29 days of round-the-clock care to recover from the Coronavirus and now Paula is back home | Latest news

Paula McDonald, of Hucknall, received 29 days of round the clock care from Nottingham University Hospitals to help her recover from the Coronavirus.

She has now gone home to be reunited with her husband – the day after staff helped her to celebrate her birthday with a cake and balloons.

From the Emergency Services, the hospital porters, the Emergency Department, doctors and nurses in Critical Care, to big teams who focus on rehabilitation – these were just some of the different people who have been involved in caring for Paula, to get her to where she is now.

“Everyone at the hospital has been fantastic and I really cannot praise them enough,” she said.

“There are some parts of my journey during all of this that I am unable to remember and it has felt like a rollercoaster.

“It has been horrible being this poorly and it completely wiped me out but the staff here and the care that I have received has been incredible.”

Paula, 56, was admitted to the hospital on the 2^nd April after her husband called an ambulance when she quickly became unwell at home.

She had a range of symptoms including a high temperature, a cough and shortness of breath.

Paula was taken to the hospital’s Emergency Department and she was quickly transferred to Crictical Care.

Paula was intubated and put on a ventilator for 20 days to help her breathe. She also had a tracheostomy to help her wake up out of a medically induced coma and to help with her breathing.

Once stabilised, on 23^rd April, Paula was taken to one of the new specially built rehabilitation units at the Queens Medical Centre, to focus on her recovery.

Rehabilitation for patients who have the Coronavirus, starts in the Intensive Care Unit. Therapists in the hospital are already looking at how to facilitate early mobilisation, building strength and helping these patients to communicate again.

The specially designed wards at the hospital - which are called step down units - provide a wide range of support including, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy and dieticians.

“We want our patients not only to survive in our Intensive Care Units, but return to a life worth living,” said Cat Goodwin, a Physiotherapist who looked after Paula.

“We need to be able to build a relationship of trust with our patients when they feel so vulnerable and when they are missing their family and friends.  We do all that through the barrier of a facemask.

“But it is amazing to see some of them speak to their families for the first time, enjoy a first cup of tea in weeks and take their first steps.

“Then they feel like they are recovering and we know they will return home. It’s a privilege to be part of their recovery.”

Paula said: “The team on D55 (the step down unit) have been helping me to get up and get walking again because I spent so long in my hospital bed that my muscles have weakened and sometimes my hands shake.

“They have also been helping me with my breathing, provided psychological support and have helped to get my physical and mental strength back.

“No words will be enough to describe how grateful I am to the hospital for my care and it makes me proud to be from Nottingham because of how they looked after me here.

“I was really missing home and my husband but staff helped me to WhatsApp him after not being with him for so long and it was lovely.”

Paula said she is now looking forward to going home and spending time with her husband.