Latest / UK Column Radio / A Breath FOR Life And A Breath OF Fresh Air – With Jane Dean
Transcript
- 0:07Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to another UK column interview. And for
- 0:11Speaker 1: those of you that don't know me, my name is
- 0:13Speaker 1: Debbie Evans and I'm a retired old school NHS SRN.
- 0:19Speaker 1: I was a government advisor at the Department of Health
- 0:21Speaker 1: for five years and well today I'm going to be
- 0:26Speaker 1: talking to you exactly about that, about nursing and about
- 0:29Speaker 1: my passion because today I'm hoping that all of you
- 0:34Speaker 1: watching it's been so doom and gloom, hasn't it, And
- 0:37Speaker 1: it's cold outside, and I'd like you to snuggle up
- 0:41Speaker 1: with a warm drink and enjoy today's interview because it's
- 0:44Speaker 1: going to give you hope. It's going to give you
- 0:47Speaker 1: something to think about, and any new nurses out there,
- 0:52Speaker 1: newly trained, newly qualified, maybe you'll be interested in today's
- 0:58Speaker 1: interview too, because hopefully we can go a long way
- 1:01Speaker 1: to support you. So today a breath of fresh air
- 1:05Speaker 1: and a breath of hope. And you'll know why I've
- 1:08Speaker 1: said that in a minute, because a few years ago
- 1:12Speaker 1: I received an email from an amazing lady called Jane Dean,
- 1:16Speaker 1: who I call her senior Matron because she trained a
- 1:19Speaker 1: little bit before me. She trained in the sixties and
- 1:23Speaker 1: she said, would I like a copy of her book,
- 1:25Speaker 1: Old Old School Nurse? And I suggest I would love
- 1:28Speaker 1: a copy of her book, and she sent me her
- 1:31Speaker 1: book and here it is, to Heal the Sick, and
- 1:35Speaker 1: to be honest with you, it's been my bible for
- 1:38Speaker 1: the last couple of years. And it's also been the
- 1:40Speaker 1: most amazing walk down a very happy memory lane when
- 1:45Speaker 1: the NHS was a lot healthier than it is now.
- 1:51Speaker 1: And Jane and I, for the record, have worked together,
- 1:55Speaker 1: but that's another story. So we know that we're both
- 1:59Speaker 1: singing from the same hymn sheet. And today's interview is
- 2:03Speaker 1: going to be in two halves because Jane is not
- 2:06Speaker 1: just an old school NHS trained SRN, State Registered nurse
- 2:12Speaker 1: and State certified midwife. She's also an atropath and she's
- 2:18Speaker 1: pretty remarkable and you're going to find out why. But
- 2:22Speaker 1: for now, Jane, Jane Dean, thank you so much for
- 2:26Speaker 1: sending me your book. It was lovely to meet you.
- 2:30Speaker 1: I'm honored to have you here on UK column. Welcome
- 2:34Speaker 1: and please give us a little introduction as to who
- 2:36Speaker 1: you are. Well.
- 2:37Speaker 2: Hello, Debbie. I am so delighted actually that you invited
- 2:45Speaker 2: me to join you with this interview. I think I
- 2:49Speaker 2: said to you quite recently. The only reason I went
- 2:54Speaker 2: I took the journey down to Bristol for the UK
- 2:58Speaker 2: column that weekend was primarily to meet with you and
- 3:05Speaker 2: to speak with you. And it turned out to be
- 3:08Speaker 2: quite an interesting event, did it not so? I yes,
- 3:15Speaker 2: I'm just a few years older than you, Debbie, not
- 3:18Speaker 2: that many. And so I did train in the sixties
- 3:23Speaker 2: and I loved every minute of my SRN training. I
- 3:29Speaker 2: went on to do midwa three training and I worked abroad.
- 3:36Speaker 2: I worked in Northern Canada, I worked in Germany, and
- 3:41Speaker 2: I kept coming back home. I was probably for ten years.
- 3:49Speaker 2: I was the community nurse come midwife in Kessick in Cumbria.
- 3:56Speaker 2: Delivering babies at home in those days was an absolute joy.
- 4:02Speaker 2: Loved it. I still have my old Pinard's speculum for
- 4:07Speaker 2: listening to babies, which I keep on my desk to
- 4:11Speaker 2: remind me of what life was like before all the
- 4:15Speaker 2: electronic devices came in. I also I did a health
- 4:24Speaker 2: research degree at Lancaster University and I retrained probably twenty
- 4:32Speaker 2: five years ago now as an anthropath and I had
- 4:35Speaker 2: my own practice.
- 4:38Speaker 1: Dane. You're remarkable and you know talking to you walking
- 4:44Speaker 1: down memory lane, remembering what the NHS used to be, like,
- 4:47Speaker 1: remembering what nurses used to be, like, we're going to
- 4:49Speaker 1: come onto that. And like I said right at the
- 4:51Speaker 1: beginning of this interview, this is going to be an
- 4:53Speaker 1: interview in two halves because on top of talking about
- 4:57Speaker 1: nursing in your book, you are a very remarkable woman.
