First hand support offered to recovering patients

Christine and Malcolm Bullock with critical care nurses Caroline Hill and Leanne Warren who helped set up the support group (s)

PATIENTS who suffer a life threatening or critical illness are to be offering a listening ear as they begin their recovery by a woman who spent seven weeks in hospital after suffering what she thought was a bout of flu.

Christine Bullock, from Hillmorton, had to be put into an induced coma for several days back in November 2011 to help her brain recover from the what turned out to be a more serious virus.

And now the 60-year-old and her husband Malcolm have become founder members of ICUsteps Coventry Critical Care Support Group.

Their aim is to offer help, advice and a listening ear to others and their families during the recovery process.

"We received lots of valuable support from the critical care nurses both while I was in hospital and recovering at home, but we still felt we would have benefitted from talking to other families dealing with similar crises," said Mrs Bullock.

"Being in a coma is a very bewildering experience; when you come round it’s almost as if someone has pressed a button and turned off your confidence.

"You doubt yourself in ways you never did before. And recovery is slow, it takes so much longer than you expect.

"Setting up the support group is the best thing I’ve done since my illness. It’s very informal and mostly we just chat. But it’s been wonderful to share experiences and discover others have similar concerns and feelings; it makes you feel normal again."

The group's meeting will be at St Martin’s Church Hall in Finham, Coventry from 6.30pm and then every six weeks.

To find out more call log onto icusteps.org/support/coventry.

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