Oswestry nurse's life saved by flu jab

Sarah Kaye, Ward Sister on the specialist oncology ward at the Oswestry Orthopaedic Hospital, has now urged colleagues – and the public – to make sure they get their flu vaccination this year.

The 42-year-old, from Welshpool, found herself in an isolation ward after catching Influenza A at the start of this year – and was told she would almost certainly have died if not for the immunisation she had been given.

Watch Sarah tell her story:

She said: “I’m normally a fit and healthy mum of three. I enjoy swimming and running and I’m always busy.

“In March this year, I became unwell so spent a few days in bed trying to recover from what I thought was a viral infection.

“One afternoon, my 14-year-old daughter found me unconscious in bed, when she was able to rouse me I was paralysed from the neck down.”

The teenager rang an ambulance with paramedics initially thinking she had meningitis or sepsis.

Sarah was sent to the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, where after spending 16 hours in the resuscitation area in the emergency department, she was then transferred to an isolation ward within the hospital for a couple of days for further observation and treatment.

Confirmed

She said: “I was reviewed by an A&E Consultant and an Intensive Therapy Unit Consultant who suspected I may have flu.

“They had recently been seeing a rise in young, fit, healthy people being admitted with flu; unfortunately some of them had passed away.

“Later the same day it was confirmed I did have Influenza A. I questioned this as I had my flu jab, but the Flu Specialist said if I hadn’t have had my vaccination I probably wouldn’t have survived. It had given me some immunity against the virus.

“I don’t want any other family to go through what my family and I went through. It takes seconds to have your flu jab and it protects yourself and your loved ones.”

The flu jab is offered to all members staff at the orthopaedic hospital– as it is to all NHS employees.

A flu campaign has been launched across the hospital this week.

Bev Tabernacle, director of nursing and deputy chief executive added: “What many people don’t realise about the flu is that you can pass the virus onto someone without having any symptoms yourself.

“We’re encouraging our frontline healthcare workers to have the vaccination to protect themselves, their family and also our patients.”