's lives.
Warning: These films contain some scenes and stories that may be upsetting.
'Behind each statistic lies a human story'
In the first video, we share more deeply personal insights from the individuals and their families who have directly experienced the severe effects of the virus during this pandemic.
Dr Dalia Sayed: It can be quite impersonal, you know, on intensive care, having wires and tubes everywhere and so I think it's really important not to forget, even when they are connected to the ventilator and they're really unwell, you can't forget that there's a human there that could be your father, your uncle, your brother.
Beatriz (in Spanish): Joaco, wake up. Joaquin. Joaco? I'm going to call your mum, OK? For you to say 'hello'.
Joaquin’s family (on the phone, in Spanish): Hello!
Beatriz (in Spanish): Blow some kisses to your mum
Joaquin’s family (on the phone, in Spanish): A kiss! Thank you my love, thank you. He's crying.
Beatriz (in Spanish): Blow some kisses to your mum and say goodbye. Well done Joaco.
Sophia: I regarded him as a brother. I mean, I can categorically say after my mum it is one of the hardest losses for us. I mean, it's never right to lose anybody but you know, he was only 47 and he touched so many lives. He was so compassionate, so giving. Yeah. It's very hard to process. It's just like playing around in my head all the time, constantly, constantly. And then there's people that think it's a joke and think it's a conspiracy and think all of these stupid things. Whatever, you know, whatever they want to think, the death rate is real, the sickness is real, the after effects are real.
Gill: Dave, I'm here. You keep fighting, love, you keep fighting. You gotta come back, ain't you?
Dr Tom Hurst: He's continuing to have problems with his ventilation because his lungs are very stiff and they're very badly damaged from the COVID.
Gill: But you've not stopped trying though, have you?
Dr Tom Hurst: No, we've not stopped trying.
Gill: And you won't, will you?
Dr Tom Hurst: And we're not at the point where we will stop trying. OK?
Gill: That's all I want to hear. Sounds silly and I know it's a long, long road. He's still fighting. Yeah?
Martin: I was just at home. My mother, who was 93, managed to pick up COVID. We weren't allowed to go with her into hospital. We had to call an ambulance and I somehow suspected that would probably be the last we might see of her, so we did say goodbye to her in the ambulance. She just said, 'I couldn't have wished for two better sons', because of everything we'd done in looking after her.
Martin: Doesn't seem right only those people there. I know that was the maximum you could have but it's a shame for her. I feel cheated. I should have been there. Should have been...
Melanie: He's very excited to come home and yeah, he calls me a million times a day. Hope he doesn't know about the surprise we have for him when he comes home. We thought it would be nice to get everyone out and just clap and just really celebrate his arrival back home.
*Applause*
'The impact of the pandemic on the mental health of NHS workers'
This film illustrates the impact of the pandemic on the mental wellbeing of NHS workers and highlights the importance of providing emotional support to them at this challenging time and into the future.
Many health care staff have gone above and beyond to provide care for both COVID-19 and other patients, often placing themselves at personal risk. Some have faced extremely stressful circumstances that have had a long-term impact on their mental health.
Health care workers have been central to the global fight against coronavirus and have been held up by the UK public as a national symbol of hope. It is important that the government and health care employers use this opportunity to put in place sustainable practical and psychological support for staff, ensuring that action is taken to both minimise impacts on mental health in the short-term and to better support staff wellbeing in the future.
Dr Tom Best (in Spanish): Hello. Joaquin. I am Thomas. Doctor. Can you understand me?
Dr Tom Best: The rate was so extraordinary in March. Suddenly within two weeks we were all completely overwhelmed and had twice as many intensive care patients as we normally had.
Chris Thomas [critical care matron]: To say 'scarred' is a bit overdramatic, but people won't ever forget this. It was shocking. The nurses suddenly had to double their workload and look after two, sometimes three patients. And these could be nurses who had only been working in critical care for a few months.
Niall McDermott [ITU occupational therapist]: We just all felt quite fearful of everyone and each other and worried that we were going to be giving this to our loved ones. And then when they're at home, they're worried about us coming home. And then you didn't know where to be and what to be, really.
Dr Tom Best: Most people were worried if they got it, they'd get really ill. And they're worried about getting it, you know. I was determined not to get it and not give it to my family and I failed on both, you know. And I felt some degree of guilt, probably, if I'm honest – which I think a lot of, all our colleagues had a bit and I know some of my colleagues came back too early and then got sick again and went home.
Chris Thomas: The amount of staff sickness that we had to manage was huge. Some nurses did leave because they didn't feel they could cope.
Dr Dalia Sayed: The risk level went up and I think there wasn't that much acknowledgement at the time about the personal sacrifices that were being made. I mean, I personally do know somebody who did pass away. He was an NHS worker. It does get to you and the impact that had was massive.
Chris Thomas: Now normally I walk out of the gate of the hospital and I've left it all behind. But COVID was different, I couldn't see anybody. Nobody even wanted to see me because, you know, I, I represented COVID. And I felt completely isolated.