- 5:02Speaker 1: I mean, I have also founded a charity a long
- 5:06Speaker 1: time ago, and it was basically a one woman charity
- 5:10Speaker 1: and it was specializing in autism spectrum and basically it
- 5:15Speaker 1: was hard work. But I had to get myself in
- 5:18Speaker 1: the car and maybe a bag or two and go
- 5:21Speaker 1: and see people and talk to people. You, however, also
- 5:27Speaker 1: founded a charity, but you went one step further because
- 5:33Speaker 1: you decided that you wanted to open a hyperbaric oxygen
- 5:40Speaker 1: therapy you. I don't know if anybody knows what a
- 5:45Speaker 1: hyperbaric oxygen chamber looks like. We're going to show you
- 5:48Speaker 1: a picture right now, but it's massive, it's huge. And
- 5:55Speaker 1: not only did you have to try, and mean, I
- 5:57Speaker 1: don't know, you don't walk down the street and find
- 5:59Speaker 1: a hyperbaric oxygen chamber is lying around to you. But
- 6:02Speaker 1: then you need somewhere to put it, and I mean,
- 6:04Speaker 1: it's just an extraordinary, extraordinary journey. And while we were
- 6:08Speaker 1: at the conference, you gave me this a breath of
- 6:12Speaker 1: life hyperbaric oxygen units. This is all your own work.
- 6:19Speaker 1: This is a charity, and you're going to talk to
- 6:21Speaker 1: us about how your journey started, who it started with,
- 6:28Speaker 1: and where you are today. Jane, take us through it.
- 6:31Speaker 1: It's extraordinary.
- 6:34Speaker 2: Well, I shall try and keep it as brief as possible, Debbie.
- 6:40Speaker 2: And from the outset, it was never my intention to
- 6:46Speaker 2: start a charity, And had I known the epic journey
- 6:51Speaker 2: was going to take me on, I might have had
- 6:54Speaker 2: second thoughts, if I'm honest, but probably it's about twenty, well,
- 7:00Speaker 2: nearly thirty years ago. I was running a free naturopathic
- 7:08Speaker 2: children's clinic with an osteopathic colleague and we thought, you know,
- 7:16Speaker 2: we'd just be seeing children with coughs and wheezes and
- 7:20Speaker 2: asthma's exemas, constipation and this kind of thing. But we
- 7:26Speaker 2: were seeing so many children that were on the autistic spectrum,
- 7:32Speaker 2: children with cerebral palsy. So as this was happening and
- 7:40Speaker 2: I was doing my masters and I was looking at
- 7:44Speaker 2: the effect of dairy, particularly cow's milk on children, and
- 7:51Speaker 2: how that was affecting a lot of their if you like,
- 7:56Speaker 2: internal problems. Research brought me into contact with our local
- 8:05Speaker 2: pediatric consultant, and she and I. She was called Monica
- 8:10Speaker 2: pat Check. She and I became quite good friends. She
- 8:14Speaker 2: then phoned one day to ask if we could do
- 8:20Speaker 2: anything to help a little boy who was aged three,
- 8:24Speaker 2: who had been well. He was actually medical neglect. He
- 8:30Speaker 2: had been left without oxygen in our local hospital for
- 8:35Speaker 2: eight minutes and was severely severely brain damaged. And when
- 8:42Speaker 2: I first met Andrew, who's now a photograph you just showed,
- 8:47Speaker 2: he was still He was probably about twelve months after
- 8:52Speaker 2: the insult, and he was still very, very very distressed.
- 9:00Speaker 2: Were the parents, and as was I. So that's what
- 9:05Speaker 2: started the journey. I had to find something to help
- 9:10Speaker 2: this little boy. And it's only by chance that I
- 9:14Speaker 2: heard about hyperbaric oxygen, because all through my nursing career,
- 9:21Speaker 2: I had never really well, I've never known anything about
- 9:26Speaker 2: hyperbaric oxygen. Don't know about you, Debbie, but that's what
- 9:31Speaker 2: started the journey, and I ended up going up to
- 9:37Speaker 2: the Nine Wells Hospital in Dundee to meet the only
- 9:42Speaker 2: professor of hyperbaric medicine in the country and this is
- 9:46Speaker 2: his seminal book, Oxygen and the Brain. So Philip actually,
- 9:56Speaker 2: you know, he baptis one hundred percent. He had been
- 10:00Speaker 2: trying all of his career within the NHS and obviously
- 10:06Speaker 2: in the diving industry. It's very famous in the diving
- 10:09Speaker 2: industry to get a hyperbaric oxygen chamber into every hospital
- 10:17Speaker 2: in the country. And of course it never happened, and
- 10:22Speaker 2: we could talk about why it didn't happen, but of
- 10:27Speaker 2: course you've got to remember oxygen really is free. We're
- 10:31Speaker 2: breathing oxygen now all the time, so it's not barked
- 10:36Speaker 2: back at all with pharmaceutical money. I just knew I
- 10:40Speaker 2: had to get Andrew into after speaking with Professor James,
- 10:46Speaker 2: after seeing a hyperbaric oxygen chamber working at the nine
- 10:51Speaker 2: Welsh Hospital, I thought, this is what we have got
- 10:56Speaker 2: to do. So philiput James enter for us to rent
- 11:01Speaker 2: a chamber to start with. So it started off with
- 11:04Speaker 2: a rented chamber, but of course first we had to
- 11:09Speaker 2: find a building and these things were you know, five
- 11:12Speaker 2: or six terms and in my native Tea, when I
- 11:17Speaker 2: first heard about hyperbaric chambers. I thought one could perhaps
- 11:23Speaker 2: fit on top of a car, you know, you could
- 11:26Speaker 2: go and buy one. That was how naive I was
- 11:30Speaker 2: so talk about a huge learning curve. But once I
- 11:38Speaker 2: grasped it, and once you start to see the results,
- 11:44Speaker 2: you can't believe why there is not a hyperbaric chamber
- 11:48Speaker 2: in every hospital in the country. So that's basically how
- 11:52Speaker 2: it started.
