I’ve twice nearly died and I think the reason I’m still here is so I can help people
GRAN’S DEVOTION TO CHILDREN’S WARDS
HERS is the smiling face which cheers up children facing some of their darkest times.
Lorna Hinds has been working for the NHS since 1989, starting out as a domestic, helping with the vital behind-the-scenes work that keeps hospitals running.
But it was while working as a cleaner on a paediatric ward at Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital that she discovered her true passion: caring for children.
Returning to education to study childcare, Lorna was then able to come back to the hospital as a paediatric healthcare assistant. As well as helping doctors and nurses out with medical procedures, giving medications and carrying out tests, Lorna helps provide emotional support for the children and families who find themselves at the hospital.
Lorna is one of the many amazing NHS workers we want to celebrate through our NHS Heroes campaign.
The 62-year-old said: “I just love being with the children and families. We build up quite a bond. I work on the ward and also run clinics in the community. You get to know some of them over a very long time.
“Some of the children I see now are actually the children of people I treated when they were young.”
Working on the front line of the NHS during a pandemic was obviously a scary prospect for Lorna and her colleagues. But she says everyone at the hospital trust has “pulled together” to make it work. Now, she says, the main priority is reassuring those children who do find themselves in hospital and may be afraid because of what they’ve heard about Covid-19.
And, she says, it’s vital to ensure parents know it’s still safe to bring their children in for treatment if they need it.
Lorna said: “We know it’s very scary at the moment for children. You come into a department, you’re not feeling well, you’ve got people coming over to you covered up in gloves and masks and all the PPE (personal protective equipment). We’ve found ways to make it less scary. We’ve had some teddy bears with masks for the children, which can help make the masks less of a scary thing. We are all just totally focused on the children, the way we speak to them. Hopefully we can make sure it’s not so bad for them.
“I know that people are very frightened at the minute with everything that’s going on, but if anyone is at home with children who are not very well, I want them to know that we are totally focused on your children and making it safe for them. We’ve got lots of guidelines to follow, we’ve got all the PPE, we’ve got lots of procedures in place.
“Please don’t stay at home with a sick child who needs to be in hospital.”
North Shields grandmother-oftwo Lorna, who owes her own life to the NHS, after her colleagues at Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust saved her life once from septicaemia and once from breast cancer, said it’s been fantastic to see the surge of support for the vital public service since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
But she said she and her colleagues do what they do because they love it - and she certainly would never want to do anything else.
She said: “People sometimes ask ‘How do you cope?’ but at the end of the day I know I’m helping families, and that’s what matters to me. It’s a fantastic feeling, getting a child better.
“I’ve nearly died twice and I honestly do believe that the reason I’m still here is to care for people.
She added: “The sense of companionship has been amazing.”