On Our Mind
Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust provides integrated healthcare services including intellectual disability, mental health, community health, forensic and offender healthcare services across Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire and South Yorkshire.
Our On Our Minds blog shares lived experiences from colleagues at the Trust and patients who use or have used our services on a variety of topics from a wide range of services.
Exceptional care for John as he says nurse saved his life
As part of International Nurses’ Day on 12 May we’re sharing a story about John Butler from Cropwell Butler in Nottinghamshire, and his family, about the exceptional care he received from our community matron, who he says saved his life.
Katharine Dale is a Community Matron at Nottinghamshire Healthcare and has been supporting John with a heart condition and diabetes for seven months. On a visit a few months ago, she recognised how unwell John was and called an ambulance, which ultimately led to John having a pacemaker fitted which highly likely saved his life. When Katharine visited, she noticed he was extremely tired, more breathless than normal, had a slow heart rate and low oxygen saturations.
“Katharine saved my life.” says John. “Her support has been brilliant. I couldn’t have managed without her. She is one of the best things that’s happened to me.
“She came to see me and straight away noticed my condition wasn’t very good and knew I needed to have an ECG and to be monitored. She called the ambulance, and I was taken to the hospital and later that week I was fitted with the pacemaker.
“Without her visit and recognising how ill I was I would have deteriorated and probably not be here today. She was a godsend.
“I am more than grateful to her; I could never thank her enough. It’s made a big difference to my life.”
Since the pacemaker has been fitted John has noticed a real difference. He used to be on oxygen 24-7 but now he mainly manages without it.
Jayne Musgrove John’s daughter praised Katharine saying “Katharine is such a lovely caring person and an outstanding nurse. Having Katharine in our lives felt like having the hospital visit dad at home, only better.
“Dad's doing really well now, all thanks to Katharine, without a doubt! I can’t put into words how thankful I am that we had her in our lives. If we hadn’t had her, my dad wouldn’t be here.
“Her last visit was very emotional; we will miss her! But know we can contact her if things change, which means the world to us.”
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