After a month of hard work in East Surrey Hospital’s ICU, my redeployment came to an end. Thankfully, lockdown measures had helped control the spread of the virus and the number of critically ill patients began to drop. However, as my normal job was still running a limited service (due to the social distancing restrictions), I was soon redeployed again alongside two musculoskeletal colleagues to a newly established community COVID-19 rehab team.
This service was set up because we were finding that, as soon as patients were medically stable enough,they were keen to go home from hospital, yet continued to struggle with residual symptoms. This highlighted the need for a new service to be set up to get patients back to their baseline function and mobility. COVID-19 is presenting lots of different complications for patients, whether it is muscle weakness, reduced mobility, breathlessness, issues with speaking or swallowing, memory problems or overall body fatigue. Our service is made up of a multidisciplinary team in which we screen for the needs and requirements of the patients and refer them to the appropriate speciality.
So far, I have seen two of the patients that I treated in the ICU. I’m pleased to say, they are now back at home recovering and doing really well. It was such a rewarding experience to be a part of their journey back to recovery!
One of these patients told me that they can remember little of what happened in the ICU other than a few of the last few days of their recovery there. As I helped them to fill gaps in their memory, they told me that they do remember some of the rehab we were doing, namely helping them regain their sitting balance and strength on the edge of the bed. They then told me that my eyes were a bit familiar. Of course, the whole experience for a patient on ICU must be scary enough- with all the machine noises and medication making you drowsy or hallucinate, let alone the fact that you are not allowed to see your family and friends and everyone is dressed fully from head to toe in PPE (personal protective equipment)! So I am not surprised when patients don’t recognise me.
It has been really rewarding giving patients the support they need to get back into the community. Making sure they don’t feel like they have been left on their own to manage after these scary, life-changing events. Helping guide them through their recovery and even just being that someone there to talk things through with is extremely fulfilling.
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