Coronavirus: Explorer Robin Hanbury-Tenison, 84, recovers from COVID-19 after 7 weeks in hospital

Explorer Robin Hanbury-Tenison, 84, is back at home after spending seven weeks in hospital with COVID-19 – where he nearly died multiple times.

The adventurer and conservationist has had his fair share of illnesses while living with tribes around the world over the past six decades, but none prepared him for the struggles of COVID-19, his son, Merlin Hanbury-Tenison, told Sky News.

Robin, who lives with his wife Louella in Cornwall, was one of the first people in the southwest to get COVID-19 in mid-March.

The explorer, who founded Survival International 51 years ago, is very fit for his age – he did eight challenges for his 80th birthday, including his first marathon, which he trained for in deck shoes, water skiing the Channel and sky diving.

Rushed to hospital

Robin had become short of breath, had a temperature, a dry cough and was getting confused so his family called NHS 111 and an ambulance was sent.

The paramedics quickly put on protective suits and rushed him to hospital when they realised how sick he was.

Merlin told Sky News: “We didn’t realise how seriously ill he was so it was quite a shock when they put on the hazmat suits.

“We then didn’t see him for seven weeks. The doctors said ‘don’t come to the hospital because you won’t be allowed in’.

“He was unconscious for five out of the seven weeks so although he’s a very determined person that was irrelevant then, and it was really down to the incredible team at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth.”

Prepare for the worst

Robin had to have a tracheotomy and was placed on a ventilator as his lungs were failing, then after about two weeks in hospital his kidneys failed.

His family were told that a man of his age was unlikely to pull through, and if he did he would be under severe palliative care for the rest of his life.

“We were told to prepare for the worst. We had that conversation pretty much every week for the next two or three,” said Merlin.

“He’s spent his life in far flung places, many times when he’s been very ill and been in considerable peril – but nothing like this.

“It was pretty horrible. I was just glad we were all together by that point – me, my wife and mother – as we had to quarantine straight away after he was taken to hospital, especially as my wife is quite heavily pregnant.

“I’d be lying if we didn’t lose faith in him and prepare for the worse.”

Incredible doctors and nurses

Merlin said he and his mother would call the hospital three or four times a day to be updated, writing down the names of the doctors and nurses they spoke to each time.

“We spoke to 35 nurses and 12 doctors,” he said.

“Nobody was ever impatient or angry with us even though we were asking the same questions every time.

“They were the very definition of professional, were comforting but at no point gave us false hope.”

The secret garden u-turn

Merlin credits the hospital with his father’s survival, especially as it has a rehabilitation garden that ICU patients can be taken in to.

He said: “Usually only acute patients, not severe, can be taken into hospital gardens, but there was an amazing rehab nurse called Kate Tantam who pioneered to have an intensive care garden in March.

“They brought my father into the garden in his fifth week, he was suffering badly from sedation delirium and had eight stitches from falling off his bed, but was wheeled into the garden in his bed with us watching on an iPad.

“He could breathe the fresh air, smell the flowers – that was a u-turn, that was when he started to recover, it was incredible. That really is the power of nature.”

Leapfrogging recovery

After turning that corner, a long recovery road was ahead for Robin, with plans to send him to a physio centre in Plymouth then a community hospital closer to home.

“But they leapfrogged all of that,” Merlin said.

“We said we wanted him home for his 84th birthday last Thursday and they all said they did not think that would happen.

“But he suddenly got so much better and when it was announced he was going home all the nurses came to visit him and flocked around his bed.

“They said ‘you’re the oldest, sickest patient who has been in the ICU the longest – we thought you’d be leaving two feet first’!”

Already planning another challenge

Robin is now recovering at his farm on Bodmin Moor where Merlin says his mother has him on a “pretty regimented scheme” of exercise, food and rest.

He is doing laps of the house on a walking frame and has an exercise bike set up outside.

Not one for sitting still for too long, if he can help it, Robin is already planning to take up another challenge to raise money for hospitals around the country to have intensive care gardens.

Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Just before Robin got sick, his newest book, Taming the Four Horsemen, was published.

“It is ironically about pandemics,” said Merlin.

“On page four, he says epidemiologists believe the next pandemic will be within the next couple of years – in reality it was only a month away, so he was a bit tardy with that!

“It’s about the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, he got the idea working with indigenous people his whole life, especially with the Maya, who collapsed due to the same reasons lots of the Western world is failing – too populated, resources are depleted.”

With his new, if much unwanted experience, Robin will now be promoting his book with a newfound insight.

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(c) Sky News 2020: Coronavirus: Explorer Robin Hanbury-Tenison, 84, recovers from COVID-19 after 7 weeks in hospital