'It's devastating': UK man tells of mother's coronavirus death

A man who was nursed back to health by his mother after developing suspected coronavirus has told of his devastation at finding her dead – and said his 23-year-old brother was in hospital battling symptoms of the disease.

Symptoms are defined by the NHS as either:

• a high temperature - you feel hot to touch on your chest or back

• a new continuous cough - this means you've started coughing repeatedly

NHS advice is that anyone with symptoms should stay at home for at least 7 days.

If you live with other people, they should stay at home for at least 14 days, to avoid spreading the infection outside the home.

After 14 days, anyone you live with who does not have symptoms can return to their normal routine. But, if anyone in your home gets symptoms, they should stay at home for 7 days from the day their symptoms start. Even if it means they're at home for longer than 14 days.

If you live with someone who is 70 or over, has a long-term condition, is pregnant or has a weakened immune system, try to find somewhere else for them to stay for 14 days.

If you have to stay at home together, try to keep away from each other as much as possible.

After 7 days, if you no longer have a high temperature you can return to your normal routine.

If you still have a high temperature, stay at home until your temperature returns to normal.

If you still have a cough after 7 days, but your temperature is normal, you do not need to continue staying at home. A cough can last for several weeks after the infection has gone.

Staying at home means you should:

• not go to work, school or public areas

• not use public transport or taxis

• not have visitors, such as friends and family, in your home

• not go out to buy food or collect medicine – order them by phone or online, or ask someone else to drop them off at your home

You can use your garden, if you have one. You can also leave the house to exercise – but stay at least 2 metres away from other people.

If you have symptoms of coronavirus, use the NHS 111 coronavirus service to find out what to do.

Source: NHS England on 23 March 2020

Linda Tuppen, a former nursery nurse and teacher, was discovered on Saturday by her son, Rob, a day after she had refused to speak to NHS’s 111 service when she fell ill, deciding to sleep instead.

The 66-year-old woman, who suffered from asthma, had been caring for Rob after he developed Covid-19 symptoms following his return from Krakow, Poland, earlier last month, but then began to feel unwell herself. In a further blow to the family, her other son, James, was admitted to hospital on Sunday with coronavirus symptoms.

In an interview with Manchester Evening News, Rob recalled the moment he found his mother at her home in Bolton, Greater Manchester. “I was in a panic, she was just laying there, and I shouted ‘mum, mum,’ but she didn’t answer,” the 28-year-old software engineer said.

“I was doing chest compressions until the ambulance came. I was still in the room when he came over and said she was gone. It’s devastating, we lost our father in 2008, so we’re pretty much on our own now.

“She was a kind, loving lady who adored me and James and would have done anything for us. She always used to say that we were her lives. She would do anything for anyone.”

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Linda, who was vice-chairman of the local neighbourhood watch, developed a chest infection on 23 March and her condition worsened, with pain in her sinuses, leaving her confined to her bed last Thursday and Friday.

Increasingly concerned, Rob called NHS 111 but his mother told him she just wanted to sleep. But when he went to check on her the following morning he could not wake her.

“They were fine when I came back, but then I got ill, and they’ve picked it up off me because my mum was looking after me while I was ill,” he explained. “She was putting a cloth over her mouth but it obviously didn’t work.”

He added: “This is serious. This is not a joke, this could happen to anyone.”

Describing his own symptoms during illness, Rob said: “Your temperature is sky high, so you’re constantly freezing cold and shivering, then other times you’re basically roasting hot and you have to take your coat off.

“You have a really high fever and I was constantly freezing cold in bed or roasting to the point where I just had to take all my clothes off because I was that hot. The cough is really bad, when you’re coughing you feel like you can’t stop.

“Your body aches and even the smallest of tasks, like going to the toilet, is one of the hardest things you can do. I would have to run from the toilet to my room, which is about five steps, because I felt like I was going to black out.”