"My granny's care in hdu"

My granny sadly passed away last night. Working in the NHS I felt it was important to share our story as the NHS gets a lot of bad press and sadly the great care is very rarely highlighted.

My granny was admitted to the medical assessment unit on Saturday night with chest sepsis and transferred to HDU on Sunday night. When I contacted the ward on Monday morning the staff were very helpful and gave me enough information for me to make the decision to travel the fours home in order to be there.

Some of my family had arrived early afternoon and have all commented on how kind, compassionate and caring the staff were towards them. Although one nurse had made a comment to my dad about sitting on the bed comforting his mother (as a nurse myself I'm aware of infection control policies however when someone is in their last moments I think it's a bit late to worry about that! ).

When I arrived at around 6:30, my granny was clearly nearing the end. The staff very kindly moved her to a side room so all the family could have some privacy. I'm aware of how difficult it can be to obtain a side room, especially in a high dependency unit and we are extremely grateful to be staff for managing to create one.

My granny sadly passed away last night and she was surrounded by all her family. She was incredibly peaceful and we cannot thank the staff enough for managing to make her so comfortable. In particular Sarah, who was on the nightshift, took great care of us all and couldn't have been more helpful.

Although this is obviously an incredibly difficult time for the family it has been eased knowing she was comfortable, pain free and not distressed. Again, thank you very much to all the staff in the high dependency unit, and to all the others involved in my granny's admission that I did not meet.