- 11:54Speaker 1: Yeah, it's how it started, Jane. But it didn't stop there,
- 11:58Speaker 1: did it, Because you know, you rent it, then you've
- 12:02Speaker 1: got to find somewhere to put it. These things. I mean,
- 12:05Speaker 1: you know, many people that are listening now will only
- 12:08Speaker 1: have associated a hyperbaric oxygen chamber with divers They don't
- 12:14Speaker 1: they don't associate it with health. And you had to
- 12:19Speaker 1: go one on from there. And but I mean, before
- 12:23Speaker 1: we come to the floods, because there were the floods,
- 12:27Speaker 1: there was the building. There was owning the building, there
- 12:30Speaker 1: was buying the building, there was refurbishing the building. I mean,
- 12:34Speaker 1: let's we'll come to that in a minute. But before
- 12:36Speaker 1: I do, I just want to read just off your
- 12:40Speaker 1: one of your little leaflets that you gave me at
- 12:43Speaker 1: the conference, A Breath for Life. I just want to
- 12:46Speaker 1: read this, which says that you were established over twenty
- 12:50Speaker 1: seven years ago and that you've helped thousands of people,
- 12:55Speaker 1: and that you accept children and adults and have facilities
- 12:59Speaker 1: for people with the dis abilities, and that hyperbaric oxygen
- 13:03Speaker 1: therapy helps people with many illnesses, injuries, and conditions. Breathing
- 13:08Speaker 1: oxygen under pressure helps tissues, heal, repairs injuries, and fights diseases.
- 13:15Speaker 1: It is benign and non invasive. The treatment involves sitting
- 13:19Speaker 1: in a chair and breathing oxygen from a mask in
- 13:22Speaker 1: the chamber for around one and a half hours. So
- 13:26Speaker 1: that is what hyperbaric oxygen therapy is. So you've got
- 13:31Speaker 1: the chamber, you've rented the chamber, you're finding somewhere to
- 13:36Speaker 1: put it. But then you get more hurdles. Jane tell
- 13:40Speaker 1: us about the hurdles, because honestly, your journey is remarkable,
- 13:44Speaker 1: it's extraordinary. Carry on.
- 13:46Speaker 2: When you embark upon something like this, really you do
- 13:51Speaker 2: not know what is in store. Well, the chamber that
- 13:57Speaker 2: we rented, of course, was an ex diving chamber, so
- 14:03Speaker 2: it was cylindrical and so if you can imagine that,
- 14:08Speaker 2: so we had to put sort of wooden flats in
- 14:11Speaker 2: and things to get seating. So we absolutely knew that
- 14:17Speaker 2: we wanted our own purpose built chamber, and that was
- 14:22Speaker 2: really when the charity started. Before that, we'd just been
- 14:26Speaker 2: fumbling along. I mean, obviously it was not just me,
- 14:30Speaker 2: you know, there was always been four of us, you
- 14:35Speaker 2: know for trustees that have come and gone, but myself
- 14:40Speaker 2: and Zoe Greenwood, if she's watching, she was the very
- 14:48Speaker 2: start as well. We started the charity obviously to raise
- 14:52Speaker 2: the money for the chamber, and the chamber waits six tons,
- 14:58Speaker 2: so we then had to find somewhere to put this chamber.
- 15:03Speaker 2: So we moved actually onto an industrial site to start with,
- 15:09Speaker 2: which was absolutely well, it was awful. It was a
- 15:13Speaker 2: very bleak few years because there was no windows in
- 15:18Speaker 2: this industrial unit. And what has bugged at me constantly
- 15:25Speaker 2: was the fact that we've never had proper toilet facilities,
- 15:31Speaker 2: not you know, disabled facilities. And when you're trying to
- 15:37Speaker 2: raise money for something hyperbaric oxygen therapy that very few
- 15:42Speaker 2: people know anything about anyway, so to start by educating
- 15:46Speaker 2: them and then to try and raise somebody to say
- 15:52Speaker 2: we've not got a disabled toilet. It was so bad
- 15:56Speaker 2: that we used to have to tell, you know, parents
- 15:59Speaker 2: coming with children with severe disabilities to stop at the
- 16:03Speaker 2: local post house hotel to use their toilet facilities before
- 16:09Speaker 2: they got to us. So it's been a real grassroots fight,
- 16:13Speaker 2: I can tell you. But I'm trying to keep it
- 16:17Speaker 2: short because I don't want to waste time just talking
- 16:20Speaker 2: about the background. I would rather talk about the oxygen
- 16:23Speaker 2: as therapy. But we finally did manage to buy our
- 16:29Speaker 2: own piece of land and as soon as we had
- 16:34Speaker 2: got the land, it flooded. We had a little unit
- 16:40Speaker 2: that we built which was not really big enough, still
- 16:44Speaker 2: no toilet facilities. We had a partter cabin outside for
- 16:50Speaker 2: toilet facilities and it was storm Desmond forgotten what Yeah,
- 16:55Speaker 2: that was twenty sixteen, I think, and we'll just stranded
- 17:01Speaker 2: like well, it was just awful and trying. You'll understand
- 17:06Speaker 2: this because you've been flooded. I don't know how many
- 17:10Speaker 2: times that be. But our chamber operators were working in Wellington's.
