ICU Doctor Reveals He Wrote A Love Letter To Wife With Final Wishes

An intensive care doctor who lost two of his colleagues to Covid-19 has revealed he penned a love letter to his wife detailing his final wishes at the start of the crisis.

Dr Matt Morgan, 40, author of Critical: Science and Stories from the Brink of Human Life, which was released last year, is currently working 13-hour shifts at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff for four days at a time.

The father-of-two admitted he is struggling with the lack of family contact his patients are allowed, and told how he and his colleagues are taking on the role of loved-ones in their final moments.

Speaking to The Times' Andrew Billen, Matt said his hospital has dedicated blue sofas where staff can go to solve problems, laugh or cry - and they're currently being used 'more than ever before'.



'That's where difficult discussions are had between colleagues. That's where we laugh. That's where people cry,' he said, adding that there is a sense of camaraderie at the hospital which is helping him through the difficult time.

Matt himself cried at the beginning of the crisis, after writing an email to his wife Alison containing his account log-ons and passwords, his desire for his body to be made into a medical skeleton, and his hopes and dreams for their daughters.

He said the letter was also intended for his parents, who are in their seventies and have underlying health conditions.

Matt told Alison she is the love of his life, and asked for 'a flat white and some REM playing' in his final moments.



He concluded his note, which reduced his wife to tears, by expressing how much he loves his job, despite the fact it can be 'hard and dangerous'.

'Touching the lives of others is the best feeling in the world,' he said.

Matt said he believes his colleagues are struggling the most with the lack of family contact his patients are designated.

He told how on a recent shift, after midnight, it became clear a middle-aged male patient being treated for Covid-19 was losing his battle.



After he and his colleagues broke the news to his family via telephone, he and a nurse held the man's hand at his bedside.

'The family member asked us to play his favourite song, which we managed to do using an iPad,' Matt recalled.

'Normally, those are the roles that the families play and want to play.'

While there is no shortage of personal protective equipment in Matt's intensive care unit, two of his colleagues have still succumbed to the virus - 65-year-old nurse Gareth Roberts and heart surgeon Jitendra Rathod.

Matt said losing people you know to coronavirus brings it home just how vulnerable everybody is when it comes to this virus.

Currently, more than 80 per cent of the patients in Matt's ICU are fighting Covid-19, with an estimated recovery rate of one in two, though it's still too early to tell.

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