UHNM Neonatal Community Outreach Team
Oscar-winning actress Rachel Shenton has praised the University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust team that supported her when her baby was born a month early.
The Neonatal Community Outreach Team (NCOT) at Royal Stoke Hospital gave practical and emotional support so that Rachel and husband Chris could take their premature son home as quickly as possible.
“It’s like real life Call The Midwife,” said Rachel. “As well as oodles of emotional support, they offer things like jaundice beds, oxygen, weight support, blood tests – usually things that would prolong your hospital stay after giving birth.
“Thanks to NCOT these things can now all be done in the comfort of your own home. Having a baby is scary enough, even without complications, but as a first-time parent to be sent home with a baby that needs extra help would feel so daunting. We would have been lost without them.
“Orson was a month premature so he was very small and needed monitoring to make sure he gained weight as quickly as possible.
“I didn’t enjoy being in hospital, it was stressing me and Orson out, so the NCOT team swooped in. They got us discharged and proceeded to visit us twice a week at first then dropped to once a week until he was four months old.
“They’re on the end of the phone at any time of the day if I have questions and as a new mum I have plenty.
“They supported us with blood tests, feeding, sleeping and nutrition. They turn up with huge smiles and are always full of reassurance.
“You can tell how much these women love what they do and it’s been amazing to see.”
Rachel has nominated the Neonatal Community Outreach Team in the NHS Hero category of the Your Heroes Awards.
The service set up by Sarah Roberts, a senior sister at the Royal Stoke, to offer parents the chance to be discharged from hospital sooner with their newborn babies whilst still receiving care and support.
Joanne Blackburn
A Stoke-on-Trent nurse and mum of three who has spent almost 20 years caring for some of the sickest patients at University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust is now waiting for life-saving care of her own.
Joanne Blackburn, aged 44, has been a staff nurse on the Royal Stoke University Hospital’s Critical Care Unit for 18 years but for the last two years has also been on the waiting register for a kidney and pancreas transplant.
Diagnosed with diabetes at just 17, Joanne’s health has deteriorated to the point where she will soon need dialysis unless a transplant can take place. She is appealing to others to consider signing the organ donation register and giving others a potentially life-saving gift.
Joanne said: “Without a transplant I’ll be on dialysis, but I don’t know how long I can live like that. Every month I send my bloods off to check for a tissue match. It could take years, you’re just waiting and hoping for the phone call.
“I’m a positive person and love my job, but I wake up most mornings thinking I didn’t get a phone call overnight, so I just get up and carry on.
“Being listed for transplant changes everything, you can’t book holidays or plan ahead just in case the phone rings. I want the transplant, but I know it means someone else has lost their life. That’s a big thing to live with.”
Joanne lives with her husband of 19 years, Ian, and their three daughters Madi,17, Maizie 13, and Hattie 10.
She said: “Waiting for a transplant has changed the way I think about the future. I start planning Christmas in September just in case I don’t make it that far. I constantly do memory things with my kids like making blankets so they’ll have something to hold onto if anything happens to me. I’m very open with them and they know the risks, even going through a transplant could kill me.
“I keep smiling because there’s no point being depressed about it, but I do feel like mortality hangs over me every day.”
Clare Neeson is a specialist nurse for organ donation at UHNM who has worked with Joanne on critical care for a number of years.
She said: “Joanne is one of the strongest people I know, she just keeps going and always turns up giving the most amazing care to our sickest patients. I’m in awe of her and just want this transplant to happen so she can have the healthy life she deserves.”
Dr Prabhjoyt Kler, consultant in critical care and anaesthesia and clinical lead for organ donation at UHNM said: “Joanne is an exceptional nurse and colleague, and we are so proud of the courage she shows every single day. The whole UHNM team is behind her supporting her in every way we can, including adjusting her working hours to help her manage her health. Despite everything she is going through she continues to give so much to her patients and her team which is truly inspiring.”
