Andrew's wish list - University Hospital Southampton NHS ...

Issue
24
FREE - PLEASE TAKE ONE
News from Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust
Andrew’s
wish list
Living with prostate cancer
Chilling out
Baby Kaleb gets
cooling treatment
Spotlight
Palliative
care
Meet the
pharmacy
trouble-shooters
Golden Stethoscope
Dr James
Adams walks
away with
the prize
WIN!
Comedy club
tickets

Welcome to issue 24 of Connect
Connect has been given a fresh new look for 2010 which we hope our readers will approve of.
As always, the magazine is jam-packed with patient stories, latest hospital news, behind-the-scenes features and all
your regular favourites like Golden Stethoscope and Getting to Know.
From this issue, we will also be publishing patient feedback (see back page).
mediamonitor
the latest SUHT news
Reproduced with kind permission of the Southern Daily Echo
MediaMonitor
First ceramic skull
implant in UK
Consultant neurosurgeon Tony Belli has carried out a pioneering operation
to replace part of a patient’s skull with a ceramic implant.
PC Linda Butt underwent surgery after she was diagnosed with five brain
tumours and Mr Belli needed to remove part of her skull to get to them.
Linda is still receiving treatment
for two tumours, but the
ceramic implant means
doctors can monitor them –
a metal plate would have
blocked images.
It will also knit
together with the
remaining bone.
Mr Belli said: “It is so
much like natural bone
in that if you fracture
it, it will heal over
and, in time, the
bone will grow into
the ceramic and
knit together.”
MediaMonitor
This story was covered by The Sun, the Daily Mail, BBC South Today, BBC Radio
Solent, BBC Hampshire Online.
MediaMonitor
MediaMonitor
Secret agents
They are the taskforce set to ensure
the children’s wards are kept in tip-top
condition…child secret agents. A new army
of recruits, selected from young patients
aged seven and above, are supplied with a
disposable camera, hi-tech voice-recording
pen, shades and a magnifying glass to carry
out their top-secret mission to keep up
hospital standards. They photograph and
note down anything of interest during their
stay and report back on what is being done
well or what needs improving.
This story was covered by Teletext, The Coast FM, Heart
FM and the Southern Daily Echo.
MediaMonitor
Emergency department
team make Christmas
headlines
The team at Southampton
General Hospital’s emergency
department team made national
headlines at Christmas with
their bid to prevent a raft of
common festive injuries.
Consultant Dr John Heyworth
warned of the dangers of carving
the Christmas turkey while drunk
and elderly relatives choking on
the traditional holiday meat.
“Every Christmas without fail, we see the same injuries caused by
preparing and cooking the Christmas dinner,” he said.
“People are likely to burn themselves on the oven or cut themselves as
they carve the turkey – particularly if they have been drinking alcohol.”
Eye casualty sister Emma Powditch urged caution when pulling presents
from under the tree to avoid scratches to the eyeball and popping
champagne corks near eyes, which can cause significant bruising and swelling
to eyelids after impact.
Among the more unusual problems seen by Emma and her colleagues
over the years have been burns and swelling of the eyes cased by exploding
Christmas lights, zips caught on eyelids when trying on new clothes, and
injuries from snowballs with hidden stones.
MediaMonitor
This story was covered by the Daily Mail, The Daily Telegraph, The Sun, BBC News
Online, the Daily Express, Marie Claire, The Scotsman, the Daily Echo, Galaxy FM,
Absolute Radio and BBC Radio Solent.
Top docs on
rescue mission
Southampton’s teaching hospitals supported the immediate response relief
efforts in the earthquake-ravaged island of Haiti by releasing two doctors
for deployment. Dr Nick Maskery, emergency department consultant, and
Dr Rob Dawes, specialist registrar in anaesthetics and intensive care, both
flew out to support search and rescue missions. Dr Maskery was involved
with the high profile rescue of Sonia Fleury, reported in The Times, who was
found nearly 100 hours after the earthquake struck.
Tell Michelle…
We want to know what you think of your new-look Connect. Contact internal communications manager Michelle
Harris with your comments, along with any news or feature ideas for future issues. Feedback can be sent via:
Email: connect@suht.swest.nhs.uk
Post: Communications, Mailpoint 18, Southampton General Hospital, Tremona Road Southampton SO16 6YD
Telephone: 023 8079 4853
Website: www.suht.nhs.uk
CONNECT
2 ISSUE 24
Connect is produced by SUHT’s communications team. Printed on environmentally friendly paper.

Kaleb’s
a cool
customer
After making a traumatic entrance into the
world, baby Kaleb was given time to chill out.
The tot was among the first babies
at Princess Anne Hospital to receive
a new hi-tech cooling treatment to
prevent brain damage.
As a SUHT employee, Larelle
Jauncey, 19, from Shirley in
Southampton, knows the Princess
Anne better than most first-time
mums – but she didn’t expect to
spend so much time there after giving
birth to Kaleb.
She said: “My pregnancy had been
fine, but I was nearly two weeks
overdue, so I came to Princess Anne
Hospital to be induced.
“Everything seemed to be going
OK, but then there were problems
with Kaleb’s blood pressure and I
had a very high temperature. As
soon as he was born they took him
away and started working on him,
then he was taken to neonatal
intensive care.”
The first 48 hours of Kaleb’s life
were critical and, at one point, he
stopped breathing. Larelle and her
boyfriend, Luke Wheeler, were
warned they might want to consider
getting their baby son christened in
hospital, in case he did not survive.
Doctors then decided to use a
new treatment to cool Kaleb’s body
temperature in a bid to prevent any
brain damage that may have been
caused when he was born.
Kaleb was attached to a cold
body wrap and connected to a
hi-tech cooling machine, which was
“
The first 48 hours of Kaleb’s life were critical
and, at one point, he stopped breathing
used to drop his body temperature
from the normal 37° to 33.5°. This
hypothermia was maintained for
around 72 hours before he was
gradually warmed back to normal.
Consultants Dr Robert Ironton
and Dr Vijay Baral lead the new
cooling treatment, which has been
introduced following recent studies
that suggest cooling a baby limits the
severity of any brain injury.
If the blood supply between a
mother and baby becomes obstructed
or cut – known as perinatal asphyxia
– the baby can become severely
deprived of oxygen.
MediaMonitor
This lack of oxygen sets off an
inflammatory response in the brain
cells that can lead to serious illness,
or, in some cases, prove fatal.
It is believed that cooling the body
of an at-risk baby within six hours
of birth, in addition to standard
intensive care treatment, gives the
brain time to recover by limiting
inflammation and slowing the body’s
energy needs.
Dr Baral said: “Baby cooling is
standard practice in many larger
hospitals across the world and we
are delighted to now be able to
provide this new service for babies in
Southampton.”
MediaMonitor
Larelle’s mum, Martina Jauncey,
said: “It was a very difficult time for
both families while Kaleb was in
hospital, but the nurses were very
good to us all.
“Everyone was surprised how well
Kaleb did and how quickly he got
better.”
Kaleb is now a happy, healthy
baby, with no signs of his dramatic
start in life, but will be regularly
monitored for the first few years
of his life.
For more information visit
www.suht.nhs.uk and search
for ‘neonatal’
SUHT’s new baby-cooling treatment has featured in the News of the World and the
Nursing Times, as well as on ITV Meridian.
Volunteer interpreters
Agnieszka Burtt is an admin support assistant – but over the past year has
helped many women and families during their pregnancies and births.
Based at the Princess Anne Hospital,
she is one of 61 members of staff
at SUHT who have trained to be
volunteer interpreters.
Nearly six years ago, Agnieszka
moved to Southampton from Poland,
where she had been an English teacher.
Since completing her training course
in December 2008, Agnieszka has
helped patients at appointments, births
and over the phone.
She said: “Even if families have been
in the UK a long time and speak good
English, medical vocabulary can cause
problems. Sometimes I only need to
interpret a few words to help women
understand procedures.
“I am very pleased that I can help
our Polish patients. It can be a worrying
and stressful time, especially if you don’t
understand everything you are being
told. I can help to explain everything and
reassure them.”
Using trained staff volunteers means
clinicians can access interpreters very
quickly. This is important in emergency
situations, as volunteers are already on
site, so doctors do not have to wait for an
external translator to travel to the hospital.
The in-house service provides crucial
help for patients for whom English is not
their first language.
Often, these patients are anxious and
confused, so just a few words from one
of the interpreters can help put them at
ease – enabling clinical staff to treat the
patient more effectively.
As well as being cheaper than
external companies, saving the Trust
money, the in-house interpretation
service offers a more personal approach,
providing face-to-face help rather than
being a voice on the end of the phone.
The Trust’s volunteer interpreters are in
big demand and more recruits are needed
to help out with interpretation work.
If you are a member of staff who is
fluent in another language and would like
to find out more about training to become
a volunteer interpreter, contact voluntary
services manager Kim Sutton on ext 6062.
• SUHT currently has 866
volunteers, including 66
interpreter volunteers
• Between them, they speak
41 languages
• Languages range from Arabic
to Urdu and everything in
between
• The number of call-outs for
SUHT’s in-house interpreter
service rose from 254 in 2005
to 554 in 2009.81% to 84%
Foundation
Trust update
The hospital’s board of directors
has decided to postpone our bid to
become a foundation trust.
As you will have read in previous
issues of Connect, the application
had been proceeding well and the
Trust was in a strong position to be
authorised from February 1.
However the financial situation
that developed in the local health
economy made it impossible for the
board to be confident that we could
manage some of the risks associated
with being a foundation trust.
The application will now be
resumed once the hospital and its
commissioners can agree plans that
will bring affordable volumes of
work to the hospital - probably not
for at least 12 months.
The Trust remains in healthy
financial balance and there is strong
support for the continued growth of
our world-class specialist services.
CONNECT
ISSUE 24 3

spotlight
on services
Palliative care
Connect has been taking an in-depth look at SUHT’s end
of life care service.
Releasing nursing time
A project to free up nursing time at Countess Mountbatten
House has halved the number of patient falls.
The nurses have taken part in a
Releasing Time to Care project,
designed to improve the quality of
patient care and the working lives of
staff. Already it has increased direct
patient care by 13% and led to a
52% reduction in falls.
Sister Jennie Dacombe explained
the process to Connect: “The first
thing we had to do was find out our
starting position, so that we could
measure our improvement.
“This was calculated by following
the nurses with a stopwatch and
timing all of the interruptions to
their patient care. This included
interruptions from other staff,
telephone calls and trying to find
things around the ward.”
The initial research found that
44% of the nurses’ time was
spent on patient care. A patient
satisfaction survey at the same time
gave some very positive results, with
100% of patients reporting that the
care they received was very good
or excellent.
However, there was some concern
over the time taken for nurses to
respond to patient buzzers. The
team felt that this was linked to the
number of patient falls, which they
wanted to work to reduce.
The project was divided
into modules, with two nurses
championing each module.
The first change was to improve
• Releasing Time to Care has
been rolled out to 40 out of
46 inpatient wards around the
Trust
• Direct care time has increased
from 39% to 53%
• Patient satisfaction has
increased from 96% to 100%
• Staff satisfaction has increased
from 81% to 84%
the patient status
board, to enable staff
to see all information
at a glance. They
introduced colour
coding for the
consultants as well as
additional physiotherapy and
infection control information for each
patient.
One of the biggest improvements
was in the storage of equipment. By
rearranging cupboards, the length of
time taken to find things was reduced
from six minutes to six seconds.
There is now a cupboard in each
bay, which is topped up with stock
after every shift. Every cupboard is
arranged in the same way, so that
nurses know where to look for
items, no matter which bay they are
working in.
Involving volunteers and
housekeepers in serving breakfast
made another major improvement.
This has released the time of two
healthcare assistants, totalling 730
hours of nursing time each year.
Jennie said: “The project is
ongoing and we look forward
to making more improvements.
Everyone has got involved and made
a difference and we have had visits
from our matron, Trust Board and
divisional heads of nursing.
“It is great to see the reduction
in falls as a result of the increased
patient contact time, and a survey
of staff showed that morale has
improved too.”
For more information visit
www.suht.nhs.uk and search
for ‘palliative’
CONNECT
4ISSUE 24

Andrew’s
wish list
Andrew Middleton is a man on a mission.
The retired engineer was diagnosed
with prostate cancer two years ago
and had been doing well until his
condition forced him to cut short a
holiday in Spain.
After treatment at Southampton
General Hospital, he was able to
return home but was readmitted a
few months later when he suffered
acute renal failure.
The life-threatening condition was
the start of a four-month hospital
stay, which included two weeks in
intensive care.
As his condition improved, he was
moved to Countess Mountbatten
House, SUHT’s hospice at West End,
near Southampton, to recuperate.
Far from feeling sorry for himself,
Andrew set about a plan to get
mobile again as quickly as possible.
Every day, he would walk around
the hospice with either his frame or
sticks, relying on the nursing staff to
keep count of his laps.
Andrew also enjoyed the benefits
of aromatherapy and physiotherapy
during his stay.
Now back home in Woolston,
Southampton, with wife Anne, his
number one aim is to get strong
enough to take the couple’s
cocker spaniel, Ben, for a walk.
Once that has been accomplished,
he plans to get back to restoring
his pride and joy, a Porsche 911 – a
project that has already taken him
19 years.
Third on the wish list is his
ultimate goal – to actually drive
the car.
In the meantime, he is a keen
“
I didn’t really know what to expect there
but it was more like a high-class hotel.
photographer and spends many
hours in his garden, capturing
birds and insects on camera.
Andrew speaks extremely
highly of the care he received at
Countess Mountbatten House.
“I didn’t really know what to
expect there but it was more like
a high-class hotel. Being there was a
huge advantage for me,” he said.
Being a vegetarian, Andrew was
impressed with the personalised
meals that were prepared for him –
not to mention the “tipple” that was
offered before dinner.
Sadly, medications prevented him
from being able to indulge, but he
said this was just one example of
the personal touch offered by the
Countess Mountbatten team.
Andrew returned home in
January. He and Anne have been
amazed at all the equipment made
available to them – everything from
a bed, chairs and cushions to frames,
sticks and a wheelchair.
The couple also have a team of
nurses, doctors and carers who are
ready and willing to call in at various
times of day to look after Andrew’s
every need.
“We are just overwhelmed,” said
Anne. “You hear so much bad news
about the NHS, but we just cannot
speak highly enough of it.
“As a family, we would like to
thank everyone who has shown such
dedication and professional care to
Andrew over what has been a very
long and worrying time.”
get
involved
Making the link
Every clinical area across Southampton’s university hospitals is
encouraged to have at least one palliative care link nurse.
Known as spiritual, palliative and end of life (SPEL) nurses, they act as an
advocate on the ward for patients and their families, as well as being a central
resource for ward staff.
SPEL nurses have responsibility for passing on their specialist knowledge to
colleagues as well as taking charge of palliative care issues in their own area.
End of Life Care Month
March 2010 is End of Life Care Month across Southampton University
Hospitals NHS Trust.
Patients, relatives and staff will have a wide range of opportunities to learn more
about palliative and end of life care, both at Southampton General Hospital and
Countess Mountbatten House.
Details will be publicised soon or call Julie Francere on 023 8047 5564 to find out more.
Patients, carers, family members and bereaved relatives can
play an active part in the future of Countess Mountbatten
House and the palliative care service.
The newly formed Countess Mountbatten Patient
Partnership Forum welcomes feedback and ideas from
anyone who has used the service.
Telephone 023 8047 5581 to find out more.
Countess Mountbatten House
Countess Mountbatten House is a
regional NHS palliative care service for
patients with advancing cancer.
The hospice is set in gardens at West
End, near Southampton.
This coordinated, interprofessional
hospice, community and hospital service
for those in the greater Southampton area
includes:
• More than 20 specialist palliative
care beds
• An award-winning specialist
palliative care team in the
community
• An enthusiastic specialist hospital
palliative care team
• A dedicated day care service
• An award-winning education team
• A research environment to improve
the care and support offered.
The work of CMH is supported by the Countess Mountbatten Hospice Charity. For more
information on their fundraising events and how you can get involved, contact Kat Linsley
Hood on 023 8047 5345 or email kat@cmhcharity.co.uk.
CONNECT
ISSUE 24 5

getting
to know
Helen Staples procedure pack co-ordinator
Tell us a little bit about your background
I grew up in rural Staffordshire and at the seaside
in Worthing, Sussex. I arrived in Southampton in 1965 to
start my nurse training.
