A care home nurse used the knowledge she gained during the swine flu outbreak to help save the lives of 13 dementia patients who were displaying symptoms of the coronavirus.
Maria Spollin, who runs the Church Farm at Skylarks in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, acted quickly when 13 residents fell ill.
Five of the patients had tested positive for Covid-19 while the remaining eight were displaying symptoms of the disease.
Ms Spollin introduced zoning into the communal area of the care home, isolating the patients who were displaying symptoms and creating a makeshift ward.
Speaking on Good Morning Britain, Ms Spollin said: "It was a very difficult day that day.
"Several patients presented very quickly, one after each other with symptoms that are possibly linked with the coronavirus.
"I knew that I needed to act quickly, because if it was coronavirus we wanted to limit the spread of it as much as possible."
The nurse described how the staff developed the 'ward' to keep people together who were displaying the same symptoms.
She added: "Because we are a dementia specialist care home not everybody understands the instructions we were giving to them so they didn't understand the importance of keeping away from fellow residents they lived with."
Church Farm Care said all of the patients have since made a full recovery.
Retired Army Brigadier Peter Stevenson, who served with the Scottish Borders, was the first resident to contract Covid-19 after developing a cough and sore throat.
He celebrated his 86th birthday on the same day the care home was declared free from the virus.
Mr Stevenson's daughter, Julia Murphy said: "We were thrilled that he made it through. I was able to bake him a cake and left it at the door of the care home for him.
"Maria has been absolutely amazing. As a nurse myself, I couldn't be any more grateful and I couldn't have done anymore myself.
"They saved dad's life, I'm sure they have."
Ms Spollin worked for 20 years at Glenfield Hospital, Leicester and during the 2009 swine flu epidemic she used those experiences to help her dementia patients.
Patrick Atkinson, director of Church Farm Care, told the BBC: "Maria was instrumental in our containment process and in preventing further infection within our residents."
There have been more than 4,000 coronavirus related deaths in care homes in England and Wales since the outbreak began.
The Care Quality Commission was notified of 4,343 deaths from Covid-19 in care homes from April 10 to the 24.
In London, there were 447 deaths in care homes in this period, including 40 in Enfield, 31 in Ealing, 28 in Hillingdon and 26 in Bromley.
