MANY stories of the horrors of this second wave of the coronavirus pandemic have come to us all and to me as well. But until this week they had been mostly second hand. Not now. Not at all.
This week I met my first survivor, or what remains of her for only she can really know what is left after months of sheer terror and horror. Nothing in this senior and highly qualified nurse's experience had prepared her for this. Her words.
Some years ago after many years on wards in major hospitals she elected to become a community nurse. Not by any means a sinecure but with normal, family friendly hours (for the most part) and more variety and less organisationally generated stress.
The first wave and lockdown passed. The regular work was made more difficult by “hands, face, space” but most of it could be done.
Cometh the second wave and everything changed. This was, as hospitals term it, a major emergency. And that means all hands on deck. The community work was put on hold and our hero was immediately recruited to the Covid-19 wards of a major Essex hospital. As an experienced respiratory nurse she was invaluable.
But that was only the beginning. While she opened up to me I did not (much as I wanted hack-wise to do so) press her. But it seems the hospitals had to call in every reserve they could – from the long since retired to the not at all qualified.
And so, instead of working with a hugely experienced and capable team at her back our hero had to be trainer, mentor, and mental support worker alongside the trauma of critically sick patients heading to, but not often out of, ICU.
None of this she actually enunciated – just the basic concept – but her eyes told the rest of the story.
I have had, over the years, much experience of the medical professions. For very good reason my esteem of the nurses and hospital doctors has always been higher than for any other branch of the clinicians world.
It has been my experience too that the difference between nursing and doctoring professions is actually very clear: nurses are trained to care while doctors are trained to diagnose. Both of course 'treat' but the difference in approach lies right there in the training.
And as a result I have never really doubted that, when push comes to shove, the NHS can become unbelievably skilled, capable and warm.
But I have never before been in such awe at the sheer bloody guts and determination that a major emergency can demand of its troops.
The entire NHS has earned the George Cross – the highest civilian medal and known as the civilians' Victoria Cross. And none less than my brave hero; her eye tell the whole story.
Make no mistake, the George Cross is awarded for: “acts of the greatest heroism or of the most conspicuous courage in circumstances of extreme danger.”
Given they had no vaccination and poor PPE this was indeed their finest hour.
I don't want Boris Johnson to win any election ever but if he does the decent thing for the NHS on this then May 6 will be his even if politically he does not deserve it.
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