LIFE ON THE FRONTLINE

I’ve sent my daughter away so I don’t infect her while working as an A&E nurse & I don’t know when I’ll see her again

MUM Ashleigh Linsdell stripped off her uniform and stood shivering in her underwear on her front doorstep, determined not to bring coronavirus back into her home.

The 29-year-old A&E nurse had just finished a gruelling shift at an NHS hospital – and knew that risking being spotted semi-naked by her neighbours was a small price to pay for keeping her family safe.

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Ashleigh Linsdell
A&E nurse Ashleigh Linsdell is among the heroic frontline medics battling coronavirus

Ashleigh, who has a four-year-old daughter, is among hundreds of thousands of heroic frontline medics working exhausting 13-hour shifts and putting their own lives in danger in the battle against COVID-19.

The disease has killed 2,392 people in the UK so far, with experts warning the peak is yet to come.

Here, locum nurse Ashleigh – who made headlines this week after launching a new campaign to make urgently-needed scrubs for NHS workers – takes us through the highs and lows of a shift at an East Midlands hospital:

Ashleigh is pictured with her husband George and four-year-old daughter, who is currently staying with grandparents

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5.10am

The start of my day. My alarm goes off and I drag myself out of bed to get washed and dressed.

I always have a shower the night before so I just have to scrape my hair back, put on a little bit of makeup – my war paint – and get into my nurses uniform, which is laid out waiting for me.

I then have a nice strong breakfast for the day ahead: Crunchy Nut Cornflakes and a hot cup of coffee.

I have an autoimmune condition, so I take my medication in the morning too.

It means I’m in a higher-risk category for COVID-19, but I ensure I stay safe at work by using appropriate PPE (personal protective equipment).

Ashleigh Linsdell
Ashleigh says she wears a little bit of makeup – which is her “war paint”

The UK COVID-19 death toll is currently at 2,392

6.10am

I leave my house and drive the 54 miles to work.

I live with my husband George: my four-year-old daughter is 300 miles away with her grandparents. I sent her away last Thursday for her own safety. It was an awful decision to have to make.

The day before she left, she was in floods of tears thinking I was going to be sick and I was sending her away to make sure she doesn’t get ill. She sobbed to me: “You’ll get sick”.

I questioned whether or not I was a terrible mother because I felt like I was palming her off.

But she’s an asthmatic child, and I can’t risk bringing the virus home.

PA:Press Association
Ashleigh, pictured centre, is behind a nationwide campaign to make scrubs for hard-working NHS workers

Ashleigh Linsdell
The 29-year-old is pictured on her wedding day with groom George, an engineer

7.30am

I start my A&E shift with a team huddle and a handover.

The atmosphere is quite fraught – COVID is still very new and there’s a lot of uncertainty.

People are worried about their families, too. When I’m working, I’m really focused on what I’m doing. But I spend my life wondering when I’ll see my daughter again – which is horrendous.

The huddle consists of new, hourly information from the Government about the COVID situation and how and why we’re doing things. We also go through the number of cases in our area and any further guidance.

Everything’s changing so quickly at the moment.

We don’t really know what’s happening from one day to the next – or even one hour to the next.

Ashleigh Linsdell
Ashleigh is pictured with colleagues who are supporting her For The Love of Scrubs campaign
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9am

I usually work in A&E, but today I’ve been moved to ITU (intensive care) to help out.

It’s where our more poorly patients are being treated.

They’re not necessarily confirmed coronavirus cases – we have a separate isolation ward.

I spend the morning undergoing training to prepare for a coronavirus influx, including ‘donning and doffing’ – random words that refer to putting on and taking off PPE in a safe manner.

I’m joined by other non-ITU nurses who have been brought into the unit to work.

We’re also trained on a new type of ventilator, which is amazing.

It’s like something out of a sci-fi film.  It’s more hi-tech than the normal ventilator models – it’s completely touch screen and there are multiple settings, offering five or six different ways to ventilate a patient.

Some patients don’t ventilate particularly well on a specific setting, so we can really tailor the ventilation to their needs. We use a fake lung to see the effects and what would happen in a real-life case.

It’s fantastic and so interesting.

Ashleigh Linsdell
Ashleigh says a new “sci-fi-like” ventilation system is being used to treat patients

Ashleigh Linsdell
The locum nurse usually works in the busy accident and emergency department

1.20pm

Lunch is easier today because I’m on a training day. I take half an hour – fairly standard for a nurse. I have a jacket potato with tuna and cheese – a bit of a controversial combination, maybe! – in our staff room.

1.50pm

Back to training.

COVID patients are being ventilated on their fronts – which is called the prone position [something that can improve patients’ oxygenation and chance of survival, providing they’re turned safely].

So after lunch, there’s a teaching session on how to get a patient into the position. It takes anywhere between five and seven staff members to do, so it really is a hefty operation. The patient’s then there for 16 hours.

At some point during the afternoon, there’s also an announcement about masks.

We’re told we now have to wear them in clinical areas of the hospital at all times. There’s no other information. Before, we only had to wear a mask when we were in contact with suspected COVID patients.

The instructions we’re given are constantly changing.

“We don’t know what’s going on,” my colleagues and I say to each other.

Ashleigh Linsdell
Ashleigh has been told she now needs to wear a mask in clinical areas at all times

Ashleigh Linsdell
Ashleigh and her colleagues perform ‘love signs’ with their hands

8pm

My finish time is 8pm.

I get home more than an hour later, where George, 26, an engineer, has usually made me dinner.

But he can’t greet me with a kiss or a hug because I’m contagious – I might be harbouring bugs. Before I sit down, everything goes in the washing machine and I have the hottest shower I can stand.

One evening a couple of weeks ago, before my daughter left, I even stripped off all my uniform and stood on the doorstep in my underwear – because I refused to walk COVID through my home.

My husband stood behind me with a coat so my neighbours couldn’t see!

Ashleigh Linsdell
Ashleigh takes a scorching hot shower before her husband George is able to give her a ‘welcome home’ kiss

PA:Press Association
One of the scrubs produced by volunteers taking part in Ashleigh’s new campaign
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It’s questionable how long coronavirus lives on clothing, hair and everything else. My colleagues and I – nurses and doctors alike – are concerned about what we’re taking home to our loved ones.

Even we don’t know what’s going to happen in this horrible pandemic.

It’s frightening – but I’m proud to be a nurse.

'Stay home and sew!' Hero nurse's NHS campaign

HERO nurse Ashleigh has launched a nationwide campaign calling for Brits to help make urgently-needed scrubs for NHS workers from their homes. 

The self-taught seamstress set up the Facebook group, For The Love Of Scrubs, last Monday, and has already amassed more than 16,000 members keen to help out.

She says she started making scrubs for her “work family” a couple of weeks ago, after they ran out and had to wear “undignified” paper clothing which split if they bent over.

She took to social media for help sourcing wholesale material for the homemade scrubs – and was “inundated” with messages from people desperate to make PPE clothing.

“I set up a group that evening and, by Wednesday, we had hundreds of homemade scrubs,” she says.

“It’s been incredible.”

Ashleigh says there’s a “huge nationwide demand” for scrubs, particularly with former NHS workers coming out of retirement or choosing to volunteer in the fight against coronavirus.

“My husband has done so much for the cause – he’s spent hours phoning hospitals while I worked in A&E and has cut reams of material with me,” she adds.

“We’re working round the clock to try and continue the work we’ve done.”

Because many of the people volunteering to make scrubs are self-employed and struggling financially, Ashleigh is fundraising so she can purchase polycotton material and send it out to them.

The completed scrubs will then be posted straight to launderettes at UK hospitals and washed.

To donate to Ashleigh’s JustGiving campaign, click , or for more information on her For The Love Of Scrubs sewing initiative, click

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