Overwhelmed by care for ill relative at Coast hospital

IT is not my usual practice to write letters to newspapers expressing an opinion, however in this case I simply must.

Sadly on Christmas Day my dear elderly brother suffered a nasty fall that resulted in a fractured skull and a subdural brain haemorrhage. A kind passer-by promptly called triple-0 and he was rushed to Robina Hospital.

On arrival there a CT scan showed intensive brain damage and no surgical intervention could be performed. That same night he was promptly transferred to the Gold Coast City Hospital, where he was admitted as a matter of urgency.

He spent five weeks in ward D5North, where he received excellent care from the wonderful team, and was then transferred to the rehabilitation unit at the Gold Coast University Hospital C5East where he stayed for another month.

Initially we were not optimistic about his chance of any type of improvement but rehab proved us wrong. Although he will never be the same person again, which to us as his family is absolutely devastating, to see him improve in rehab to the point where he can now walk and feed himself is overwhelming. His brain is still scrambled, however we now get quite a few moments of lucidity.

I cannot thank the wonderful staff in Rehab C5East for the amazing care and kindness that was shown by everyone who was involved in his treatment. They all went above and beyond anything expected. As a result of this he didn’t want to leave and loved everyone who worked there.

We are so lucky to have such an excellent hospital on the Gold Coast and I personally would not want to be treated anywhere except Gold Coast University Hospital.

In fact, I am so impressed by this hospital, I am seriously considering cancelling my private health insurance.