Dr Dalia Sayed: Being in work all day, dealing with COVID patients, and then going home and hearing all night the news about COVID patients, being aware that you're in the middle of a lockdown, and the normal things that you do to de-stress you can't do. That was challenging. When I did see quite a few nasty things, it did, it did have an impact because, you know, you'd see things in your head sometimes at night-time, just a flash and I'd remember somebody's face. I think people forget that I could easily cry if I wanted to but it’s not, it’s not sustainable. You have to detach yourself slightly.
Douglas Dillard [critical care nurse]: Hi David. I'm just going to give you a wee wash, alright?
Douglas Dillard: Because of the intensity of the situation, it's always life and death, so you just get to know them really well. And even in death it's a privilege to be there because it's the last moment. I see that as a privilege as well. There we go.
Chris Thomas: I think some people have had post-traumatic stress. I've got one nurse on our unit, really an excellent nurse. There's one particular bay on our unit, she can't go in there. She just can't go in there. She gets flashbacks from a terrible shift she had in there.
Dr Dalia Sayed: I know a lot of the nurses and doctors and I know a lot of them who are struggling.
Chris Thomas: I do know that on their days off, a lot of staff would be in tears and they couldn't really account for it. So I can only imagine the anxiety that's sitting there.
Dr Dalia Sayed: I think we have a problem in the NHS, which is that we don't really talk about mental health enough. And I think there's a danger that if you talk about it, people think you're just not tough enough.
Chris Thomas: I think we're very good at burying things and thinking it's OK and I think it's not OK. We do need to be much more vocal and acknowledge things that have caused huge traumas. And I think COVID really, it's caused more people a huge amount of stress. It's massive. And hopefully some good will come of this and mental health will be really looked after as a priority now.
'COVID-19 and the long read to recovery'
In this film, we explore the complex care needs of people who have been severely ill with COVID-19, many of whom have gone on to experience long-lasting and serious health problems.
We’re starting to learn more about the long-term effects of COVID, which can cause long-lasting and more serious health problems in people who only suffered a mild form of the illness when they first contracted it. But it can be devastating for those who had a serious form of the disease, especially when combined with the effects of a prolonged stay in an intensive care unit (ICU). Patients who had been in a coma, for example, must relearn how to do everyday things, from getting out of bed to feeding themselves, but can also have long term damage to a range of organs, including the lungs, kidneys and brain.
Ongoing support for individuals recovering from COVID-19 will be needed long after they are discharged from intensive care – including physiotherapy, ongoing treatment for physical damage caused by the disease, social care support to live at home and mental health care to deal with psychological impacts.
The impact on those individuals affected is profound but what this will all mean in the longer-term for health and care services in the UK is not yet clear. What we do know is that the NHS and social care will need substantial extra resources and staff to deal with the extra demand for health care over the long term.
Emma Ouldred [specialist nurse]: Good afternoon, Tobi. My name's Emma. I'm one of the specialist nurses here. Can I just ask you a couple of questions? OK, lovely. Can you tell me where we are? What's this place?
Tobi: Buckingham Palace.
Emma Ouldred: You know, we're at King's College Hospital.
Emma Ouldred: The thing about Tobi, he's fluctuated, so there's times when he's a lot more alert than other times. Other times he's really drowsy. So it's ongoing delirium and it's very distressing, not just for the patient but also their families and staff as well.
Anne McLoone [critical care matron]: I think the general public don't have an understanding of what patients go through. Some of our patients were in critical care for 40, 50 days. The impact that it had on them was huge. The thing that really struck me when they came out of the intensive care unit, some of them were so weak they couldn't even hold a cup or a glass. They were really, really weak and the fatigue with COVID is a lot worse than any other patient. They can't even go up the stairs.
Danielle Farrimond [physiotherapist]: That's it. Once you do the first one, that's the hardest one over and done with. Three...up. Good job. Yes! Well done!
Niall McDermott [ITU occupational therapist]: It wasn't until after week three of the first wave that we started to see this flow of patients waking up. And then we started to identify a large amount of problems. They were waking up with neurological conditions, cardiac conditions, sensory problems, visual problems.
Dr Tom Best: Virtually every organ got affected by this illness. So not only did the lungs become affected for many days and often weeks, and months sometimes, other organs like the kidneys, brain, gut all got affected as well.
Dr Rob Elias: Tobi has survived COVID, but he has been very severely affected by COVID. His kidneys failed, he has had strokes, he has had several cardiac arrests whilst being in hospital. He will not fully recover the brain function that he had before this. We're planning to discharge him with an awful lot of care and support in the community.
Ola: It wasn't a nice thing COVID did at all. It has really changed him. And sometimes I feel so selfish, like, 'Oh, did I pray this person back to life, to come and be in this shape?'.
Anne McLoone: They need a lot of physiotherapy when they come out of intensive care. They need speech and language therapists. They need psychological therapy as well. It can take well up to a year, sometimes a bit longer, to get over intensive care and to get over COVID.
Amina: No,wait. Wait, wait, gently, gently. Wait! Wait! Wait!
Niall McDermott: A large group of patients will potentially have a long disability for life. So rehab is going to be essential now going forward. We've never seen the number of patients in ICU that we've seen during wave one. You've tripled the patient cohort, you've tripled the pressure on the services.
