A 98-year-old great-grandad of 10 is back at home after a 'full recovery' from the coronavirus that doctors thought would kill him.

Second World War hero Jack Bowden, from Bolton, got a terrifying coronavirus diagnosis two weeks ago after being admitted the Royal Bolton Hospital.

The result left the Bowden family shocked, as the beloved dad-of-four 'had not been showing any typical flu symptoms' and was instead taken to hospital with a suspected water infection.

After responding to treatment quickly, doctors believed Mr Bowden was getting better and released him back to his care home in Ivy Bank Road on March 20 to remain in isolation taking his prescribed medication.

But the family's worst fears about Mr Bowden's coronavirus diagnosis were realised when five days later he was on death's door unable to breathe.

Mr Bowden was admitted to the Royal Bolton Hospital again - NHS staff told family that he would not survive the night.

(Image: Bowden family)

Mr Bowden's youngest child, Mark, described the terrifying message he received from the ward: "The chest infection that he had left hospital with deteriorated over the weekend.

"By Wednesday (March 25) he could not breathe. It was scary.

"When I rang the ward, the administrator told me 'the state your father is in, he is not going to survive the night.'"

Mr Bowden is a former pharmacist and helped to create penicillin for the Second World War effort at the Royal Navy Medical School in Clevedon.

Mark said: "We were feeling so many emotions. He was absolutely floored with it, it took his breathing away.

(Image: Mark Bowden)

"I went to bed that night thinking 'if he dies, if he leaves us tonight, he has gone out in a blaze of glory - what an amazing story he has told.

"But my brother told me he could not sleep because he was thinking about wills and which solicitors to use."

Miraculously, Mr Bowden made it through the night.

Mark told the M.E.N.: "By noon, we had spoken to the consultants who said my dad had pulled through.

"He was put on IV antibiotics and the doctor told me he was treating my dad for coronavirus.

"I just told the doctors to try whatever they needed to."

Over a week later, doctors determined that the recovery had been successful - the Covid-19 treatment taking him from the brink of death to being 'fighting fit' again, say his relieved family.

This morning, Friday, April 3, Mr Bowden was taken back to his care home with a course of oral antibiotics and is 'back to the Jack everyone remembers'.

Mark said: "He was discharged this morning, he is just missing his bottom set of teeth and he has left one of his hearing aids at the hospital.

"He is whinging about that, but it's a small price to pay, I will get them back.

"Now he is sat back in his favourite chair, watching TV like he normally does and he is fully recovered.

"Staff at the home are saying it is the Jack Bowden they all remember."

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