Our wonderful health service

ON WEDNESDAY morning, September 5, I rang my surgery, the West Drayton Medical Centre and spoke to Mrs Jill Crawley asking for an appointment to get an antibiotic throat sweet.

My throat was very sore and I couldn’t drink or eat anything. Jill made me an appointment at 8.20am with Dr Hinna Ahmed.

He took my blood pressure and immediately recognised a problem. My heart rate was 160. Dr Ahmed immediately called for an ambulance. Shocked I asked why what is the matter? By 8.30am I was in an ambulance under the considerate and caring paramedics being taken to A&E at Hillingdon Hospital.

On arrival, I was immediately seen, had blood tests, CT head, chest X-ray examinations. I was immediately treated with intravenous antibiotics, fluids, steroids, analgesia and bisoprolol, plus an oxygen mask in both A&E and Majors.

The teams in both A&E and Majors were attentive, fast and kind.

I was then taken to the CCU ward under the wonderful care of matron Liz Keller and the ward manager Bessie George.

Also Dr Eleanor, the wonderfully compassionate ear, nose and throat specialist, came to see me. With a camera she looked down my throat and saw that the infection was moving into my lungs. I had fast atrial fibrillation and diagnosed with community acquired pneumonia. The ENT team started me on dexamethasone and ceftfriaxone. I cannot praise these ladies and their teams enough for their thoughtful, kind caring nursing.

While in the CCU ward, Dr Wills and Dr Haselden came to see me and told me about the condition – I was told I had something called supraglottitis.

Once my heart rate returned to normal I was transferred to the ITU unit – the respiratory unit where I was under the wonderful care of ward manager Sarah Troup, sisters Michelle Levy and Swapna George and their team, in the Drayton Ward on the second floor.

What I would like logged and made public is the amazing care I received from all the staff on duty at Hillingdon Hospital during the five nights I spent there.

At no time did anyone make me feel that their care of me was not their top priority.

The staff on duty in the CCU and Drayton Ward monitored my condition so carefully and continually during the five nights I was there.

Your team are the most amazing team and deserve recognition for their selfless, kindness and total professionalism in looking after a 75-year-old lady who thought she simply had a sore throat and had popped into her doctor’s simply to get an antibiotic sweet for it on her way to a day out at the Churchill Rooms in London.

I was asked on Wednesday September 26 to attend the meeting of the board of directors of Hillingdon Hospital and I relayed my thanks for them.

At the end of the meeting one of the directors gave special thanks to Dr Hinna Ahmed at the West Drayton Surgery – had she not recognised that I had a more serious problem than a simple sore throat, the infection would have completely blocked my throat and the story would have had a different ending. Wendy Plowright West Drayton