Patient thanks hospital - 17 years later

THANKS for the amazing care - 17 years later!Back in 1991 Irishman Martin Kilbane suffered multiple organ failure and spent ten weeks in Ipswich Hospital's critical care unit.

THANKS for the amazing care - 17 years later!

Back in 1991 Irishman Martin Kilbane suffered multiple organ failure and spent ten weeks in Ipswich Hospital's critical care unit.

Today, more than a decade-and-a-half later, he is finally able to give something back to the hospital thanks to a lucky coincidence.

When Ipswich's critical care was negotiating with a healthcare equipment company over the purchase of new beds, Mr Kilbane's daughter, Aisling, got involved in the deal.

She remembered the excellent care he had received when he fell will with a throat abscess on a visit to Suffolk, and was determined to do something for the hospital and the staff who helped him, some of whom are still working at the Heath Road site.

So when the hospital bought nine critical care beds, worth around £2,500 each, from her company, Huntleigh, she arranged for a tenth one to be thrown in for free, courtesy of her family and employers.

Mr Kilbane, from Achill Island in western Ireland, said: “I cannot praise the Ipswich team who cared for me enough, they did a fantastic job.

“Everything they could possibly do to help me they did. It's lovely to give something back.”

Last week Mr Kilbane, who was in Suffolk in 1991 working as a tunnel supervisor at Sizewell B, visited the hospital with his wife Geraldine and three of his eight children, including Aisling.

Richard Goodrum, charge nurse at the hospital, added: “The staff who were working at the hospital back then remember Martin and his family well.

“I remember that year he called the department on Christmas Day to say he was well and thank you for helping him.”

Now the ten new beds will replace the old ones on the critical care unit, part of the hospital's £26million Garrett Anderson Centre.

They have been designed with infection control in mind so they are easy to clean, helping the hospital's crackdown against infections.

The beds can be moved into all the positions needed for critical care nursing, including a seating position for patients not well enough to get out of bed and go to a chair but who want to sit up, and a lowered position to reduce risks for patients who are confused and may try to get out.

Have you given something back to Ipswich Hospital after receiving outstanding care? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich IP4 1AN or e-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk.