As many of you are aware, my brother Tony aged 52 had a life changing accident in May 2020 where he fractured 3 vertebrae in his back. The hospital consultant decided to treat this ‘conservatively’ their words not mine by standing him up - with the help of physiotherapists. At this point he suffered spinal cord injury and became paralysed from the chest down. To compound this, he had to be put on kidney dialysis as the trauma and medication damaged his kidney function.

He then had a massive stomach bleed which resulted in him being transfused with 13 pints of blood in one week before the medical staff were able to stop the flow out. It then got worse, he suffered the most appalling bed sores because the water bed that he was laid on had been switched off – in error- by a member of staff - he was paralysed with no feeling and was unaware of this. And if that wasn’t enough, he also suffered pneumonia whilst in hospital.

Sarah was unable to accompany Tony to hospital or see him during this time because even though she is his main carer due to Tony’s eyesight problem, she was denied access and was made to move to a different unit.

The trauma that Tony has suffered is unbelievable - all as a result of mistakes made whilst in the care of the NHS hospital, who unfortunately have managed to deny and escape all responsibility.

Tony was discharged one cold night in November at 11pm to a bed in the living room at their house with two bookcases surrounding a commode with a shower curtain for ‘privacy’ This was due to the potential for a ward closing down due to a potential covid intake. So, not only was he shunted out he also missed vital physiotherapy he would have received as an in- patient as they ‘don’t do’ home visits

This arrangement went on for weeks with Sarah, his wife, sleeping downstairs on the settee, and managing to’ shower him’ with a watering can over the commode and 2 buckets, with their 3 teenage children helping where they could. Their only bathroom facility being upstairs.

Tony and Sarah have worked hard to rebuild their family life, but unfortunately this is prevented as Tony cannot get outside due to the number of steps both back and front of the house. The kitchen is almost completely inaccessible. And their one bathroom is upstairs. So, as you can imagine this is impacting Tony’s mental health.

As recent as 3 weeks ago whilst Sarah was on duty at the hospital where she works, Tony’s stair lift broke down whilst he was on it. The maintenance couldn’t send anyone, so the Fire Brigade had to be called to get Tony down. My heartfelt thanks go to them.

A lot of you who are reading this will have been nursed by Tony and Sarah on spinal cord injuries unit at NGH, and at Rotherham hospital – they have combined service of 58 years.

We can’t change what has happened, but what we can do together is to help them rebuild their lives giving Tony some independence back, taking some of the burden off Sarah.

Please donate what you can to provide an accessible kitchen, a downstairs toilet and some alterations to the outside to allow Tony to get out and into the garden again.

I have costed this with rough estimates – it comes to approximately £50,000 for the work that needs to be done to their house. Every bit of money you can spare will go towards Tony and Sarah’s future well being. Please share with all of your friends, it is now time to give your thanks these two hard working NHS nurses who have given the best part of their lives to looking after others.

Thank you for reading