NHS worker and her daughters are reunited at last
A MOTHER who decided to separate from her family while she worked on the NHS frontline has been reunited with her daughters after nine long weeks.
Suzanne Vaughan, who worked in a hospital operating theatre and intensive care through the Covid-19 peak, felt she could not put Bella, nine, and Hettie, seven, at risk of exposure.
The family have been brought together again this week, with Ms Vaughan, 43, surprising her girls as they stayed at her sister’s house in Peterborough.
Ms Vaughan said: “I just didn’t want to let them go and when they cried I just felt it in my heart. I can’t ever let them go again.
“We haven’t stopped cuddling for a minute since I’ve been back.”
Ms Vaughan, an operating department practitioner (ODP) at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, in Norfolk, normally works 28 hours a week but had offered to go up to 50 hours to help with the national effort against coronavirus.
The family spoke every day and Ms Vaughan says she never woke up for a shift without a good morning text.
“Leaving them was very emotional as I didn’t know how long it would be until I saw them again – I never expected it to be nine weeks,” she said.
“But so many others have made the same sacrifices because we want to help people and fight this virus.
“It was something I needed to do – I started doing this job over 20 years ago because I wanted to help people.
“I put work first for nine weeks, but I think now it is time I put my girls first.”