Anne McLoone: To get physiotherapy places for patients is really, really hard. And there's a long waiting list. It is pressure on the NHS but, in the long run, it's more cost-effective.
Ola: So there's so many things to adjust to and I'm still learning to be fair. Because before COVID he was independent. He wasn't relying on someone to tell him, 'Oh, do you want to listen to music?' or, 'Do you want to watch the news?'. Those are the kind of questions I ask him really. But we are grateful for life and very hopeful.
Ola (singing): # As we gather Lord Jesus, as we gather, may we glorify your name Lord Jesus #
'How is COVID-19 affecting young people?'
This film shines a light on how young people have been affected, directly and indirectly, by the pandemic. It explores experiences of caring for a loved one who is seriously ill with COVID-19 and the impact of losing a parent to the virus.
As a result of measures put in place to control COVID-19, young people are disproportionately facing economic and social challenges, such as access to good quality work and seeing their friends and family, that threaten their long-term health and wellbeing.
Lockdowns during the pandemic have forced many people to come to terms with a vastly different way of life, while also grappling with the suffering created by the pandemic in terms of health and the economic crisis.
However, for some young people the pandemic will also cast a more personal shadow over the rest of their lives. While young people are unlikely to be seriously ill from COVID-19, some will have had the worry of a seriously ill parent or they may have lost loved ones. As a result, they may have taken on caring responsibilities for a parent or sibling. For some, this caring role may continue for years to come. All these things impact on young people’s health and wellbeing, both now and in the future.
Amina: Majidah, I have to do cooking quickly.
Amina: He's a very nice person because he's a caring dad Sometimes he's grumpy and we like that part of him because we laugh about it
Sama’s family (singing): # Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you #
Kalisha: The teachers were telling us about the virus. They said that sometimes it kills people, sometimes it, um, some people survive from it.
Interviewer: How long has your dad been in hospital for?
Kalisha: Since March. Two months and some weeks.
Martina Kane: Even in the midst of this incredibly challenging year, young people really have, you know, stepped up in a huge way. Lots of them are taking on caring responsibilities. Taking responsibilities around cleaning, around caring for younger siblings, and that's a real change in a dynamic in a family.
Kalisha: I have to try and help my sisters study, a lot. It's been very hard because they, um, they miss my dad, too. My littlest sister, she always cries in the night and says she misses Daddy, she misses Daddy. And then my second sister, she always sleeps with my mum because she's always scared.
Martina Kane: In terms of their education, a huge number of young people are still sort of being taken out of classrooms whilst they need to isolate. Because of the way the brain develops, social contact with peers is incredibly important. For young people to suddenly not see their friends is a huge, huge change. The world really turned upside down for a lot of them, and they described feeling incredibly lonely. A lot of them talked about how digital communication just isn't the same.
Interviewer: Have you been able to see your dad at all in hospital?
Kalisha: No, but we do do a video call so we can say hello to him. I feel happy that I get to see him but then I feel sad because it sometimes makes my mum cry so then I cry as well.
Amina: Hello, we hope you can hear us. Please come back. Please come back.
Kalisha: Most of the time I actually think about my dad but sometimes I have to try and put it out of my mind because it upsets me a lot.
Martina Kane: The adolescent age group, secondary school and right up to really early adulthood is really crucial. We've seen a lot of people of all sorts of generations being affected, having their mental health affected.
David: They said he had a cardiac arrest and I was really like broken from that, and really scared.
Deji: Being 18, I just turned 18 in December. I was expecting 2020 to be like, me being 18, this whole time I would have been having the time of my life and having my experiences. But I just have to live this life and see exactly what happens and be strong because it is a really tough time.
Martina Kane: Lots of young people were expressing really deep concerns about whether or not there is going to be a future out there for them. A lot of them are beginning to feel a sense of hopelessness, that, you know, what is there for me? Are there going to be jobs? COVID has affected all areas of life and things like lockdown, access to education, cancelling of exams, has had a huge impact. So the Health Foundation has been working with young people between 12 and 24 , really trying to look at how you can really set them off on a path that means they they have a healthy future. So if you can really get young people into a secure sort of stable foundation then that that will leave them in the best position to be able to thrive throughout the rest of their adulthood.
About the documentary and short film series
Surviving COVID aired on Channel 4 on Wednesday 2 December 2020 and is available on catch-up.
When the first surge of the virus hit the UK in March 2020, the Health Foundation decided to support the making of the documentary to deepen understanding of the impact of COVID-19. Created by Sandpaper Films for Channel 4, the documentary is about the impact of falling seriously ill from the virus, and what happens afterwards to those who survive it. It also highlights the impact on the health system and the people who work in it.
This video series delves further into the issues raised by the documentary. They are drawn from footage captured by Sandpaper Films as part of Surviving COVID, along with additional perspectives and experiences. The series aims to highlight the different ways that COVID-19 has affected people, their families, health care workers and the health system.
Acknowledgements
With thanks to everyone who shared their deeply personal experiences as part of Surviving COVID.
If you have been affected by any of the issues in these videos, find details of organisations that can offer help and support on the Channel 4 website: