Hospital staff make sure devoted couple could spend their last hours together

A DEVOTED couple were able to spend their final hours together in hospital after staff moved them next to each other so they could hold hands one more time.

Mary Bilton, 86, and husband Ron, 89, shared some precious moments as they celebrated their 66th wedding anniversary before both dying within days of one another.

The couple fell in love and were married for nearly seven decades but in later life began to suffer from health complications.

Mrs Bilton was rushed to Hull Royal Infirmary in the final stages of cancer where her husband Ron was already being treated for multi-organ failure.

Staff found out from Mr Bilton’s granddaughter that his wife had also been admitted to the hospital’s Elderly Assessment Unit (EAU) nine floors below.

Realising Mr Bilton was nearing the end of his life, staff on Ward 90 organised for patients to be moved safely to other areas so Mrs Bilton could see her husband before he died. She then spent time with her husband by his bedside, holding hands with the man she had shared her life with before he slipped away.

Sister Rosie Featherstone said: “We were determined to do everything we could so they could be together at the end.

“We know it made a real difference to Mrs Bilton that she could be with him and she was able to sit in a wheelchair at the side of his bed holding his hand before he died.”

After Mr Bilton died, his loving spouse continued to be cared for by staff on the ward but she died just days later.

Staff on the ward have now been nominated for a Moments of Magic award, organised by Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust to recognise staff who go above and beyond their duties. Stacey Healand, senior matron, said: “We have a great team in the department who always put their patients at the centre of everything we do.”

The couple, from Barton-uponHumber, have since been buried together after a joint funeral.