Lesley Unsworth suffered a perforated ulcer in 2018 and has been on a long and turbulent recovery journey. Lesley wants to share her care experience with the Trust and highlight the exceptional care she has received.
Lesley spent a total of 67 days in Intensive Care and faced many serious complications including sepsis and multiple organ failure after collapsing with a perforated ulcer in October 2018. At times it was unclear whether Lesley would survive but thankfully Lesley was discharged from Royal Preston Hospital in January 2019 and has been under the care of the Treatment Room team at Buckshaw Village Surgery ever since.
Lesley highlights:
“I have seen many nurses during this time and all of them have treated me with superb care and compassion but I must mention two members of staff that have gone above and beyond the call of duty since their first contact with me - Janice Johnson, treatment room nurse and Hayley Houldsworth from the Tissue Viability Specialist Nurse team.
Both Janice and Hayley have never given up trying to find solutions to heal my ongoing large open wound, they have tried every potential dressing option available. They are always actively asking questions, never settle and are looking for new ways to help me heal.”
Lesley’s wound is now over 4 years old and earlier this year Lesley was referred for a skin graft to cover the open wound. Hayley went above and beyond and attended appointments with Lesley to explain in more detail to the surgeon the care Lesley’s wound has received, without Hayley’s involvement it is highly unlikely the surgeon would have agreed for the skin graft to go ahead.
Having a successful skin graft is vital, as Lesley is waiting for a hip replacement and is suffering with chronic pain, Hayley continued to attend appointments with Lesley’s orthopaedic surgeon and offer her professional input, the graft has been successful and Lesley has recently been discharged from Plastics.
Hayley said:
“As a nurse we all want the best for our patients and most of us would go above and beyond to ensure our patients receive the right care at the right time. We nurse because we want to help, we want to make a difference in people’s lives, we care, we understand and listen to our patients and carry out our daily duties with compassion and empathy and sometimes truly do not understand the impact that we have on others as it comes second nature.
Lesley’s case is challenging so I felt that I needed to do something to become that advocate, hence why I attended her hospital appointments in my own time. We are supporting her though some very difficult times emotionally and physically and I know how much of an uphill struggle this has been for Lesley and her family but I can now say that I do see light at the end of the tunnel.
Janice has been by my side throughout Lesley’s treatment, Janice is wonderful, compassionate, caring and gives 100% to all her patients and Lesley is testament to this. This is why we nurse and we are so proud to be nurses working for LSCft and making a difference.”
Lesley has recently received confirmation she is now on the urgent hip replacement list, after years of pain and struggling to walk this procedure will change Lesley’s life for the better. Lesley’s orthopaedic consultant commented it was a pleasure to work collaboratively with the team to get the best outcome for Lesley and we can look at working again in the future to deliver training in relation to plastic surgery and skin grafts.
Since receiving her care Lesley has raised £4,000 for Preston ICU, the impact of the last 4 years has been hugely emotional for Lesley and her family and Janice and Hayley have offered their endless support to Lesley and her family.
Chris Oliver, Interim CEO concluded:
“We talk about person centred care a lot in the NHS and Janice and Hayley have demonstrated this. They have gone over and above the Trust values and have made an interim CEO very proud to have them in our organisation and really reflect on why we are all here.”
Community Nurses play a vital role in providing care outside of the hospital and closer to home for patients in their own homes, schools, care homes and clinic setting for patients across the whole age spectrum from birth to end of life.
As a Trust we provide Community Physical Health Nursing care in a number of specialist areas including District Nursing, Health Visiting, Children’s Complex packages of care, Diabetes, COPD, Frailty, Continence, Lymphodema, Heart Failure, Intensive Home Support, Falls and in Treatment rooms.
Our Community Physical Health Nurses are a highly skilled autonomous workforce who carry out a huge range of vital physical care interventions through the provision of holistic care, they play an essential part in preventing hospital admission and supporting early discharge.