- 17:17Speaker 2: We were carrying people across the floodwater into the chamber.
- 17:24Speaker 2: It was we I think, beyond the lost two days
- 17:28Speaker 2: with the floods, we just kept up, kept ongoing because
- 17:33Speaker 2: once patients have started on a course of hyperbaric oxygen,
- 17:40Speaker 2: they don't want to miss you know. They they will
- 17:45Speaker 2: actually walk through floodwater to get there to get their
- 17:49Speaker 2: oxygen therapy. Oxygen therapy. So it has been quite a journey.
- 17:58Speaker 2: It's all wonderful now I might Dad. We have got
- 18:02Speaker 2: the most beautiful facility that only opened at the end
- 18:08Speaker 2: really at the end of last year. We had our
- 18:11Speaker 2: official opening in May of this year and we've got
- 18:17Speaker 2: the most fantastic disabled toilet facilities for the first time ever.
- 18:25Speaker 2: As I said to you date when we met, it's
- 18:31Speaker 2: very frustrating when you see how much money is wasted
- 18:37Speaker 2: within the National Health Service, and yet we are now
- 18:43Speaker 2: treating up to one hundred and twenty people a week
- 18:49Speaker 2: and we've had to raise every penny ourselves.
- 18:54Speaker 1: You literally coffee mornings, raffles, fades, footballs. I mean, you've
- 18:59Speaker 1: got the local community involved. It has literally been grassroots.
- 19:05Speaker 1: And we're going to show you more pictures of it,
- 19:09Speaker 1: but just for people there you can see that beautiful,
- 19:14Speaker 1: beautiful unit. And I just because I know you want
- 19:17Speaker 1: to come on and talk about the oxygen therapy. So
- 19:22Speaker 1: on the back of your little leaflet that you gave me,
- 19:27Speaker 1: you say, among the conditions it's been used to treat
- 19:30Speaker 1: are diabetic ulcers, long COVID, neurological chronic fatigue, syndrome, wound healing,
- 19:39Speaker 1: age related neurodegenerative conditions, stroke, traumatic brain injuries, sports injuries,
- 19:47Speaker 1: musculo skeletal injuries. That's a fair old list. Jane tell us,
- 19:52Speaker 1: tell us of the benefits of this. And also I
- 19:55Speaker 1: have to say, because people are going to be screaming
- 19:57Speaker 1: at the screen by now saying where is she? This
- 20:00Speaker 1: is in Lancashire, right, So for all of you of
- 20:04Speaker 1: you that are saying where is it? Where is it?
- 20:06Speaker 1: All of the details how to get in contact with
- 20:09Speaker 1: Jane will be in the article that's beneath this interview,
- 20:14Speaker 1: so please go check it out. But talk to us
- 20:18Speaker 1: about the oxygen therapy itself. Talk talk to us about
- 20:21Speaker 1: what you've seen, the miracles that you've seen.
- 20:24Speaker 2: Let me say, oxygen is not a cure as such,
- 20:32Speaker 2: but oxygen relieve so many symptoms. The one thing that
- 20:38Speaker 2: I put my hand on my heart and say is
- 20:41Speaker 2: that it's certainly cures legousers, so whether those are diabetic
- 20:50Speaker 2: ulcers or ischemic legalsas because one of the problems with
- 20:56Speaker 2: legosers is that they be come very very quickly infected
- 21:02Speaker 2: and you get so many different types of bugs growing
- 21:07Speaker 2: in these ulcers because the circulation is so poor. So
- 21:12Speaker 2: what the oxygen does is actually kill off the infection,
- 21:17Speaker 2: but it also oxygen oxygenates the tissues in the legs
- 21:23Speaker 2: and healing takes place. It's magical. I've got slides actually
- 21:28Speaker 2: of you know, different stages of with leg ulcers. So
- 21:33Speaker 2: what actually happens is you can talk talk if you
- 21:38Speaker 2: like that. The dosage is twofold, so the dose of
- 21:44Speaker 2: oxygen is the compression plus then breathing one hundred percent oxygen. Now,
- 21:54Speaker 2: breathing oxygen in a compressed environment allows the whole of
- 22:02Speaker 2: the circulation to become oxygenated, so it's not just the
- 22:07Speaker 2: red blood cell, which as you know, normally carries the
- 22:11Speaker 2: oxygen around. You get the cerebospinal fluid is oxygen ecated,
- 22:18Speaker 2: all fluids in the body, so the oxygen can reach
- 22:24Speaker 2: the tissues that have been harmed and without oxygen, healing
- 22:31Speaker 2: cannot take place. So to give an extra boost like that,
- 22:38Speaker 2: but the oxygen actually does more than that because it
- 22:43Speaker 2: increases the microcirculation. So you get ups of tiny little
- 22:50Speaker 2: new vein growth which can get into places that if
- 22:55Speaker 2: we're talking about the brain in particular, it stimulates the
- 23:00Speaker 2: the bone marrow to produce more stem cells, so you
- 23:05Speaker 2: need stem cells again for healing. And if we're looking
- 23:11Speaker 2: at brain injuries, there are about one hundred trillion different
- 23:17Speaker 2: little synapses that happen in the brain. So if with
- 23:22Speaker 2: the oxygen we can stimulate some of those little sinappses,
- 23:28Speaker 2: then miracles, yes, do occur. It's just I wish I'd
- 23:36Speaker 2: known about it actually years and years ago, because it's
- 23:41Speaker 2: not a new therapy. It's become more, if you like,
- 23:46Speaker 2: more known since COVID because for the first time ever,
- 23:53Speaker 2: hyperbaric oxygen therapy is now included on the protocol for
- 23:59Speaker 2: long COVID, which is fantastic because NICE, you know, the
- 24:05Speaker 2: National Institute for Clinical Excellence, really only approves of it
- 24:11Speaker 2: for decompression sickness, you know, carbon monoxide poisoning, burns. It's
- 24:18Speaker 2: very so you've got to be very very careful how
- 24:24Speaker 2: you describe what you're using it for. And I think
- 24:28Speaker 2: this is why we do not get NHS referrals. We
- 24:35Speaker 2: do get the action that occasionally we used to get
- 24:38Speaker 2: them more, but the NICE change their guidelines, so really
- 24:43Speaker 2: it's patients that are doing their own research and they
- 24:47Speaker 2: are voting with their feet, which is of course amazing.
