Plea from 3,000th virus patient to recover at trust
A WOMAN who became the 3,000th person to recover from Covid-19 after being admitted to Derby and Burton hospitals has heaped praise on the staff who saved her life.
Christine Cullen, from Normanton, was admitted to the Royal Derby Hospital on Christmas Day after developing symptoms of the disease.
The 67-year-old was left struggling to walk, something that prompted her husband and daughter, who she lives with, to call for help.
After ringing 111, an ambulance was sent out and she was taken to hospital, where it was confirmed she had pneumococcal Covid-19 pneumonia.
She was looked after by staff from University Hospitals of Derby and Burton (UHDB) Trust for two and a half weeks on the High Dependency Unit and Ward 402.
Christine said there were not enough words to say thank you for the care she received in the weeks after Christmas.
“The staff, I cannot praise any of them high enough,” she said. “They are absolutely fantastic. They all work so hard.”
She became the 3,000th person admitted with the disease to be discharged from the trust’s hospitals, only a month after the 2,000th person was discharged in December.
Hospital papers have revealed that 2,600 patients with the disease were discharged in the whole of 2020, meaning 400 people were discharged in the first 12 days of 2021.
Christine said her journey to being sent home again had been hard and cautioned anyone not taking the disease seriously.
“Covid is very real – it can affect different people in different ways,” she said. “It’s a hard journey. A really hard journey. But if you persevere, you listen to the staff, do what they tell you, then you can prove that you can get home.
“Anyone with Covid-19 will know that anything you do is a small achievement, even breathing properly. You don’t realise until you have had Covid-19 how much it really does affect you.”
Christine was looking forward to getting home and seeing her family again, and plans to make up for her “not so merry Christmas” by having Christmas dinner for her first meal back.
“To go home is fantastic,” she said. “It will be nice to join all of the family again.”