A FATHER who spent 13 days in intensive care at the JR with coronavirus has shared his experience in a video also featuring frontline staff speaking about dealing with the pandemic.
The short documentary looks at how Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (OUH)adapted to the first wave of Covid-19.
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It gives an insight into the high levels of PPE used and how staff reacted to the pressures of the virus.
In the video, David Garry, an ITU(Intensive Treatment Unit) consultant at the trust, said: "In intensive care we are very used to dealing with critical illness, it's what we do for a living and we've seen many respiratory things like swine flu for example, seasonal flu, pneumonias.
"This is something different and we were all taken a bit aback by how ill this made people."
He added critical care was all about marginal gains, so each little bit needs to be done 'really, really well'.
Sam Foster, chief nursing officer at the trust, said: “Our intensive care senior nursing team, in response to the pandemic, worked through very quickly how they were going to cope with this overwhelming demand from patients, and they ran a phenomenal programme refreshing skills for people like me who had been out of ITU for some time.They developed a team approach so it felt less stressful.”
Cherry Lumley, a senior sister in adult intensive care at OUH, in the documentary said that what they found worked well was limiting the amount of hours frontline staff were working in the Covid areas. She said: "In doing that it allowed them to think more clearly because the wearing of the PPE can be, not just physically taxing, but it can also be psychologically stressful."
The nurse explained there would be two teams who would go in for a couple of hours at a time, alternating two hours on and then two off.
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Dr Garry said the trust's approach saw critical care survival rates almost 30 per cent higher than the national average.
Sharing what it was like on the other side was Covid-19 survivor Ken Wood, from Abingdon, who was cared for at the John Radcliffe for 19 days.
He received ventilator treatment on the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) for 13 days, and his two daughters were give compassionate leave to support his wife, Helen.
Mr Wood, speaking with tears in eyes in the video, said: “I will never forget what has been done for me, and what staff continue to do for others. I send my sincerest thanks and heartfelt gratitude. You have worked tirelessly for someone who you didn’t know, to save their life. I wasn’t the only one there but you cared for me as if I was.”
He added: “I believe I have a second chance at life: a second chance to better appreciate my blessings, a second chance to show thankfulness and gratitude, a second chance to address my true priorities and show and reflect love and compassion in my life to others.”
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