Mum inspired to become nurse after life was saved
AMUM left critically ill in hospital after a serious accident was so inspired by the staff who saved her life that she trained to become a nurse.
Amanda Hopkins spent six weeks in Morriston Hospital in Swansea after being knocked down while crossing the road. The mother of two suffered multiple injuries including a fractured skull, a broken leg, and two broken arms.
Doctors told Amanda that she would be unable to work full-time in any job that kept her on her feet, while her head injury meant she was unlikely to be able to study for a degree.
But Amanda, who had been employed in a bank for 16 years, was so impressed with the “miraculous” care she received that she decided on a change of career.
“I knew then that I wanted to be a nurse. So I finished with my job and applied to do an access course in Gorseinon College,” she said. “After that I applied for university, got my nursing degree in 2014, and here I am today – doing 12-hour shifts on the ward.”
Amanda, then aged 32, was crossing the road near her home in Pontarddulais when the collision happened in February 2006. She was resuscitated twice – once on the roadside after paramedics arrived, and again in Morriston Hospital’s emergency department.
“I’m really lucky to be here today. It was touch and go for a while,” she added. “After surgery I was in ITU for a couple of days, then transferred to Ward J, where I spent another six weeks. Then I went home in a wheelchair with a collar on for three months. I had lots of physio after that and more operations – I think I’ve had 11 operations in total. My knees are still not right so they will have to be replaced sometime in the future.”
Amanda’s experiences immediately after the accident and during the years of follow-up care she received prompted the career change.
“It made me think, ‘Right – that’s what I want to do now’. When I had the accident it was a case of: ‘You’re probably going to be in hospital for about three months, you’ll be in a wheelchair for six months, you’ll never work again full-time on your feet’. There were so many negatives – it just goes to show that these people pretty much worked miracles with me.
“Everyone from the paramedics to A&E, to the surgeons, to ITU, to the OTs, the physios, they all sorted me out.”
Amanda, who works on Ward T, one of Morriston’s surgical wards, said she had no regrets about her career switch.
“You get a lot of gratitude from people in their time of need – not just from patients, but their families too,” she said. “My family couldn’t praise the staff enough.
“My children were aged five and eight at the time and it was very difficult for them. I experienced it and my family experienced it and it’s nice to be able to give it back.”