One of the first British patients tested for the deadly coronavirus has compared his period in quarantine to a scene from an apocalyptic movie.
Craig Dillon, 27, told how he was bundled through a secret hospital entrance and into isolation at breakneck speed as soon as he mentioned his recent flight from China.
He described being probed by doctors and nurses wearing heavy-duty hazmat suits while their fellow medics watched with baited breath behind toughened glass.
The Westminster-based digital media guru is one of 14 people who have been tested and given the all-clear following returns from China where the deadly virus has killed 41.
Border Force agents have been deployed to crank up the search for 2,000 people who arrived in the UK from Wuhan province prior to a flight freeze enforced on Wednesday.
After waking up on Tuesday night dripping with sweat and struggling to breathe, Mr Dillon rushed to St Thomas’ Hospital, London on the advice of a 111 operator.
Craig Dillon, the first British patient tested for the deadly coronavirus, has compared his period in quarantine to a scene from an apocalyptic movie
The 27-year-old fell ill following a holiday to Australia (right on Bondi Beach) which he returned from via a layover in China
The Westminster-based digital media guru (pictured with Boris Johnson) is one of 14 people who have been tested and given the all-clear following returns from China where the deadly virus has killed 41.
‘When I arrived I was so weak I had to lean against the wall,’ he wrote in the Telegraph.
‘This doctor asked if I was okay and when I replied: ‘I’m feeling really ill, I just came back from China,’ he literally grabbed me by the arm and led me back outside the hospital.
‘A nurse came out and gave me a mask and then I was shown to this secret door around the back.’
Curled up on a hospital bed in a sealed-off room, Mr Dillon said a doctor and nurse ‘wearing gear like they were walking on the moon’ started extracting blood from his hands via cannulas.
It was at this point his initial denial he had coronavirus began to seep away and be replaced by a creeping fear he may have been infected on his brief layover in the Asian country from his holiday to Australia.
He said the doctor took swabs from his nostril and back of his throat, before zipping it in a plastic bag and passing it out to other hospital staff through an airlock.
After waking up on Tuesday night dripping with sweat and struggling to breathe, Mr Dillon (pictured with Theresa May) rushed to St Thomas’ Hospital, London on the advice of a 111 operator
Mr Dillon said: ‘Because St Thomas’s is a teaching hospital I kept on seeing lots of curious faces at the window – I felt like an exhibit.
‘There was even a security guard at the door with a walkie talkie.
‘The doctor later told me I was the first person in the UK to be tested. It was an anxious three hour wait for the results.’
After a tense three-hour wait, he breathed a sigh of relief when he was revealed to have caught pneumonia.
Mr Dillon likened his frightening experience to the disaster film Contagion, and said:’ It all happened so quickly.
‘One minute I was phoning 111, the next I was walking down a corridor into quarantine.’
It lays bare the seriousness being afforded to fending off the virus spreading on British soil.
Michael Hope described his ordeal as scary and claimed the medics who treated him ‘looked like spacemen’. He is one of fourteen known patients to have tested in the UK – all of whom were found to be negative
Michael Hope, 45, who was rushed to an isolated unit at Newcastle’s Royal Infirmary after telling his GP about his return from China
Some 14 people have been given the thumbs up following tests from medics, with up to 20 awaiting results from last night.
British authorities are racing to track down 2,000 people who arrived from Wuhan in the past two weeks, fearing they may be infected with the deadly coronavirus which has now hit European shores.
Border Force agents have been deployed to crank up the search for those who came from eastern China’s Hubei province prior to a flight freeze enforced on Wednesday.
The death toll of the outbreak has climbed to 41 in China and 1,300 have been infected worldwide, but no cases have so far been confirmed in the UK.
Mr Dillon’s experience matches that told by art teacher Michael Hope, 45, who returned from Wuhan with flu-like symptoms last Sunday.
He was quarantined for 27 hours at Newcastle’s Royal Infirmary and finally given the thumbs up after being treated by medics who ‘looked like spacemen’.
He said: ‘I felt like E.T., to be honest. It was totally, totally surreal.’ He added that it took his nurse several minutes to get into all the protective fear just to deliver him a banana for breakfast – and he was grateful for getting a nicotine patch passed under his door.
British patient Michael Hope, 45, was taken to hospital when he returned home with flu-like symptoms from teaching art in the locked down Chinese city (he is pictured in the city)
Three cases in France were confirmed on Friday – the first confirmations in Europe as the deadly coronavirus spreads to nearly every continent
Mr Hope arrived back Sunday feeling unwell, having been ill since January 4. He told his GP about his symptoms and recent return from Wuhan in a telephone clinic. He was rushed to the city’s Royal Victoria Infirmary and put in isolation.
He underwent tests before getting the good news on Thursday evening he had the flu, but not the coronavirus. He said: ‘The staff came in with their masks off, so then I knew I was going to be okay.’
During the isolation period, staff wore protective suits and they tested his blood, urine and took throat swabs.
It took his nurse several minutes to get into all the protective gear just to deliver him a banana for breakfast, and he was grateful for the delivery of a nicotine patch which was passed under his door.
Mr Hope said: ‘The care was exceptional. It was scary being there but they made me feel quite relaxed. They were very human even though they looked like spacemen.
‘I was impressed with the speed with which they dealt with it. They would come in through one sealed door and leave through another. Every time they left they had to dispose of their clothing.’