- 24:53Speaker 2: I think I would just at this stage like to
- 24:55Speaker 2: mention cancer because you probably no, Debbie. There's a nineteen
- 25:02Speaker 2: thirty nine Cancer Act that stipulates the only qualified medical
- 25:08Speaker 2: practitioners and pharmacists can treat cancer. So we don't treat cancer.
- 25:16Speaker 2: But we do have patients who are undergoing on our
- 25:24Speaker 2: oncology treatment, but we are not treating the cancer. And yet,
- 25:31Speaker 2: and yet we absolutely know. Way back in it was
- 25:38Speaker 2: probably in the nineteen twenties, somebody, a physician called Otto
- 25:44Speaker 2: Warbook actually discovered that cancer cells are anaerobic. They do
- 25:51Speaker 2: not like oxygen. They will not proliferate in an oxygen
- 25:57Speaker 2: rich environment, which is you know, that was found out
- 26:02Speaker 2: in nineteen twenties. He also discovered the auto wa Book
- 26:07Speaker 2: and it was a Nobel Price winner that for medicine
- 26:12Speaker 2: and physiology. He also discovered the cancer cells reproduced by glycolysis.
- 26:20Speaker 2: In other words, they reproduce in a sugar type of environment.
- 26:24Speaker 2: So if you're eating a lot of sugar and chocolates
- 26:29Speaker 2: and sweets and five spoons of sugar in tea, it
- 26:33Speaker 2: is not the cancer cells love that, you know, because
- 26:38Speaker 2: they can change the way that they reproduce. So by
- 26:44Speaker 2: just by cutting down on sugar and breathing oxygen, you
- 26:51Speaker 2: are limiting the growth of those cancer cells. Now, far
- 26:56Speaker 2: more recently, in twenty twenty, Peter Ratcliffe, another Nobel Prize
- 27:06Speaker 2: winner for Medicine and Physiology, he got hit his No
- 27:13Speaker 2: Belt Prize for looking at hypoxia. And I was fortunate
- 27:18Speaker 2: enough to interview him at the Crieg in London in
- 27:26Speaker 2: yes in twenty and twenty, so it's about four years
- 27:30Speaker 2: ago now. He I'll have to say, was not not
- 27:38Speaker 2: very interested in hyperbaric oxygen. Of course scientists aren't they
- 27:45Speaker 2: They often have a tunnel vision. But it was so
- 27:49Speaker 2: interesting talking to him about hypoxia and how actually how
- 27:58Speaker 2: the kidney is. He was looking particularly at the kidneys
- 28:02Speaker 2: how they then start to produce an enzyme to increase
- 28:10Speaker 2: red cell growth. So he was more looking at hypoxia.
- 28:16Speaker 2: But if you married that in with hyperbaric oxygen, you
- 28:21Speaker 2: can see how when you're in an oxygen rich environment
- 28:26Speaker 2: and then as you come out of that you almost
- 28:31Speaker 2: induce this is all new research. The body then sees
- 28:37Speaker 2: it as a hypoxic situation and so you are stimulating
- 28:44Speaker 2: more red cell production even when you come out of
- 28:50Speaker 2: the chamber. Amazing what you know we're finding out about
- 28:55Speaker 2: hyperbaric oxygen as a therapy.
- 28:58Speaker 1: It makes you think, isn't it, Jane, that's almost as
- 29:02Speaker 1: though main's main well, allopathic medicine. If you like an
- 29:09Speaker 1: NHS medicine, don't want the hyperbaric chambers. Because it's so
- 29:15Speaker 1: effective and it's so holistic. It kind of does make
- 29:20Speaker 1: you think, you know, well, farmer are going to miss out,
- 29:22Speaker 1: aren't they? If you've got something, you've got something effective
- 29:28Speaker 1: like that. And it also interested me hearing you talk
- 29:32Speaker 1: about long COVID because Professor Chris Flowers has kind of
- 29:37Speaker 1: coined the phrase spike protein disease long covid, depending on
- 29:43Speaker 1: which way you're thinking and which way or what the
- 29:48Speaker 1: narrative is that you follow. But if, let's say, if
- 29:53Speaker 1: long COVID was in fact spike protein disease, have you
- 29:57Speaker 1: ever seen or have you ever been approached by any
- 29:59Speaker 1: of vaccine injured, for example, hoping maybe that hyperbaric oxygen.
