A pensioner says she owes her life to "overworked doctors and nurses" at University Hospital Wishaw after receiving life-saving treatment for blood clots.
Christine Lees took ill at home in mid-October. The 83-year-old knew immediately something was wrong and asked her son Colin to call for an ambulance.
“I was sitting here and I saw a door opening but where the door appeared from I haven’t a clue. I just said to Colin he’d better dial 999 for an emergency ambulance.
"I didn’t feel any chest pains or anything like that. The ambulance came within minutes but I don’t remember much after that. I can remember someone kept talking to me but I couldn’t tell you anything they said.
"They told me later I was having palpitations in the ambulance and my heart rate was too fast. It turned out it was heart failure due to blood clots.”
Colin added: “She just looked greyish and when she said to get an ambulance I knew something was wrong. They were very quick in getting here. She was very well looked after.”
Now back at home in Carluke, the pensioner didn’t undergo surgery but spent more than three weeks in the Wishaw hospital, much of that time in the coronary care unit.
“They saved my life twice,” Christine admits. “They got rid of one clot and thought that that was it before discovering another.
"The staff were out of this world. A queen couldn’t have been treated any better than I was. Consultants, doctors, and especially the nurses, they were truly outstanding.”
Christine says the majority of her hospital stay is a bit of blur but can’t praise staff enough.
She said: “I owe my life to them. I can’t remember too much of my time spent in the coronary care unit due to the medication. But I can certainly remember the time I spent when I was moved to a ward.
“The nurses were all young lassies but when I looked at their eyes I saw old tired people. They looked so tired but they were only kids. They were always at my side with words of encouragement and the biggest smiles, holding my hand.
“I was in high dependency and the staff made me a card for my birthday and stuck it up on my board, which was so nice of them.”
The mum-of-five, who has almost 50 grandchildren and great grandchildren, is thankful for the care she received but has taken a swipe at “overpaid” politicians, and Scotland’s health minister in particular, over the pressure that NHS staff are currently under.
She continued: “Those young girls looked so tired and that remains vivid in my memory.
“The pittance of a pay they receive is an utter disgrace for the work they do. They should be given a pay that is equivalent to their never ending duties.
"I heard Humza Yousaf being interviewed about the NHS on the news last week and his answers were very evasive and full of political jargon. The Scottish Government should give the nurses a decent pay rise. The politicians are not shy in giving themselves one.
“The NHS needs drastic help in every section. I was in a room for four but it had five in it. They are actually using cupboards as rooms to squeeze extra beds in. It’s just horrible, and God knows how it’s happened to get to this. It’s so sad”.
**Don't miss the latest headlines from around Lanarkshire. Sign up to our newsletters here.
And did you know Lanarkshire Live had its own app? Download yours for free here.