My first year was spent living in what is now known
as the old nurses’ home, under the watchful eye of the
‘home warden’ (when a night out meant back by 10pm!).
During my student placement in theatre, I realised
that this was where I wanted to work once qualified.
After living in the Channel Islands and 27 years
of family life in Peterborough, combined with work
in theatres and intensive care, I changed direction
and became an inaugural member of the Trust
transformation team.
Five years later I came full circle, returning to SGH at
the end of my career.
What does your role at SUHT involve?
When I arrived at SUHT six years ago, my job
was a first for the Trust, and a rarity nationwide.
I work with pack suppliers to maintain a consistent
and cost effective supply of procedure packs to the many
theatres and departments Trust wide.
A theatre procedure pack is a customised product
consisting of a collection of consumable items regularly
used for a given procedure, packed in a sterile, theatreready
presentation.
I also work as a link nurse, liaising between my
clinical colleagues and our procurement colleagues,
offering advice and researching product alternatives
for out of stock items and new product trials,
while constantly supporting standardisation and
rationalisation of theatre consumables.
What do you get up to in your spare time?
Touring the UK and Europe with our trusty
tent, long lazy days at our beach hut at
Milford-on-Sea and furiously energetic
aquarobics sessions at the local pool.
“
…the NHS won
me over and
after 45 years
I think I will
stay!
What’s the best book you’ve ever read?
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini.
Favourite film?
Lawrence of Arabia (1962), a David Lean
‘Panavision’ epic with fabulous surround sound.
Hundreds in the cast and not a computerised image
to be seen.
What three items would you take with you on
a desert island?
A king-size Hungarian goose down duvet, an unlimited
supply of Nestle condensed milk in tubes and a pair of
scissors, as a ‘proper’ nurse should never leave home
without!
Who has inspired your career?
The team of learned theatre sisters who tutored me
intensively when I joined the staff of Twin Theatres at
Southampton General Hospital back in 1968. There was
an infectious precision about the way they worked which
ensured high standards of patient care even without the
sophisticated equipment of today.
Why did you choose to work for the NHS?
Once I had qualified, private sector healthcare
was still in its infancy and not a very secure option at
the time. I did give it a whirl and admired the business
approach to healthcare. However, the NHS won me over
and after 45 years I think I will stay!
next
issue
In the next issue of Connect, we’ll be putting Alastair
Matthews, director of finance, in the hotseat. If you
would like to suggest a question, email it to
connect@suht.swest.nhs.uk by Friday 19 March.
Offside
comedy
club
WIN!
Tell us what you think about
Connect’s new look and you could
win a pair of tickets to
Southampton’s new comedy night,
the Offside Comedy Club.
The Offside Comedy Club takes place at St Mary’s
Stadium, Southampton. For more information visit
www.offsidecomedy.com.
To be in with a chance of winning, just email
connect@suht.swest.nhs.uk with your views on
Connect’s new look.
The winner will be picked on 19 March 2010.
Congratulations to Arlene Brady from the emergency
department, who won a bottle of champagne in issue
23’s reader survey prize draw.
Three cheers for Toby
Back in issue 6, we
featured the story of
Toby Dobson, who
was born three and a
half months early.
Toby has just celebrated his third birthday, so
his mum Lyndsay and dad Alastair contacted
Connect to tell us how he’s been getting on.
After being born so early, Toby’s lungs did
not develop properly, and he still relies on an
oxygen supply 24 hours a day.
Toby also had some bleeding on his brain
when he was born, and has since been
diagnosed with cerebral palsy. This affects his
motor skills, and he is not able to sit or walk yet.
Lyndsay said: “It is a miracle that Toby survived at all,
and he is getting stronger all the time – he can move
himself across the floor to his favourite spot in front of the
television! He is also trying to talk now and has learnt how
to click his tongue.”
Toby eats pureed food, but last summer had a
gastrostomy tube fitted so that he can still be fed even when
he is unable to eat.
Lyndsay and Alastair have now set up a charity, Team
Toby, to help fund some of the specialist equipment that
their son needs. So far they have raised more than £2,300
and have more events planned.