- 30:06Speaker 1: Let's remember to hyper means above and barrack means weight,
- 30:12Speaker 1: so that's what the words mean. But has anybody from
- 30:16Speaker 1: the vaccine injured community contacted you to ask if it
- 30:21Speaker 1: may be a benefit to them, and again if they haven't,
- 30:25Speaker 1: I guess I'll ask the question if you're able to
- 30:28Speaker 1: answer it. If you know the answer to that, would
- 30:30Speaker 1: it be beneficial to anybody that has got vaccine injuries?
- 30:34Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely it would. Has anybody contacted me, the answer
- 30:40Speaker 2: is known. But we do get quite a lot of
- 30:45Speaker 2: patients with long COVID And I'm going to be honest
- 30:50Speaker 2: here I do not mention the so called vaccine the JAB,
- 30:58Speaker 2: because people have taken it in absolute good faith, and
- 31:07Speaker 2: if they I think they have to come round themselves
- 31:14Speaker 2: to understanding what has happened. I might talk about it briefly.
- 31:20Speaker 2: But Debbie, what is the point if somebody is suffering
- 31:25Speaker 2: and then you say, well you shouldn't have taken the JAB,
- 31:29Speaker 2: should you? Do you understand what I'm saying.
- 31:33Speaker 1: Any of the vaccine injured jans, so many of them
- 31:36Speaker 1: are wanted us and saying we'll try anything, we you know,
- 31:42Speaker 1: anything at all. They're just looking for answers and they're
- 31:45Speaker 1: being obfuscated by the NHS. They're not being believed, they're
- 31:50Speaker 1: not being listened to, they're not being acknowledged, and some
- 31:54Speaker 1: of them are taking desperate measures. Some of them are
- 31:58Speaker 1: going abroad looking in search of other treatments. And I
- 32:03Speaker 1: think it's useful that people know where you are, because
- 32:06Speaker 1: that was going to be my next question really to
- 32:09Speaker 1: you in that many people that are watching this, myself
- 32:14Speaker 1: included I'm in Cornwall, You're in Lancashire in Middleton? Is
- 32:18Speaker 1: the unit? So are there any other units in the
- 32:23Speaker 1: in the country offering a service like yours? Or how
- 32:28Speaker 1: many are hyperbaric oxygen chambers are there in hospitals? For example?
- 32:33Speaker 1: Where do people look? Do we have a direct treat
- 32:36Speaker 1: to refer to?
- 32:37Speaker 2: You can tap in hyperbaric oxygen, you know, into Google
- 32:43Speaker 2: and it will come up with the We are members
- 32:46Speaker 2: of the Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment Trust, which is based in Scotland,
- 32:54Speaker 2: and they have a list of chambers that are well
- 32:59Speaker 2: if they are members of the Hyperbaric ox In Treatment Trust.
- 33:04Speaker 2: But many of the are were set up by the
- 33:08Speaker 2: Multiple Sclerosis Society and very few of them well, some do,
- 33:16Speaker 2: very few will take anything other than patients with multiple sclerosis,
- 33:22Speaker 2: although I do believe that is changing. And so they're
- 33:26Speaker 2: dotted about the country and they're usually charity chambers like ours.
- 33:32Speaker 2: When we first started, I can say we were the
- 33:36Speaker 2: only chamber in the whole of the country and most
- 33:41Speaker 2: of Europe actually that would take children. We've had, we've
- 33:45Speaker 2: had babies in our chamber. Their use of hould.
- 33:52Speaker 1: That.
- 33:52Speaker 2: But there are now more and more chambers popping up here,
- 33:56Speaker 2: there and everywhere. But you've got to understand that because
- 34:02Speaker 2: there are more chambers coming, it's because for financial reasons.
- 34:07Speaker 2: The private chambers, I can honestly tell you some of
- 34:11Speaker 2: them will charge up to two hundred and eighty pounds
- 34:16Speaker 2: for you know, well between one and two hundred and
- 34:19Speaker 2: two hundred and you're one that charged two hundred and
- 34:21Speaker 2: eighty pounds for one session. We simply ask for a
- 34:27Speaker 2: donation of twenty five pounds. We try not. We don't
- 34:31Speaker 2: take anything really of any significance from children. We are
- 34:38Speaker 2: at charity. And I don't know, of course, this huge
- 34:42Speaker 2: expense getting your building, getting your chamber, I mean our
- 34:47Speaker 2: chamber when we had it purpose built, which is quite
- 34:50Speaker 2: a number of years ago, well I think it was
- 34:53Speaker 2: forty eight thousand pounds we race for it. That was
- 34:56Speaker 2: thanks to two elderly ladies that helped us out but
- 35:03Speaker 2: now that if we had to commission that chamber today,
- 35:07Speaker 2: we'd be talking probably one hundred and twenty thousand, one
- 35:11Speaker 2: hundred and thirty thousand. So once you've got that, once
- 35:16Speaker 2: you've got your census set up, the costs really a minimum.
