Angels in the NHS we Thank You

At the moment it is impossible to put all of the events of the last seven days into words.  It is hard to believe it’s just seven days and not seven weeks since E & I were born.  The extremes of emotion, the stratospheric levels of stress and the huge peaks of elation along the way just seem too overwhelming at this moment in time.  So I thought I would just say a few overdue thank you’s.  To pay tribute to the Angels we have been fortunate enough to meet in the last 7 days who have helped us along on our journey.  As is the convention with the naming of angels I will only use their first names.

Angel Nahid
Above all of the other Angels we have met, Archangel Nahid stands above them all.  Thank you for working tirelessly for 4 hours at the end of a 16 hour shift to stop K’s internal bleeding.  Thank you to you and your team for “saving” my wife.  Thank you for taking the time to explain to me what was happening so that I could keep frightened family and friends informed.  We will never ever be able to thank you enough.  In moments of real crisis there is no better place to be than in the hands of the NHS and the care we have received has been nothing less than amazing.

Angels Nicola & Nik
As I waited for what what seemed like days between updates in the early hours of Thursday morning I would like to thank you for keeping watch over me and to help me feed and care for my two new little flowers.  While K fought in the operating theater at the end of the corridor you helped me stay calm and prepared for the hours and days ahead.  Thank you for helping me to feed our new babies and keeping me supplied with over sugary cups of tea and carefully chosen words of reassurance and optimism.

Angels Heather & Pauline
Thank you for sitting with with me outside of the operating theatre as I waited and waited for good news.  Thank you for supporting me (physically at times) as I was led in to see my wife on the operating table.  Thank you Pauline for giving me a hug when you knew I needed one and there was no one else around.  Thank you Heather for the time you spent with K in recovery a couple of days later and for giving my girl a hug when she needed it most in the middle of the night afraid to go to sleep again.  I can not thank you enough.

Angel Helen
Thank you for your vigilance, professionalism and unswerving confidence that everything was going to be alright as K’s Mum and Dad and I took it in turns to sit by her bedside in Intensive Care.  Attached to a ventilator, surrounded by banks of computer screens, plumbed with a plethora of tubes and the “most serious case” in Intensive Care you never faltered from your task and helped keep us going for those long hours while we waited.  Thank you for calling to tell me I could come and visit K when she was stabalised. Thank you for calling to tell us that afternoon that K was well enough to be woken up.

Angel Clare
Thank you for bringing our girls all the way across the hospital to visit their mum a few minutes after waking up.  Thank you for giving us all a lift and a moment none of us will ever forget.

Angel Lisa
Thank you for being a human being.  For helping change the shift leaders mind when she was refusing to let the babies visit their mother because the “computer said no”.    Thank you to you and to all of the SCBU team for looking after our two precious little babies with such care.  Thank you for the tissues you handed me when it all became too much and for lightening the mood when it needed lightening the most. Three babies in less than two years – “Don’t you two have a TV”.

There are many many more people deserving a big thank you from us.  Most of all K’s parents for being no less than heroic throughout. To C for stepping into the breach when we most needed her.  Thank you to Ks brother and sister in law and my mum and sisters who came to visit at the weekend.  To all our family and friends who kept us going through the darkest hours.  We never felt alone.

Thank you one and all.