Heroes on the front line
BATTLING THE PANDEMIC INSIDE THE QMC’S INTENSIVE CARE UNIT
HOSPITAL staff covered from head to toe in PPE huddle around a bed as a patient with coronavirus struggles to draw breath.
This is the view from inside the Queen’s Medical Centre Intensive Care Unit in Nottingham at the heart of the Covid battle.
Here is where the sickest Covid patients battle the virus and require around the clock care.
Powerful and moving images taken from within the ICU show the true extent of Covid-19 and the impact it can have on people of all ages.
Within the ward, Nottingham’s NHS heroes work tirelessly day and night on the pandemic front lines, determined to keep us safe from the deadly disease despite extremely difficult conditions.
This is the health service’s busiest ever time as hospital bosses condemn those calling the pandemic a hoax or not taking it seriously.
An increase in patients being admitted to our hospitals with Covid-19 means there are now more than twice the amount of patients we saw at the peak of the first wave last April.
Medical Director at Nottingham University Hospitals Trust, Dr Keith Girling, told the Post this winter is different from anything ever experienced before and described the pressure as “absolutely immense”.
“In terms of so far this year, we’ve seen virtually no flu or norovirus.
“What we have seen is an overwhelming amount of coronavirus in its place to numbers of patients now that are nearly double those that we saw in the peak in April,” he said.
“That is really dramatically affecting our ability to maintain other services for non-covid patients.
“Of course, it’s having a massive impact on our staff and the pressure on them across the hospital.”
Dr Girling added: “Whilst winter normally affects some specialities more than others, the impact this year is at least an order of magnitude different to what we normally see.
“The critical care demand, the respiratory demand, the demand on our healthcare and the elderly services is absolutely immense.”
There were 625 beds occupied by Covid patients as of the January 12, this compares to 507 on January 5
These are young people who are coming in. This is an incredibly serious disease.
Dr Dave Selwyn
and it is feared this number will rise yet.
The NHS estimates around one in four patients within the county’s hospital beds now have Covid-19.
In the week from January 7 to January 13 there were 63 Covid deaths in Nottinghamshire’s hospitals.
Dr Dave Selwyn, Medical Director
at Sherwood Forest Hospitals revealed to the Post the spine-chilling example of a patient in their 20s he was caring for in ICU who could not breathe.
“I was working a clinical shift on intensive care yesterday.
“We had a patient in their twenties who had come in that day and who
we were unable to get oxygen into.
“So we had to transfer them to our regional specialist unit because we couldn’t actually get any oxygen into them and so they had to go onto a heart and lung bypass machine.
“These are young people who are coming in with this disease. This is an incredibly serious disease.
“I thought they were going to die on me. That’s a 20-year-old.
“I don’t think there will be anyone working in the health service who hasn’t been touched by Covid, be that seeing someone die, having a relative die, or the impact of it.
“My worry is, as a society, we’re going to get to that, where everyone will know someone who has died of Covid and that’s my real worry.”
Both directors stressed that as our hospitals are facing an increased pressure and our NHS staff are working hard to keep the public safe, we can all help by following the national guidance to stay at home.
With the vaccine on the way and the rollout in full swing, there is light at the end of the tunnel, they stressed as they urged residents to stick to the rules and keep safe.
The Post will be providing more special Covid reports from across our county’s hospitals over the coming days.