- 35:21Speaker 2: I mean, our chamber offered to operators who've been fantastic
- 35:26Speaker 2: over the years. You know, we're on minimum wage. We've
- 35:30Speaker 2: now upped at a bit now that we haven't got
- 35:33Speaker 2: this huge costs of building costs. We've got rid of
- 35:38Speaker 2: building costs. But how they can justify, how anyone can
- 35:45Speaker 2: justify charging even over one hundred pounds, I don't understand it.
- 35:51Speaker 2: But there are quite a few private chambers dotted about.
- 35:57Speaker 2: There is another chamber near in Manchester, and I think
- 36:02Speaker 2: there is another one opening. The one in Manchester is
- 36:07Speaker 2: a charity chamber as well, but again that's rather exclusive
- 36:15Speaker 2: to the area of Manchester.
- 36:18Speaker 1: I have an idea that as people are watching this,
- 36:23Speaker 1: you're going to probably get inundated, I would imagine because
- 36:27Speaker 1: of the service that you're offering and because of the
- 36:31Speaker 1: holistic nature of it. So you're running out one hundred
- 36:35Speaker 1: and twenty patients a week now, I mean, what is
- 36:39Speaker 1: your city, and what can the public do? You know,
- 36:42Speaker 1: people watching this now and they're probably going, wow, this
- 36:45Speaker 1: is an incredible story. This is an amazing service. We
- 36:49Speaker 1: would like to contribute to it, whether it be having
- 36:52Speaker 1: a coffee morning or coming up and needing needing therapy,
- 36:57Speaker 1: or knowing something that needs therapy. How can the public
- 37:01Speaker 1: help you? Where do they go to, Katy? Is there
- 37:04Speaker 1: somewhere they can donate to?
- 37:06Speaker 2: We have we have got a donation button, not on
- 37:09Speaker 2: the website, so it's just www dot Breath of Life
- 37:14Speaker 2: dot org dot UK.
- 37:17Speaker 1: Is everybody eligible for hyperbaric oxygen therapy or there are
- 37:21Speaker 1: some people that wouldn't wouldn't fit the criteria?
- 37:24Speaker 2: Jane, We honestly take everybody. It's very very few people
- 37:32Speaker 2: we turn away. We are cautious if somebody's got COPD
- 37:39Speaker 2: because of their lung capacity to take extra oxygen. So
- 37:48Speaker 2: again we don't say no, you can't come, but we
- 37:51Speaker 2: would certainly check their oxygen levels before they went into
- 37:56Speaker 2: the chamber other than those but we are basically set
- 38:04Speaker 2: up to for any kind of neurological problem. Really, but
- 38:10Speaker 2: most things have got a neurological basis. If you can
- 38:16Speaker 2: understand what I'm saying even if you've got low poor circulation,
- 38:22Speaker 2: that is going to affect the brain.
- 38:25Speaker 1: Jane, explain to me because oxygen therapy, I mean, you know,
- 38:30Speaker 1: we hear, especially in other countries they have oxygen bars
- 38:34Speaker 1: and things, and people have oxygen therapy. But hyperbaric oxygen
- 38:38Speaker 1: therapies is pressure is a container. When you think of
- 38:43Speaker 1: divers with and the bends with hyperbaric oxygen therapy, why
- 38:49Speaker 1: does it need to have this special huge chamber? What
- 38:55Speaker 1: are the benefits of that?
- 38:57Speaker 2: If I can explain a dose of oxygen, it is
- 39:02Speaker 2: the compression of the chamber and then delivering one hundred
- 39:09Speaker 2: percent pure oxygen. So what happens with the pressure means
- 39:15Speaker 2: that the whole of the circulatory system is oxygenating. You're
- 39:22Speaker 2: breathing in one hundred percent pure oxygen. And as I say,
- 39:29Speaker 2: it's the combination of the pressure and breathing the oxygen
- 39:35Speaker 2: through a mask or a hut.
- 39:38Speaker 1: Can you just explain a hyperbaric oxygen chamber? You don't
- 39:43Speaker 1: walk down the street and find one. And if you do,
- 39:46Speaker 1: are they all the same? Are there different hyperbaric oxygen chambers?
- 39:50Speaker 1: Do you need to know one to go.
- 39:53Speaker 2: To a very good question actually, DEBI very good question,
- 39:59Speaker 2: because you can walk down the high street now, not
- 40:03Speaker 2: when I started several years ago, but you can walk
- 40:06Speaker 2: down the high street now and a lot of quite
- 40:09Speaker 2: a few beauty parlors or sports club will have a
- 40:14Speaker 2: hyperbaric chamber. But these are carbon fiber ones. They don't
- 40:21Speaker 2: pressurize to the same amount of pressure that we use,
- 40:27Speaker 2: but you are still getting extra oxygen with them. And
- 40:31Speaker 2: they usually want mono chambers, you know, you just go
- 40:34Speaker 2: and sit in and there's something to look up. These
- 40:38Speaker 2: are usually, as I say, on the high Street. Our
- 40:43Speaker 2: chamber is called a Type three chamber, so it's classed
- 40:48Speaker 2: as a non medical chamber, so we are not we
- 40:54Speaker 2: don't come under being checked by the Care Quality Commission
- 41:00Speaker 2: because it's deemed so safe that you know, after quite
- 41:06Speaker 2: a fight over a few years, Professor James and I
- 41:11Speaker 2: managed to get them, if you like, not off the
- 41:16Speaker 2: inspection list. But the chambers that are used obviously for diving,
- 41:22Speaker 2: and obviously those that are in the hospital medical chambers,
- 41:28Speaker 2: and these are usually mono chambers, only taking one patient
- 41:33Speaker 2: at a time. Some of them take more when the
- 41:36Speaker 2: doctor or the nurse will go in the chamber when
- 41:40Speaker 2: they are monitoring as seriously ill patient and this could
- 41:45Speaker 2: be somebody as I say, with carbon monoxide poisoning or
- 41:49Speaker 2: the dives, and of course they can have their blood
- 41:55Speaker 2: glasses checked all the time and ECG monitoring. The hour's
- 42:01Speaker 2: chamber is quite simply. You walk in, you sit down,
- 42:06Speaker 2: so as if you're getting you know, for an afternoon
- 42:09Speaker 2: out or a morning out. For an hour and a half.
