A carer who contracted coronavirus and feared she may not return from hospital is back at work.

Sue Ferry, who works at Dene Holm Residential Care Home, in Dene Holm Road, Northfleet, had to be taken into hospital after being hit by the virus.

The 61-year-old said: "I was really worried when Covid-19 started to become more serious. As an asthma sufferer, I knew I would be high risk if I caught it, so when I started to feel unwell over the Easter weekend, I was concerned.

"I got home from an evening shift at about 10pm and felt really tired and lethargic. I was coughing a lot. I cough quite a lot anyway as I suffer from asthma, but my husband picked up on this, which was unusual.

"After taking myself off to bed, it really hit me in the night. The high temperature and the headaches were unbearable. I phoned in sick to work and called 111, who advised me to isolate for five days."

Days later Sue tested positive for the virus and continued to self-isolate. After refusing to go to hospital out of fear she would not return, she was forced to make the trip when her oxygen levels became dangerously low.

She spent two weeks in Darent Valley Hospital, in Dartford, with pneumonia and was unable to eat. She was given morphine for the "excruciating" headaches.

"At the start of the pandemic, it felt like care homes were not acknowledged by the government..."

"The recovery was slow, I stayed at home for days, not wanting to go out," she said.

"But when I returned to work, my team were fantastic. At the start of the pandemic, it felt like care homes were not acknowledged by the government, with regard to PPE and testing. Everything took a long time. But now, we have all we need and so I actually felt really safe coming back to work.

“Being at Dene Holm feels very safe, as we are in our own little bubble. We stopped accepting visitors quickly once the situation started to escalate and the situation with testing is now much better.

"When we come on shift, we’re given masks, visors, hand gel and we ensure we use it correctly. We all take it very seriously, as we are aware of the risks.

“I have worked at Dene Holm for 16 years and as a team, we’re really pulling together. I received so many well wishes from my colleagues while I was off, so it was lovely to be back.

"We are upbeat and morale is so much better than it was at the beginning. Of course, we have good days and bad days but we help each other through, as we’re all in it together.”

The veteran care worker feels hers and other care homes across the UK were forgotten about at the beginning of pandemic, claiming it took "far too long" for PPE and testing to become available to them.

She added: “Thankfully things are a lot better now and we have enough PPE and testing is more easily available to staff and residents, so morale is much better.”

Manager of Dene Holm care home Chris Hutchinson said: “At the beginning of the outbreak it felt like we were left behind. We knew we needed testing and PPE to keep everyone safe but it took such a long time to come.

"Thankfully, things have improved and the situation is generally much better. We’re like a family here anyway but my team have really pulled together to support one another and I’m really proud of them.

"The fact that we’ve been able to keep the impact of Covid-19 relatively low at Dene Holm is a credit to them, their hard work and dedication.”
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