Joanne said: “If things go to plan and I get a match, it would be life-changing. Working in critical care I know what an incredible gift it is when families say yes to donation. You don’t need your organs when you’re gone, but by signing up to the organ donation register you could save so many people’s lives.”
Joanne Blackburn has been nominated in the NHS Hero category of the Your Heroes Awards.
Professor Indira Natarajan
A stroke consultant from University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust has received regional recognition for his ongoing dedication to GP training.
Professor Indira Natarajan, consultant stroke physician and clinical director for neurosciences, was awarded the Elizabeth Hughes Award for Outstanding Contribution to GP Training from a Secondary Care Consultant at the Royal College of General Practitioners Midlands Faculty awards.
Professor Natarajan, who has delivered the training sessions for a decade, said he was “honoured and delighted” to receive the recognition.
He said: “I am truly honoured to receive this recognition. For the past 10 years I have had the privilege of delivering training sessions for GP trainees on stroke, transient ischaemic attack and so-called ‘funny turns.’
“Each year, the trainees themselves vote for the consultant whose teaching has made the greatest impact on their practice, and I am delighted that my sessions have been recognised in this way.
“My goal has always been to equip young GPs with the knowledge and confidence to recognise and manage patients presenting with these conditions, so they can provide the best possible care.
“It is very rewarding to know that this teaching has made a difference, and I accept this award on behalf of our entire UHNM team, who are committed to supporting our local healthcare community.”
Professor Indira Natarajan has been nominated in the NHS Hero category of the Your Heroes Awards.
Dr Siddharth Govilkar
An orthopaedic surgeon from University Hospitals of North Midlands is completing five half marathons in support of UHNM Charity.
Dr Siddharth Govilkar is raising funds to improve patient care and experience within the fragility and fracture service at UHNM. He has already raised more than £750.
He said: “After doing Potters’ Arf last year, I have taken on the challenge of doing five half marathons across the country for something I care a lot about, which is our Trust but also our service.
“My hope is that the fundraising I am doing will allow us to fund a training course for the line service, which are mid and central lines we use to give patients long-term antibiotics.
“Patients really struggle with having blood continuously drawn out of them and line changes, which can be quite painful. So we need to develop something where we give them the best overall experience and fundraising for UHNM Charity can contribute to that. Knowing I am doing it all for UHNM Charity pushes me on.”
Dr Siddharth Govilkar has been nominated in the NHS Hero category of the Your Heroes Awards.
Esther Norton
A speech and language therapist from University Hospitals North Midlands spent three months in Cambodia providing training in swallowing difficulties to local medical professionals.
Esther Norton, Clinical Lead Speech and Language Therapist at Royal Stoke University Hospital, worked with nursing, medical and physiotherapy staff in hospitals in Cambodia’s capital city Phnom Penh to help train them in assessing and managing swallowing difficulties for patients who have neurological conditions, a head injury or have had a stroke.
With no existing speech and language therapists in Cambodia, the charity Speech Therapy Cambodia allows speech and language therapists from across the world to get involved with the 12-month programme with the aim to provide world-class training in speech-language, with a focus on dysphagia.
Dysphagia is the medical term for difficulty swallowing, which can affect a person’s ability to eat or drink safely, potentially leading to health risks such as malnutrition and dehydration.
Esther will be providing both hands on training and classroom teaching on dysphagia to staff to help those on the programme gain their qualification in speech and language therapy and be comfortable and confident in managing and treating people with swallowing difficulties independently.
Esther said: “I have always loved travelling and I am very passionate about speech and language therapy and dysphagia management, so to be able to combine all those things together is a dream come true. I have followed the charity and their work for many years, and I have always been interested in healthcare in other countries and cultures so once I saw the opportunity to go and volunteer this year, I couldn’t say no.”
Esther has been nominated in the NHS Hero category of the Your Heroes Awards.
UHNM Delivery Suite colleagues
When maternity support worker Marian Davies suffered a stroke while work, quick-thinking colleagues saved her life.
Marian, who has worked at University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust for 36 years, was beginning her night shift on the Royal Stoke University Hospital’s Delivery Suite when she lost her speech and movement.
