A MAN was left in an induced coma for four days after contracting coronavirus.

Jamie Baty, a 64-year-old from Bellingham, said he wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for the NHS.

The construction worker was blue lighted to the Northumbria Emergency Hospital at Cramlington, leaving his wife, Louise, who is currently undergoing chemotherapy.

Jamie has heaped praise on the NHS staff - from the paramedic, Andy, who stayed with him during his journey to Cramlington to the doctor who was by his side before and after his coma and the cleaners working to keep the hospital clean.

He said: "Those people in there did absolutely everything for me. They're marvellous. If that machine hadn't been available when I got there, I wouldn't be here.

"I honestly thought I had been asleep for half an hour - a doctor came and said the treatment I was getting wasn't working so they said they would have to send me to sleep and put me on a machine that would take over my breathing for me.

"That was on the Friday - the next thing I knew she was bringing me round on the Wednesday."

Louise also contracted the virus - but was asymptomatic, and the people of Bellingham rallied around to make sure she had everything she needed as Jamie fought for his life.

Jamie continued: "The people of Bellingham were magnificent. It was the most terrifying experience I have ever had to suffer - worse than being hit by a double decker bus.

"I will be the first in the queue for a vaccine. Anybody that refuses to have it - I have no sympathy for them. It's their right to refuse, but they're relying on the goodwill of others preventing them from getting it. The only way they will realise it is real is by catching it - sometimes you will be like Louise, but sometimes you will be like me."