Sheffield nursing hero praised

The Star, Sheffield

Graham Rodgers, who spent 11 weeks at Sheffield's Royal Hallamshire Hospital after nearly dying from a stroke, explains why he nominated Joan Pons Laplana for a national nursing award nursing award.

Transcript

00:00 Hello, my name is Graham and March 30th 2020 I was submitted to Shepparton Teaching Hospitals

00:07 with COVID that started off as a stroke. I had many, I almost died three times, I had

00:16 many things wrong, heart attack and many things happened to me. But with the skill and bravery

00:25 of the teaching hospital staff, nurses, consultants, doctors, I managed to pull through. But there

00:31 was a time when they thought I might be brain dead because I wouldn't wake up from a coma

00:38 and Joe had been in constant contact with my brother and obviously COVID, nobody was

00:43 allowed to see me. I spent 11 weeks in ICU and almost four months in hospital with COVID.

00:52 And he promised my brother that while I was in hospital, Joe would be my brother. So he

01:01 showed special interest in me and talked to me even though I was in a coma. My brother

01:06 told him that I was a musician, Heavily into Music and I had a website with my own songs

01:11 on. So he played some songs and noticed that my heart rate quickened up when I heard the

01:17 songs so he knew somebody was in there. And so he basically made sure that while he was

01:25 doing the routine things to me, cleaning me, washing me, etc, he played my music and lo

01:30 and behold, I woke up listening to my songs. And basically I went forward from there onwards.

01:39 I can't thank Joe enough for everything. He remains to be a friend to this point of

01:44 my life. He's a good friend to this day, always asking if I'm okay, if I'm alright, if I want

01:49 help with anything. And we meet once a month for a meal and catch up. And we've become

01:55 really good friends now. And basically I wouldn't be here without him and his team of people.

02:02 So please support Joe. Spanish Joe as I call him.

02:06 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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