Don't miss a thing by getting the latest from the Manchester Evening News sent direct to your inbox Seeing the fear in a patient's eyes when they wake from a coma to find they have no voice is now a familiar experience for one critical care consultant.
Speech and language therapist, Sarah Wallace OBE, says she has never seen patients so terrified as when they are weaned off a ventilator, only to realise they've lost all ability to communicate.
It's an alarmingly common experience for many recovering coronavirus patients - particularly those who have spent weeks, and sometimes months, requiring the help of a machine to breathe.