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A 33-year-old man tragically died of suspected Covid-19 at home after suffering with a cough for more than six weeks.
Reace Lathwell-Fisher, from Minster, had been staying in a caravan in Sheerness before the lockdown after separating from his wife Janiece.
The yard worker told his wife it was so cold he could see his breathe in the mornings. He had also been working in freezers and sent her a photo where his face and beard was covered in frost.
When the quarantine was announced, Mrs Lathwell-Fisher invited her husband to stay with her at the marital home in Minster, as the pair were on good terms. He accepted this offer.
Mrs Lathwell-Fisher later saw a message on her husband's phone telling a friend he had had a cough for six or seven weeks.
His wife believed this could be due to him taking methotrexate, an immune system suppressant used to treat the skin condition psoriasis. A dry persistent cough can be a side effect.
She thought it probably wasn't Covid-19 because of the length of time her husband had been experiencing symptoms.
'In the weeks before his death he developed a temperature and persistent cough which was very serious, and in the days before his death he found it difficult to breathe'
However, they decided Mr Lathwell-Fisher should isolate himself upstairs, with his wife bringing him food and drink.
In the days leading up to his death Mrs Lathwell-Fisher described her husband's cough as "horrendous" and that he was shivering so much she could hear it from another room. He also had a high temperature, stopped eating and drinking and his lips turned white.
Two days before his death, he sought medical advice for a dry cough and chest pain.
Tragically, Mrs Lathwell-Fisher thought her husband may be getting better the day before he died, as his cough seemed to suddenly stop.
But in the early hours of Wednesday, April 8, she heard him breathing heavily into a paper bag, followed by a loud bang. She rushed to see what had happened, and he told her he could not breathe so she ran to call an ambulance.
Upon her return, her husband had collapsed on the bed and was not breathing. The call handler told Mrs Lathwell-Fisher to move him onto the floor to perform CPR. But her husband weighed 23 stone so she was unable to do so.
When paramedics arrived, they carried out CPR for around 40 minutes before the 33-year-old was pronounced dead.
Assistant coroner for mid Kent and Medway, Scott Matthewson concluded: "It is clear this man was very ill. In the weeks before his death he developed a temperature and persistent cough which was very serious, and in the days before his death he found it difficult to breathe."
Mr Matthewson registered the cause of death to be pleurisy and probable Covid-19.
