Anti-vaxxer begs for people to get jabs from ICU

At one point, he had just a 50 per cent chance of survival

An anti-vaxxer who thought he was "being a hero" for refusing to get vaccinated against covid has now begged people to get the vaccine from his ICU bed. Dad-of-three Andrew Pugh contracted the virus just before Christmas and has now spent more than a month in hospital with the illness. His condition got so bad that his family were told at one point that he had just a 50 per cent chance of surviving. However thanks to the work of doctors and health staff, the 52-year-old's condition improved. Speaking from his hospital bed at Worcestershire Royal Hospital, Pugh now says he wishes he had been jabbed. He said: "I didn't get the vaccine, I thought I was being the hero. "If it wasn't for the nurses and the fact I'm a non-smoker I wouldn't be alive - they saved my life. "I want to say thank you to the staff in the ICU for giving me my second chance, it has been hard and it still is. "Please people get your vaccinations, you don't want to end up like me. "When you're dead and all your family are heartbroken you can't turn around and say 'I wish I had the vaccine'. "This is very real and people need to get their jabs." The bin man is still on oxygen but as been moved out of ICU and onto a ward to continue his recovery. He has now been in hospital for a month, having been admitted on December 5. On Christmas Day he was allowed just one visitor with him for one hour. Pugh's niece, Sophie Pugh, has now organised a collection for the staff on the intensive care unit as a way of saying thank you for their life-saving work. They managed to get together "16 bags" of goodies for the staff, which Sophie gave to them before Christmas. She said: "All of it has been donated to the intensive care unit currently caring for Andrew, they potentially saved his life. "To say they were shocked was an understatement, thank you to every single person that helped make this happen." Currently, 59 per cent of people in the UK aged 12 and over have been double or triple-jabbed.

(Image credits: Andrew Pugh/SWNS)

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