Please take the time to read Clare’s story and help us thank Epsom hospital for saving her life during her battle against COVID-19. We will never be able to thank them enough but we’re hoping to make a large donation with the help of others as a way of saying thank you. 

This is Clare’s story and in these crazy and uncertain times, during the middle of a worldwide Pandemic, there’s always room for hope, positivity and praise for the very (at times under appreciated) heart and soul of the country - our NHS Heroes. 

My sister Clare (Born with Down Syndrome) is a true inspiration to our family and to everyone who has the pleasure of loving and knowing her. This is her story and we would like people to hear it in the hope to spread some hope and positivity and to show how thankful we are to all the brilliant Nurses and Doctors at Epsom Hospital who contributed to Clare’s care and saving her life.

In October last year Clare came to live with Myself and My Family as our Dad was moved into a care home with a long term illness, and has since continued to be the bubbly chatterbox she’s always been (as well as still being the typical annoying little Sister!). On March 20th Clare was admitted to Epsom Hospital after being unwell, a few days later we had got the news that she had tested positive for this horrible horrible virus (COVID-19), and on 25th we got the call to say they were moving her into ICU where Clare would need full ventilation and to be put into a medically induced coma as her conditioned worsened and to give her a fighting chance to fight off the virus...and that’s exactly what she did with the help of the staff!

Since then she has been to hell and back, I call the hospital twice a day, everyday, where I was always able to speak to the Doctor and/or the Nurse that had been looking after Clare that day and get an update on her and then send the update to our Family WhatsApp group where I could let all of our Family members know how she was doing, Clare is the heart and soul of our family and needless to say we would all go that extra mile to keep her safe and happy. Unfortunately, for obvious reasons, we couldn’t do that this time and it was completely out of our control. This was all in the hands of the staff. A lot of the calls were a little disheartening at times as we were all of course hoping for there to be positive daily changes in Clare’s progress however that wasn’t the case. At one point none of us were sure weather Clare would ever be coming home.

It was hard, as none of us were able to visit her and the thought of her being on life support and fighting for her life with no family there to support her was awful, even if she wasn’t aware of what was going on at the time. However, as the days went on, the hospital did everything they could to help Clare and push on that little bit more, all the staff have been absolutely amazing! The ICU is especially busy as all of the patients there need 24/7 around the clock care yet the staff still gave their time to ensure her family was kept up to date - even if there was no change at all, having that reassurance that you’re able to phone and get an update really goes a long way.

Clare had to have a Tracheostomy fitted (This is where they surgically insert a tube into the neck/throat as a faster, safer and more effective way off getting oxygen into the lungs from the ventilator). A couple of days later the unthinkable happened! After slowly lowering the ventilation and sedation medication, on 08th April, Clare’s 40th birthday, I got the telephone call that they had brought her round and she was finally awake! She was obviously very scared as everyone was wearing PPE and she couldn’t talk due to the Tracheostomy and didn’t know where she was or understand what was happening to her but the staff took care of her and gave her lots of reassurance and kept her comfortable.

She is doing so so well and on the 12th she has a valve put on the end of her Tracheostomy and was finally able to speak after having lots of help from the speech and language therapists as well as physio therapists as Clare hasn’t been out of bed for a long time and walking and talking were going to be really difficult for her. Then I had the best surprise and received a call and from her and was finally able to hear her voice on the 15th, it was amazing. After asking how My Son and Husband were, the next thing she said was “Lisa, how is your cough?” Even after all she has gone through she was still thinking of others. This is typically the type of person Clare is.

On Saturday night after 24 days in intensive care and an overall period of 4 weeks and counting in Epsom Hospital, Clare was moved out of the ICU and onto a ward - crazy to think we wasn’t sure if she’d ever come out of the ICU and here she is nearly a month later making more and more progress everyday, the staff going above and beyond to be her stand-in family whilst we aren’t able to and keeping her going and supporting her over the last hurdle of her recovery to ensure she can finally come home to us safely where she belongs.

She has since been on Gloucester Ward where they are taking amazing care of her, she has now had her tracheostomy removed and is completely off ventilation, spreading the upmost positivity to everyone and there are now finally talks about Clare coming home as she’s now almost made a full recovery! Today one of the Nurses Susie has sent me a photo of her having her nails done by a fellow Nurse called Sacha who went in (ON HER DAY OFF) to wash Clare’s hair and do her nails! These people are utterly amazing. A lot of the time we don’t always appreciate or realise just how lucky we are to have our NHS when it really matters and if it wasn’t for the staff at Epsom Hospital, our Clare might not of been here today. We have all of them to thank for that. In the middle of a Pandemic, when thousands of people are diagnosed everyday with this cruel virus, life is considered a luxury. That luxury was given to Clare and we cannot thank you enough.

So we as a family would like to say a massive thank you to all at Epsom hospital for the great care they have given Clare and are still doing they truly are amazing people, we owe them so much me and my family will never be able to thank them enough for saving Clare’s life, we wanted to try and give them the recognition they deserve!

This Virus is awful, but it wont get the better of us. We hope Clare’s story offers you all some positivity and hope, if you have a loved one that is battling this please tell them to never lose hope. Thank you for taking the time to read My Sister’s story, I hope I haven’t gone on too much, I just wanted to get across the reality and the severity of Clare’s journey, to show that if Clare can fight and bounce back after coming close to the worst case scenario then so can others. To also recognise the fight the staff put up for her to get her back to us. You really are Heroes. As the saying goes “Not all Heroes wear capes” - some wear PPE and Scrubs! From the bottom of our hearts, Thank You.