Recognising the symptoms of a stroke, Marian’s colleagues sprang into action, providing first aid whilst calling for help.
Marian, a 70-year-old grandmother of three from Newcastle-under-Lyme, said: “I went out to work normally in the evening and was catching up with the day staff when suddenly I couldn’t speak and slumped down in the chair. My colleagues were asking what’s wrong and I couldn’t answer. I could hear everything that was going on, but I couldn’t do anything.
“Everybody was rallying around me, there was a lot of people in the room. I remember them asking for the phone number of my daughter Hannah, who is a matron at Royal Stoke, but I couldn’t say or use my hands.
“I didn’t feel any pain, but remember thinking am I having a stroke and is this the end. The next thing I knew the stroke team and paramedics arrived.”
Marian was taken to the Emergency Department where a CT scan confirmed she had suffered a stroke.
Marian’s daughter, Hannah Davies-Platt, matron for quality and safety at UHNM, said: “Mum’s always worked weekends for the last 30 years so went to work as normal on the Sunday evening. I got a phone call from one of the midwives to say she’s been taken ill and could you and the family come to ED.
“As she’s had a stroke, you automatically jump to the worst conclusion and it’s going to be catastrophic.
“Mum’s such an independent person, she was still at work at 70 and looks after the family, so it would have been her worst nightmare to be dependent on anybody.
“But we knew she was in the right place, and she was safe.
“When we arrived, the midwife who was with mum was just amazing. She went through what happened with me and my sister, that she was sat at the desk talking then suddenly she couldn’t move or talk.
“Within seconds they had got her into one of the side rooms and called the right people. Thankfully, there was an anaesthetist who was working in the department who was able to take bloods, put in a cannula and call clinical colleagues.”
Marion spent two weeks in the care of UHNM recovering from the stroke.
In recognition of their actions, staff involved in the care of Marian were presented with a UHNM’s Chief Executive Award.
Dr Simon Constable, UHNM Chief Executive, said: “I was thrilled to present Marian’s colleagues on the Delivery Suite with my own award for a completely different reason to what they do on a daily basis. Everybody came together as a team to look after one of their own, in a sphere outside of their usual clinical expertise.
“Their story really struck at the heart of everything about care and compassion. Their actions had a positive effect on the outcome, and I was delighted to see Marian herself attend the presentation.”
Reflecting on her stroke, Marian said: “I’d say I’m now 95 per-cent better. My colleagues on the Delivery Suite were just amazing and it was a good outcome with everybody acting so quickly. I’ve worked with my maternity colleagues for many years, and this makes me feel really proud of them.
“They are amazing bunch of people, not just in their jobs but personally too. I can’t thank them enough, if it wasn’t for them acting so quickly I wouldn’t be here today.”
Hannah said: “The midwives’ professionalism and kindness was incredible. I’m so grateful for everything they did that night looking after mum. They treated her like a family member, and we owe them so much.”
Marian’s Delivery Suite colleagues have been nominated in the NHS Heroes category of the Your Heroes Awards.
UHNM maternity team
A mum of six who suffered a life-threatening complication late in her pregnancy has said she owes her life and that of her baby to specialist teams from University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust.
Caroline Lowndes, from Tunstall, praised the team whose actions prevented a potentially fatal blood loss due to a ruptured uterus.
The 41-year-old was diagnosed with placenta accreta spectrum, a rare condition where the placenta grows too deeply into the wall of the uterus, and it was while she at Royal Stoke University Hospital’s Maternity Centre that she suffered a ruptured uterus, requiring life-saving treatment from obstetric, gynaecology, anaesthetist, urology, maternity and pathology staff.
Following emergency surgery to deliver baby Marleigh by caesarean section Caroline, who was 35 weeks pregnant, spent six days recovering in hospital, while her 5lbs 12.5oz daughter spent six days receiving on the Maternity Centre’s Transitional Care ward.
Caroline and Marleigh were reunited with husband Martyn, 40, and children Thomas, 22, Georgia, 18, Arron, 16, Paige, 16, and Jayden, 10, following the surgery in December last year.