Lyndsay said: “He’s such a happy child and brings so
much to our lives despite his disabilities. We are so lucky
to have him and hope that his story inspires other parents
who are in the same situation.”
For more information about the charity visit www.teamtoby.co.uk
CONNECT
6 ISSUE 24

meet the
team
Pharmacy’s trouble-shooters
Tucked away in the pharmacy department is a team helping thousands
of patients a year – usually without them knowing it.
Staff in the medicines information
centre, a specialist unit based at
Southampton General Hospital,
advise doctors, nurses and
pharmacists about treating patients
with complex clinical needs.
The team helps identify which
medicines have caused side effects,
finds suitable treatments when the
usual ones have failed, and advises
doctors how to prescribe safely for
patients who are already taking lots
of drugs.
Dr Simon Wills, who runs the unit,
said: “People phone us to ask literally
anything about medicines.
“But most of our calls are about
individual patients with a problem
that has stumped other professionals,
and it’s good to be able to help.
“We don’t just cover this Trust –
The team’s training
materials are used
across the world
we take calls from Oxford to the Isle
of Wight and from Weymouth to
Portsmouth so it’s quite a big area.
We even take calls from GPs and
NHS Direct.”
Angela Emerson, the team’s
longest serving member, said:
“We were recently asked to go to
Germany to help them learn about
our role in Southampton because
they’d like to copy what we do here.
“Although we’re well-known
as innovators in the UK, it’s nice to
think that even in Europe there are
people who look to Southampton
for leadership.”
In fact, the unit’s fame goes
beyond Europe because the training
materials they have developed
are now used by pharmacists in
Australia, New Zealand, Turkey,
Malta and Uganda.
Members of the team have highly
specialised clinical skills and are often
called upon for an expert opinion –
which means carefully weighing up
the pros and cons of various courses
of action in difficult situations.
Frequently, queries are about safe
prescribing in pregnancy or the use
of unusual medicines in infants.
Pharmacist Helen Jones enjoys
the variety. “Every day is different
because every enquiry we receive is
different,” she said.
“One minute I’ll be talking
to a GP, then a hospital nurse,
then maybe writing a letter to
a consultant. And the variety of
topics is huge – antibiotics, herbal
medicines, painkillers, psychiatry
medicines – you name it.
“People often phone because
they’ve exhausted all the other avenues
for information so it’s good when we
can help them solve a patient’s problem
– and we nearly always can.”
Golden Stethoscope
Among the serious work, the
trouble-shooters are occasionally
asked some very unusual
questions. Past ones have included:
What is the dose of antibiotic for a
killer whale?
Can eating artist’s oil paints cause
mental illness?
What oral contraceptives are
available in Bulgaria?
A patient has eaten a whole tub
of E45 because she thought it was
vanilla ice cream. Is this harmful?
What treatments were available
for angina in 1948?
A patient has just injected himself
with his dog’s insulin by mistake.
What should he do?
Is it safe to spray WD40 on the legs
to treat stiff knees?
Can my medication make me
allergic to eyebrow dye?
I’ve been taking my wife’s
contraceptives instead of my
migraine medicines for a month.
Will it do me any harm?
I’m allergic to the main antidote to
radiation poisoning. What should I
do if there’s a nuclear war?
It’s official – Dr James Adams is a man with his
finger on the pulse.
James, who works as a consultant physician
WINNER!
in medicine for older people, is the winner of this year’s
Golden Stethoscope award, SUHT’s reality check to see if our
consultants are living in the real world.
He scored an impressive 8/10, correctly answering questions on
everything from music and film to Formula 1 and pot noodles.
The battle for the next Golden Stethoscope award will
commence in our next issue. Who would you like to see facing the
10-question challenge? Email connect@suht.swest.nhs.uk
CONNECT
ISSUE 24 7

talkback
The fundraising
connection
Call Southampton Hospital Charity on 023 8079 8881 or visit www.suht.nhs.uk/charity.
Dear Connect
Just over a year ago, we spent
several weeks at Princess Anne
and Southampton General
hospitals, after our son Jozsef
was born ten weeks premature
on 11 December 2008.
Through the hard work and
dedication of the doctors and nurses
on the neonatal ward, he came
home on 30 December.
Unfortunately, Jozsef contracted
an infection and on 14 January 2009
his condition deteriorated rapidly
and he was rushed to the General,
to ward G1, where the doctors and
nurses saved his life. Words cannot
express what we went through
that night, but the team were
tremendous. They kept us informed
with everything that was happening
and tried their best to comfort and
reassure us at all times.
The next chapter involved the
paediatric intensive care unit. The
PICU team are tasked with the most
difficult job imaginable and our hats
go off to them all; they really are
something special. I would like to
single out Gemma, who cared for our
son with such care, dedication and
sincerity. Without the support she
gave us we would have undoubtedly
cracked under the pressure.
After a short hop into ward G2,
where the staff allowed us to bond
with our son and learn how to feed
and bath him again, we finally took
him home on 28 January.
Jozsef is now a confident and
content one year old and we are just
so lucky to have him here. This was
truly down to all the staff involved in
his care through Princess Anne and
the General Hospital.
The hardest thing we thought we
may struggle with is the bonding
with a child who you lost (in theory)
to the hospitals and nurses for nearly
two months, at such a vital and
vulnerable time. However, if truth
be known, we feel this experience
has made him the contented, placid
little boy he is – everyone says what a
pleasure he is when they meet him.
Thanks again for everyone’s
support and help – your staff are
truly remarkable people – Jozsef’s
guardian angels!
Yours sincerely
The Kovacs family – John, Lou
and Jozsef
Alan’s ultimate
challenge
After life-saving brain surgery, Alan Charlesworth wanted to set
himself the biggest challenge possible.
The 39-year-old from Southampton decided on Iron Man UK
2009 – a gruelling 140 mile race which includes a 2.4 mile swim, a
112 mile bike ride and a 26.3 mile run.
Alan was treated in the Wessex Neurological Unit at Southampton
General Hospital after suffering a serious head injury five years ago.
He underwent emergency neurosurgery to remove an extradural
haematoma, a potentially life-threatening blood clot on the brain,
and has since made a full recovery.
Alan took part in Iron Man UK to support the unit that provided
such vital care for his recovery, raising £1,365 through sponsorship.
He said: “It was the biggest challenge that I could think to set
myself. When I came out of my accident, it really made me realise
how precious life is, and I wanted to give something back.”
Miranda Gardner, head injury nurse specialist, said: “Alan’s
fundraising was more than a marathon effort. We are enormously
grateful to him for raising such a substantial amount of money.
“Considering the serious nature of his injury, Alan’s achievement in
completing Iron Man UK is more than we could ever have hoped for.
We shall be purchasing a special low-level bed with the money,
to protect patients who are at risk of falling.”
Alan has further ambitions to fundraise in the future, hinting
that he hopes to compete in the half-Iron Man event, and is also
considering an accelerated freefall skydive.
i
Find out more... Sign up to Southampton Hospital Charity’s newsletter to receive
more news and fundraising information. Email charity@suht.swest.nhs.uk.
SUHT Sudoku
challenge
Win a meal at the Old Delhi Eatery
Enter numbers from 1 to 9 into the blank squares, so that every row,
every column and every 3x3 square has one of each digit.
Send your entry in the internal post to Connect, Mailpoint 18, to
be in with a chance of winning a meal at the Old Delhi Eatery worth
up to £25. Entries close Friday 19 March.
Congratulations to Simon Morris, from the residency department,
who successfully completed Issue 23’s puzzle to scoop the prize.
www.olddelhi.co.uk
Win £2,010
in 2010
1st prize – £2,010 cash prize
2nd prize – ‘Silver Lining’, a
beautiful handmade quilt
3rd prize – Canon Power Shot
A470 digital camera
Winter Raffle tickets cost £1
The draw will take place on 22
March 2010 (tickets on sale until
16 March 2010)
Tickets on sale at Southampton
General Hospital:
• Southampton Hospital Charity
(Trust Management Offices,
opposite the Emergency
Department)
• Main hospital reception
• Various wards and departments
Killimanjaro
challenge
Support medical staff on Princess
Anne Hospital’s neonatal
unit, in their Killimanjaro
challenge in October 2010.
Visit www.justgiving.co.uk/
pahneonatalchallenge to make a
donation today, or call 023 8079
8881 to find out more.
WIN