Britain’s longest-hospitalised Covid patient spends THIRD Christmas away from his family as his brother hopes 2023 is the year he finally comes home
- Covid-stricken DJ Steve Laviniere, 59, may go home for good next summer
- Steve has been hospitalised since he was diagnosed with Covid in March 2020
- He suffered multiple organ failure and inflammation of the brain after falling ill
- Steve’s family is renovating his wife’s home and optimistic he will return in 2023
Britain’s longest-hospitalised Covid patient spent a third Christmas away from his family, but his twin brother is still hopeful he’ll come home this year.
Steve Laviniere, 59, and his twin brother Bobby, both popular London house music DJs, contracted the virus in March 2020 after playing a gig in Madrid and were put on ventilators.
While Bobby was taken off the ventilator after seven days and took two months to recover from the virus, Steve suffered multiple organ failure and inflammation of the brain and remains in hospital. He is unable to walk and has to be fed through a tube.
Despite Steve having spent nearly three years in hospital and requiring round-the-clock care, Bobby says his brother’s resilience is a ‘miracle’ and that ‘everything is moving in the right direction.’
Covid-stricken DJ Steve Laviniere, 59, spent a third Christmas away from his family, but his twin brother is still hopeful he’ll come home this year. Steve is pictured with his wife, Julie, before he fell ill
Steve contracted the virus in March 2020. He suffered multiple organ failure and inflammation of the brain and remains in hospital. He is unable to walk and has to be fed through a tube
Steve – who appeared in Kate Garraway’s ITV documentary, Finding Derek – was admitted to hospital with Covid just three days after then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson put the UK into lockdown for the first time.
Medics put the DJ into a medical induced coma and he suffered a rare neurological condition called Acute haemorrhagic leukoencephalitis (AHLE).
Bobby claims that people with AHLE ‘do not normally survive a week’ and believes it is a ‘miracle’ his brother is still alive.
The family knows ‘things could be a lot worse’ and is optimistic that they will take Steve home this year.
‘His soul is still here, I know he can still hear us and we’re doing our best to get him home,’ Bobby told The Mirror.
‘In the last three weeks his wife saw him moving his toe – little things like that show he can respond.’
He added: ‘Everything is moving in the right direction. He’s in there battling away, I know that for a fact.’
Bobby (left) – twin brother of Steve (right) – says his brother’s resilience is a ‘miracle’ and that ‘everything is moving in the right direction’
The brothers, popular DJs on London’s house music scene, have had very different health outcomes following their Covid diagnoses (Pictured: Bobby, left and Steve, right)
The family has been granted permission to perform renovations at the home where Steve (right) lived with his wife, Julie, (left) that will allow him to return to the residence
Steve visits home for a few hours every eight weeks, but now his family thinks he could come home for good next summer, Bobby told the newspaper.
The family has been granted permission to perform renovations at the home where Steve lived with his wife, Julie, that will allow him to return to the residence.
Once renovations are completed, Steve will go home for weekends initially. It is unclear what his at-home care plan will look like after that.
The family has raised more than £35,000 on a fundraising appeal to help pay for renovations. Bobby is hopeful they can raise an additional £30,000.
He says the ‘love and support’ and the family has received over the course of Steve’s treatment has been ‘keeping me standing.’
Bobby is working to establish the Bobby and Steve Foundation, which he says will support people with neurological conditions.
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