Caroline, a cover supervisor at a middle school, said: “Following my diagnosis, it was decided it was safest to deliver my baby via a planned caesarean section. I was admitted to the Royal Stoke on the Monday with the procedure scheduled for the Thursday. But in the early hours of Wednesday morning, before I was due to go to theatre, I started to experience horrific stomach pains and contractions which became more severe.
“At 3am I woke up, an old caesarean scar had ruptured. The original plan was to perform the caesarean section in interventional radiology, but transferring me to another part of the hospital was too dangerous, so it had to happen there and then in the Maternity Centre’s operating theatre.
“It all happened so fast, but I knew that my baby and I would be OK as the staff had every eventuality covered.
“When I woke up I was told that my uterus was already open and my abdomen was full of blood. My bladder had also torn and once Marleigh was delivered I needed a hysterectomy and blood transfusion to save my life.”
Caroline was reunited with Marleigh in recovery after Marleigh received support from UHNM’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and then both spent 24 hours in the Maternity Centre’s High Dependency Unit.
UHNM treats around 10 cases of placenta accreta spectrum a year and was designated as one of three PAS provider centres in the West Midlands by NHS England last summer.
One of the first doctors to respond to Caroline’s ruptured uterus was Saddatu Usman, consultant in obstetrics and gynaecology.
Mrs Usman said: “Despite it being an emergency situation, our team knew what the steps were and worked together to control the blood loss and safely deliver the baby. Caroline is a strong person who was not left with any ongoing issues.”
Gomathy Gopal, consultant in fetal medicine and placenta accreta spectrum lead at UHNM, said: “We have some extremely talented people in our PAS centre, and I’m grateful to be a part of this team.
“Without one link in this chain it would not exist- from the maternity theatre team who look after all the equipment, to the scrub nurse midwife who do this over and over, the team in NICU who care for the babies so well, to the anaesthetists who look after the patient whilst still giving best outcome for baby. It is their passion, and they all go over and beyond what they are set out to do to provide the best possible service, one I am humbled to have been a part of for the past six years.”
Caroline said: “It’s hard to put everything into words. From the lady cleaning the ward 205 who took the time to talk to me and Martyn, to the anaesthetists and radiographers who comforted me before surgery, MAU, EPAU, my consultants and midwives absolutely everybody was amazing. They saved our lives.
“We felt so reassured and calm coming into hospital knowing UHNM is a placenta accreta centre- knowing you have these specialist skills and experience on your doorstep is massively comforting because you know you’re safe.
“You read things online about other people’s stories and think it won’t happen to you but then it does, you think what would have happened if I’d have been at home when my uterus ruptured, Marleigh and I wouldn’t be here, we’re eternally grateful to everybody.
“I didn’t think I’d be here to tell my story, it feels surreal. I’m taking each day as it comes and feel really grateful to be here. The Maternity team are heroes. Thank you.”
Caroline’s husband Martyn said: “Without the team Marleigh and Caroline wouldn’t be here today. I felt we were in safe hands, everybody at UHNM was amazing. Thank you to everyone.”
The UHNM staff involved in Caroline’s case have been nominated in the NHS Hero category of the Your Heroes Awards. They are: Gillian Hague, Emma Hall, Emma Deacon, Alicja Bujak, Dr Vishnu Machineni, Yara Ahmed, Desmond Wilson, Samuel Wadman, Sakira Kamal, Ahmed Hassan Salama, Saddatu Usman, Uma Bathula, Fedelma O Mahony, Lyndon Gommersall, Vinod Murali and Rakhul Raveendran.
Sadie Bennett
Research by a cardiac clinical scientist from University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust is helping to improve the detection of heart valve disease using AI.
Sadie Bennett’s work has been nationally recognised and her master’s dissertation has been accepted for publication in the international journal Echo Research and Practice.
She is developing an AI model to help clinicians more accurately assess patients who may need surgery, speeding up the diagnostic process.
