{"id":250243,"date":"2026-01-17T22:52:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T22:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/250243\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T22:52:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T22:52:14","slug":"covid-19-survivor-barra-fitzgibbon-they-called-me-soldier-the-only-one-to-wake-up-among-the-60-icu-patients-they-had-treated-over-the-previous-12-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/250243\/","title":{"rendered":"Covid-19 survivor Barra Fitzgibbon: \u2018They called me \u2018soldier\u2019 \u2013 the only one to wake up among the 60 ICU patients they had treated over the previous 12 days\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-91174671_secondary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom4 indo-1d70522a_marginleft0 indo-1d70522a_marginright0 indo-1d70522a_margintop4\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\" data-testid=\"title-summary\">\nIn 2020, the Irishman became the UK\u2019s first Covid ICU survivor after he was put into a medically induced coma. During his long recovery, he documented his battle to survive in a raw, unfiltered blog that has been adapted for the stage\n<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Barra\u00a0Fitzgibbon in hospital\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/c8f20593-be15-4e6d-acc1-f74e41ae0048.jpg\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"100%\" data-testid=\"article-image\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_caption1 indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_secondary indo-66f0fec7_regular indo-1d70522a_marginbottom0 indo-1d70522a_marginleft0 indo-1d70522a_marginright0 indo-1d70522a_margintop3 indo-b48c4984_left\" style=\"color:var(--color-grey-60)\">Barra\u00a0Fitzgibbon in hospital<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom0 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">I never imagined that my name would ever be attached to phrases like \u2018first survivor\u2019 or \u2018poster boy for survival\u2019, or indeed \u2018playwright\u2019! I\u2019m just Barra Fitzgibbon, a Dubliner who moved to London 20 odd years ago to make a life, and raise a family. But in March 2020, at the very start of the UK\u2019s Covid-19 crisis, I found myself thrust into the middle of a battle for my life, one I came terrifyingly close to losing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom0 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Covid-19 was the worst thing that has ever happened to me. Even now, long after those horrific 12 days in Lewisham Hospital\u2019s ICU, I can still feel the echoes of it in my body and in my mind. My breath still sometimes catches unexpectedly. I still fatigue much faster than I used to and the odd hallucination returns in a dream,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 2020, the Irishman became the UK\u2019s first Covid ICU survivor after he was put into a medically&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250244,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[125429,93,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-250243","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-covid-inquiry","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250243\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}