BCPA Journal - Issue 184 - British Cardiac Patients Association

8
A Papworth Hospital patient’s story
I was born on 7th March 1935 in an
Aberdeenshire village. I had a sister Mary
three years older than me who had a problem
at birth requiring an operation on her hips,
and as this was long before the National
Health Service (NHS) all medical attention
had to be paid for. I also have a brother three
years younger than me.
When Mary was five years old a doctor
was found who would try the surgery but
it went wrong and she was paralysed from
the waist down. Hospital conditions in those
days were far from hygienic. Patients with
a variety of illnesses could be in the same
ward and the night time toilet was a bucket
on the centre of the ward floor. Pre-NHS all
treatments had to be paid for.
My father was wounded and his lungs
seriously burned by a war gas in the First
World War. He spent some time in hospital
and after recovery became a nurse. He met
and married my mother who was also a
nurse.
As a nurse my mother was allowed
to care for Mary in hospital but in the
unhygienic conditions both contracted a
series of infectious diseases such as scarlet
fever. During one of these infections my
sister suffered a stroke which paralysed
her right side too. They both recovered but
Mary was almost completely paralysed. The
local carpenter made a wheelchair for her.
When she became too much of a handful for
my parents she was admitted to an asylum.
Many years on, following a tragic death
in the asylum and when cruel practices
were revealed, Mary was moved, happily,
to a new purpose-built care home for the
disabled. She died aged 50. During the bad
times I was often cared for by relations or
other nursing staff.
I also had a serious defect at birth but
thankfully survived numerous health
problems and had to work and play harder
than my colleagues while trying to be as
good as them. I joined the Boys Brigade at
12 and rose to the rank of Lieutenant.
Career and health
While still a Brigade boy and in a five-year
engineering apprenticeship I joined 2612
Squadron Royal Air Force Auxiliaries.
I became a Senior Aircraftsman gunner,
driver, and signaller; and after National
Service induction training retained that
rank. I served abroad in No 63 squadron. I
was invited to apply for promotion but was
worried that my underlying health condition
could let my team mates down. On
completing my National Service I applied
for release, and with the help of my father
in law who also worked on the RAF station
this was granted.
William Gordon, BCPA member
I was working as an engineering fitter in
an electric meter factory about 1967 when
a mobile X-ray unit came to check all the
staff for tuberculosis. They found that I had
a mis-shaped and enlarged heart with an
irregular beat. Ipswich hospital took me on
board with annual checkups by Dr Barry.
When Dr Barry retired in 1979 Dr Petch
came from Papworth Hospital to take the
clinic in Ipswich and invited me to have
tests done at Papworth. I was very keen to
have them. The tests revealed I did not have
a proper aortic valve. Instead of the three
opening flaps that let blood pump through
but not back when the pump stroke ended I
had a disc of tissue with a hole in it that let
blood pump through but also some flowed
back to the heart.
1 was checked for suitability of available
replacement valves such as pigskin, plastic
or metal. Each type had a time scale – for
example a pigskin valve guarantee was
10 years and a metal valve up to 40 years.
Thankfully a metal valve was deemed
suitable and I had a Bjork Shiley metal
valve implant. This procedure was done by
Mr B B Milstein and his team on the 7th
June 1982 at Papworth Hospital.
When my wife told Mr Milstein he had
magic in his hands, he replied something
like ‘I am only a plumber.’ She replied ‘You
are a real Gentleman Sir.’
Papworth Hospital
I entered Papworth Hospital on Thursday
3rd June 1982 for a Bjork Shiley aortic
valve implant on Monday 7th June and had
a weekend to learn what would be needed
of me.
In the Surgical Unit Top Floor Ward
upstairs in the big house I was encouraged
to help my fellow patients recovering
from their operations – and learning the
procedures certainly helped to make my
operation and recovery easier.
The weather was warm and sunny,
allowing the fire door to remain open. At
times I sat there in the sun reading one of
the ward’s books, First Overland by Tim
Slessor, printed in 1975, about the Oxford
and Cambridge Overland Expedition to
Singapore involving 6 men and two Land
Rovers.
When looking out of the ward window
at the old building opposite I read a plaque
inscribed thus.
‘Sir German Siros Woodhead KBE
1855-1921 Professor of Pathology in the
University of Cambridge and one of the
founders of Papworth Colony. A very gallant
gentleman.’
At 9pm I was examined by Dr Hodder
who let me listen through his stethoscope
to my heart wheezing, and told me my
operation would be on Monday morning – a
metal valve that clicks but is best and lasts
longer. How true and kind Sir! Tomorrow he
will show me the Intensive Care Unit (lCD)
and will answer any questions I care to ask –
X-ray and ECG tomorrow perhaps.
My personal possessions such as my
watch, keys, driving licence and money
were handed in and I received a receipt for
them signed by E H Steele. That sounded
like ‘Steal’ and raised a smile.
I believe my ward fellows were:
• Mr Bill Wood, a Cambridge Solicitor
aged 74 in the next bed to mine (my
bed was behind the door). A lovely man
full of fun and we got on very well. He
gave me his address and phone number
therefore I was very sad when I learned
that he had died on 20th of June while
convalescing in Mundesley.
• Mr Ken Evans from Hants, who was
quite ill.
• Mr Cook who was from near Diss.
• Mr Varney from Great Yarmouth.
Next day, Friday morning, I had an X-ray
and Mr Milstein came to see me.
After some rain it was sunny again. I
walked to the pond, and watched the fish and
the birds flying around there. I spoke with
Mr David Haggar, a heart transplant patient;
and Mr Peter Hart, also a transplant man then
a Norfolk man with a lung problem. [Peter
Hart died in November 2011, 29 years after
his transplant, and thus far is Papworth’s
longest transplant survivor.]
Still Friday, indoors, at tea time the TV
was switched on for the first time but by then
it was stormy and the lightning interrupted
it. The lightning also cut out the electricity
but the emergency power immediately took
over. We switched the lights off.
The lightning interfered with the
monitors, especially Mr Varney’s, and
caused the staff to run around re-setting
them.
The staff were brilliant, not just dealing
with the effect of the lightning but in all their
work. They were Sister Barker, Staff nurse
Othello, Nurse Vanessa (Auntie Nessie),
Auxiliary nurse Reed, the male nurse on
night shift, the physiotherapist, Norman
the domestics chap, and some others whose
names I cannot remember. All were kind
and helpful.
I took some liquorice allsorts to help me
clear my stomach before the operation but
then I had laxatives next morning. I hoped
the drainage system worked well.
Sunday morning was sunny again so I
did some washing and hung it out on the
fire escape. My wife and daughter visited
almost daily, coming from Felixstowe. My