A woman whose husband killed himself amid the pressure of running a care home during the pandemic has told the Covid inquiry that staff were “absolutely terrified” owing to the lack of testing in its early stages.

Helen Louise Hough owned and managed a nursing home in Wrexham with her husband, Vernon, which housed up to 40 residents whom she described as like “their extended family”.

Giving evidence at the UK Covid-19 inquiry on Tuesday, Hough said her husband had been traumatised after witnessing the “horrific” death of a patient who was “begging him for help” as she lay gasping.

Hough said she had tried to get a prescription for oxygen to aid the woman’s breathing, but had instead been given end-of-life medication. “We never, ever got the oxygen,” she said. “She was our first Covid death, and she was a lovely lady. Vernon had to go in the room. She just said: ‘Help me, Vernon, I can’t breathe.’

“I just made him get out because he’d never seen anything like this. We’d never seen anything like it. She was literally gasping for air, and we couldn’t do anything. We didn’t have anything to give her. He got very distressed.”

Hough was giving evidence on behalf of Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice Cymru at the start of a five-week module of the inquiry, which will focus on care homes.

She said her staff “worked non-stop”, with many sleeping in a caravan on site to avoid spreading the disease, but they were “all absolutely terrified” as they didn’t know who had Covid because of a lack of available tests.

Hough said that in a March 2020 meeting with the local authority, GP group leaders and other care home providers, she was told that their residents “would not be considered for ventilation”.

When she insisted she would not accept any hospital patients into the home unless they came with written evidence of a negative Covid test, she was told she would be reported to the care inspectorate for bed blocking.

“I said nobody is stepping foot into my nursing home without a negative Covid swab,” she told the inquiry. “Because I was an owner and a manager … I had the choice to say: you’re not coming into my home, but I’m not sure that every manager had that choice.”

Her husband, who carried out maintenance tasks as well as some caring responsibilities, took his own life on 21 May 2020, aged 61, after losing weight and becoming depressed as the strain of the pandemic took its toll.

Earlier, giving evidence for Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice, Jane Weir-Wierzbowska described the pain of not being able to visit her mother, Patricia, who had dementia, for more than 10 months after the Gloucestershire care home she lived in was locked down.

She said she spoke to her mother, as she lay dying from Covid, via a mobile phone, which was wrapped in a black bin bag and placed on her shoulder.

“Why can’t there be more dignity than having to speak to my mum through a plastic bag?” she said.

The inquiry continues, with former health secretary Matt Hancock due to give evidence on Wednesday.