Kate Garraway sympathised with the mother of Archie Battersbee on Tuesday's Good Morning Britain as she spoke about her own experiences with her husband Derek Draper.
Derek was hospitalised in March 2020 with COVID-19, and admitted to an intensive care unit. He remained in critical condition after ten weeks, and was also in an induced coma.
He's since woken up and returned home but requires round-the-clock care, and mother-of-two Kate has always been very open about his journey and progression.
Whilst interviewing Hollie Dance on Tuesday's show, Kate compared Archie's situation to that of Derek's but stressed that she'd never had to have conversations with doctors about turning off his life support machine.
Hollie's 12-year-old son Archie has been in a coma since April after he suffered a catastrophic brain injury.
The doctors treating him say he is brain-stem dead and that life-support is not in his best interests.
As Kate and her co-host Richard Madeley interviewed Ms Dance on Tuesday morning, Kate said: "I've got a couple of things I want to ask you that's a little bit based on my own personal experience, which I want to stress particularly for Derek's family who might be watching, is I know very different from yours in the sense that mercifully for me I've not had to have the conversations with doctors about discussions of turning off life support machines and Derek's brain stem has never been affected in the way that poor Archie's had.
"But I have had to have conversations in my own head with myself sometimes when Derek was in the coma, in the state of minimum consciousness, about how much my... sort of - I'm using this about myself not you - how much my frenzy to fight for him and to check every possible option was about me and my needs, and how much was about him and I understand your fight, but I guess what the courts are there for is to try and manage our instinct and also the right thing for the person as well, aren't they?" Kate continued.
She then asked Ms Dance: "Have you thought about that?"
Archie's mum replied: "Yes, of course I have and if Archie was in pain and deteriorating the way that it's been put over to the courts, then I would be feeling very different, but it's not the case and based on that not being the case, I find it very hard not to exhaust every option.
"If there was no progression signs and he was going backwards or there was no improvement whatsoever, I would have no choice but to think different, but he's not. And while he is progressing, it's very, very hard to stop fighting for him," Ms Dance continued.
Good Morning Britain airs weekdays at 6am on ITV and ITV Hub.
