David Martin, 63, from Whickham, has praised the staff of the Queen Elizabeth hospital as “brilliant” and said that he can never thank them enough for their support during his battle for life that lasted for four and a half weeks.
He explains: “In the beginning I started experiencing a bad head, a cold, and the next day it got worse and I started coughing. And then I passed out in the house, so when I came to I rang 111 and they told me to go straight to the QE and I was admitted to the QE straight away.
To be honest, from there, I’ve got a vague memory of going into hospital, being admitted and put on oxygen but the next thing I can remember is coming around three and a half weeks later. I don’t even remember being admitted to ICU, I spoke to my wife on the phone, which I have a vague memory of. Then the next 3 and a half weeks I was in ICU. So when I came round, and it wasn’t just a case of waking up one day and saying ‘oh what happened’, it took 2 days to kind of realise where I was and what had happened and what had gone on.
And now David is back home and making a great recovery, he has praise for the staff who helped him recover: “I have to say that the work done by the hospital and the service was absolutely excellent. They were great support, great people very positive. The staff from ICU came to see me and said they were really pleased to see me out, and introduced themselves but obviously I had no idea who they were!
“It was absolutely excellent that they came to see how I was. I cannot praise the hospital enough. Having them clap me out, it was brilliant, and for my mental health it was amazing, it was just what I needed.”