Thanks CDHB staff

We express our heartfelt thanks to the doctors, nurses, and allied health staff at Christchurch Hospital who have cared for our son, David, over the last five weeks. We have been super-impressed with the wonderful care that he has received, which has enabled him to experience a miraculous recovery.

David was a fit and healthy 26-year-old elite cricketer, but recently suffered a sudden cardiac arrest during training at Elmwood Park. His teammates gave him CPR on the field until the ambulance staff arrived, who managed to get his heart restarted. An immense thank you to his teammates and to the first responders who saved his life.

He spent the next 21 days in the Intensive Care Unit. The care he received was awesome, and enabled him to regain consciousness and begin his road to recovery. After that, two more weeks in the cardiology ward and surgery to implant a defibrillator. Thanks to the excellent ICU and cardiology doctors and nurses and the modern technology available, he has walked out of the hospital five weeks later. Incredible.

He’s now been transferred to the Brain Injury Rehabilitation Unit at Burwood Hospital, so David has more hard work to achieve a full recovery, but we are confident that with the excellent care from CDHB staff that is achievable.

The people of Canterbury should know that they have an excellent health system. Steve and Helen Wakefield, Cashmere (abridged)