‘No-one should die alone - even during coronavirus pandemic’, says professor
by Kaiya Marjoribanks, https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/authors/kaiya-marjoribanks/Families should be allowed to visit dying loved-ones – even during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a healthcare expert who has recently overcome her own life-threatening illness.
Professor Helen Cheyne of Stirling University spent a week in intensive care – sedated and on a ventilator – after contracting meningococcal septicaemia in May 2019.
The Professor of Midwifery – now back at work after recovering from her illness – recalls her ordeal as part of a new blog, ‘Covid-19: Why are people dying alone’, for BMJ Global Health.
The blog is co-authored by nursing experts Clare Leon-Villapalos and Mary Wells, both of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. The authors say that patients dying alone “runs contrary to our cultural beliefs” but has become “the norm” in recent months. They address whether it is “acceptable to normalise” dying alone during a pandemic, and consider how risks can be mitigated.
Professor Cheyne is a Royal College of Midwives Professor of Midwifery, based at the Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health Professions Research Unit at Stirling. Her research interests include perinatal mental health and women’s experiences of maternity care. As part of International Day of the Midwife 2020, Professor Cheyne was last week awarded a Royal College of Midwives fellowship.
Reflecting on her own experience in intensive care, Professor Cheyne said: “I was sedated and on a ventilator for a week, after contracting sepsis. My sons were advised that my prognosis was poor. For much of that week, I experienced only vivid dreams. However, at some points, perhaps as I began to respond to medication, I was aware of my son’s voice repeating, ‘You’re not going to die’, over and over.
“Did that help me hold on to life? I don’t know, but through that week my sons were my advocates and my links to life – they talked to staff about me: I was mum, Helen, a professor, a runner, a hill-walker, a midwife. They made sure I was known as a person with a life to live and not just the sepsis in bay four.
“Ultimately, of course, I did not die but, at the time, I was considered likely to be at the end of life. Being aware of a known and loved person was the only reassurance I had as my life hung in the balance.”
Clare Leon-Villapalos is the Lead Nurse for Education in Critical Care at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. Her research interests include staff perceptions of safety and deployment in intensive care.
Mary Wells is the Lead Nurse for Research at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and a Professor of Practice (Cancer Nursing) at Imperial College, London. Her research interests include cancer rehabilitation and survivorship and patients’ experiences of care.