Article published in ‘NURSING STANDARD’ magazine – October 2004

Having been totally paralysed below my chin and entirely dependent on a ventilator to keep me alive since contracting bulbar polio the week of my 17th birthday in 1955, I have experienced the care of many thousands of nurses. For the first 16 years I was permanently in hospital – the first 7 in an iron lung. Unable to do anything for myself I was totally dependent on medical and nursing staff for all my needs. Over the years the nursing care I have received has been second to none.

I was in Texas, USA when I contracted polio – there was a big epidemic at the time (this was before the introduction of the vaccine) and I was just one amongst over a hundred patients in the hospital all being nursed in iron lungs. After 16 weeks I was flown home (still in an iron lung) by the American Airforce and admitted to the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead. For the first 2 years I was very ill and as well as being nursed in an iron lung, I also had a tracheostomy. However, the expert skills and total dedication of the nurses undoubtedly saved my life. Seven years later, due to the rebuilding of the Royal Free Hospital I had to be transferred to another hospital, but by this time I was in a much better state of health although, of course, still paralysed and requiring a ventilator 24 hours of the day. This other hospital was not a teaching hospital so although the nursing care I received was adequate, it hadn’t got that special ‘touch’.

I was finally able to leave hospital in 1971 when I married Maggie (my OT!) and we came to live in our own home. Requiring 24 hour a day care, Maggie provides over 90% of that care, the rest is provided by carers and District Nurses. When I’ve had surgery or when I get a chest infection (I cannot cough to clear my lungs) I am admitted to the Lane Fox Respiratory Unit at St. Thomas’s Hospital, London and treated and nursed in an iron lung. The standard and quality of care I receive from the qualified nursing staff on this specialised unit cannot be faulted.

I’ll end this brief synopsis by citing an incident which shows that ‘true’ nursing is not just pills, potions and high tech equipment. At the Royal Free Hospital a doctor was giving me a very painful and traumatic procedure to my trachea. A nurse was with me and without any prompting from anyone, she saw my distress, leaned over, opened a porthole in the iron lung, slipped her arm through and took hold of my hand and held it throughout the remainder of the procedure. No big drama but simply the human touch from a caring nurse. That was all of 47 years ago and I still haven’t forgotten that nurse and never will.

John Prestwich