Sadie, who has worked at UHNM for eight years, said: “As a cardiac physiologist, we carry out a wide range of tests for patients with known or suspected heart disease. From ECGs and 24-hour heart monitors to ultrasound heart scans, pacemaker checks and lab testing.
“I love the variety of the role and being able to combine patient care and the science behind it.
“Thanks to support from UHNM’s Centre for NMAHP Research and Education Excellence I’ve been able to secure a National Institute for Health and Care Research pre-doctoral fellowship, which allows me to dedicate half my week my research.”
Sadie’s work is now recognised nationally and she has been invited to join a National Institute for Health and Care Excellence steering group shaping how AI will be used in the NHS to speed up diagnosis and treatment in the future.
She has also been appointed to the British Society of Echocardiography’s Research and Audit Committee, where she is leading on their AI strategy along with developing their first training course in research skills and techniques taking place this October.
Dr Alison Cooke, associate chief nurse for research and education, said: “We’re incredibly proud of Sadie’s achievements.
“Her dedication to combining clinical excellence with innovative research is inspiring, and her work is already helping to shape the future of heart care at UHNM and beyond.”
Sadie Bennett has been nominated as an NHS Hero in the Your Heroes Awards.
Dr Anil Kumar
A consultant geriatrician from County Hospital in Stafford returned to his hometown in India to teach vital skills to local doctors.
Dr Anil Kumar swapped his usual ward rounds for lectures and training sessions in the city of Patna in the east of India.
Dr Kumar was able to share his expertise on elderly care at three medical colleges during the visit as part of his role as an international membership examiner for the Royal College of Physicians.
He returned to his old medical school, Nalanda Medical College, where he focused on Parkinson’s disease.
He was also invited to speak at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences and the trauma centre at Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narain Hospital. His session at LNJP on caring for older trauma patients was even covered by the local press.
Dr Kumar, who has worked at UHNM for 10 years, said: “I feel so happy and privileged to go back. India gave me my education and the NHS shaped my career. It’s my way of giving something back.”
Dr Kumar says the differences between the NHS and India healthcare are striking.
He said: “In the UK, everything is free at the point of delivery. In India, money is involved at every step. A lot of people struggle to get care. And the diseases you see there are very different, more tropical illnesses.
“It’s emotional going back. I’m proud to share what I’ve learnt and help the people there.”
Dr Anil Kumar has been nominated in the NHS Hero category of the Your Heroes Awards.
Sister Kelly Bloor
Children’s Nurse Practitioner Sister Kelly Bloor has been praised for her ‘exceptional dedication’ by the mum of one of her young patients.
Kelly, who has been working at Trent Vale Medical Practice for six years, diagnosed the baby with a condition that had not been picked up by other health professionals.
The baby’s mum said: “I would like to nominate Sister Kelly Bloor as an NHS Hero in the Your Heroes Awards. She is a true NHS hero whose exceptional dedication and unwavering commitment have made a huge difference to my family, particularly my baby boy.
“Sister Bloor consistently goes above and beyond, demonstrating a level of care and attention that truly sets her apart. Her championing of patients is remarkable and this is especially evident in her work with babies.
“When my son was struggling with severe nappy rash it was Sister Bloor’s meticulous observations and insightful questioning that led to his diagnosis of Cow’s Milk Protein Allergy. She listened to my concerns, piecing together the subtle clues that others had missed.
“She doesn’t just treat symptoms; she cares for the child and their family, offering reassurance, guidance and unwavering support.
“Her dedication extends beyond her shifts, always thinking, always striving for the best outcomes. Kelly is an outstanding professional and a deserving recipient of this NHS Hero nomination.”
Alongside her work at Trent Vale Medical Practice Kelly, who has worked for the NHS since 2007, has a role with the GP Federation where she is pioneering a pathway for student nurses to learn within a GP practice.
She said: “I’m stunned to be nominated for a Your Heroes Award. It’s really lovely to hear positive feedback.”
Kelly’s professional specialism is diagnosing and prescribing for children and babies but she is also a general practice nurse for adult patients.