- 42:13Speaker 2: So you are in our chamber for an hour and
- 42:15Speaker 2: a half. We take five at a time, five patients.
- 42:21Speaker 2: Sometimes there's only one or two in sometimes four, sometimes five,
- 42:28Speaker 2: but we can't take five. And you are in the
- 42:33Speaker 2: chamber for an hour and a half because it's fifteen
- 42:37Speaker 2: minutes to compress to the equivalent of twenty four feet
- 42:42Speaker 2: in diving terms. Then you put on your mask or
- 42:45Speaker 2: your hood and you breathe the oxygen at one hundred
- 42:50Speaker 2: percent for one hour. Then the mask comes off and
- 42:56Speaker 2: you decompress then for another fifteen minutes. As we now
- 43:01Speaker 2: know from the work that Peter Radcliffe has done, that
- 43:07Speaker 2: putting the party, if you like, into a state of
- 43:10Speaker 2: hypops means that the chamber is still doing it stuff,
- 43:14Speaker 2: it's still working, but ours is cast as a non
- 43:18Speaker 2: medical Chamber. I hope that explains it for you. Debbie.
- 43:23Speaker 1: It's just simply wonderful, wonderful achievement. I mean, I can't
- 43:28Speaker 1: believe that you've done this pretty much. I know that
- 43:32Speaker 1: you've had, you know, all of your amazing team, and
- 43:35Speaker 1: you've had support, and you've had people raising money, but predominantly, Jane,
- 43:40Speaker 1: you've done this as a one woman mission. And I
- 43:44Speaker 1: just have so much respect, and like I say to
- 43:46Speaker 1: people watching that are desperate to try and contact you
- 43:51Speaker 1: and want to know more, all of the details are
- 43:53Speaker 1: going to be beneath this interview. But I'm looking at
- 43:57Speaker 1: the clock and we said we do this interview in
- 44:00Speaker 1: two halves, and of course we're running out of time,
- 44:03Speaker 1: which means that we're going to have to book up
- 44:06Speaker 1: to do a second interview. But for the last few minutes,
- 44:10Speaker 1: I just want to take everybody back to how I
- 44:14Speaker 1: first how I first met you, and it was going
- 44:19Speaker 1: back to heal the sick, and there is your beautiful
- 44:25Speaker 1: silver buckle. I had one very similar and it's nursing
- 44:29Speaker 1: in the NHS in the nineteen sixties. And you know, Jane,
- 44:35Speaker 1: I'm hearing from so many patients at the moment that
- 44:39Speaker 1: they're worried, they're scared. They expect nurses to sit on
- 44:45Speaker 1: their beds like we did, to hold their hands, to
- 44:48Speaker 1: be there for them, hands to hold, not iPads. And
- 44:52Speaker 1: our training was very different and yours. I mean, it
- 44:56Speaker 1: all started to change, didn't it. And that's why I
- 44:59Speaker 1: was any newly training nurses or qualified nurses to understand
- 45:07Speaker 1: how we were trained and to understand nursing in our day.
- 45:13Speaker 1: Please read this because you won't. You won't read it
- 45:16Speaker 1: and see it anywhere else. And history is starting to
- 45:20Speaker 1: fade and we need to bring the times of caring back.
- 45:24Speaker 1: But in the sixties, Jane, you were training, and like me,
- 45:31Speaker 1: it was a vocation. How old were you when you
- 45:34Speaker 1: suddenly came to the realization that you.
- 45:36Speaker 2: Wanted to be a nurse? As long as I can remember,
- 45:40Speaker 2: my mother used to say, as soon as I could walk,
- 45:43Speaker 2: I wanted to be a nurse. So yes, nursing, what's
- 45:49Speaker 2: a vocation? And I believe that was the same for
- 45:53Speaker 2: my cohort to my pts. When we started.
- 45:57Speaker 1: It was a complete honor to be accepted for nurse
- 46:01Speaker 1: training in our days. For me, there was I think
- 46:05Speaker 1: there were four hundred applications and there were only seventy
- 46:07Speaker 1: of us that were accepted. And you know, the NHS
- 46:11Speaker 1: are complaining that they have retention problems at the moment,
- 46:14Speaker 1: and at the seventy that started when I started at
- 46:17Speaker 1: the Royal Free back in nineteen seventy six. Only three
- 46:21Speaker 1: dropped out over three years. And they dropped out because
- 46:25Speaker 1: they got married and got pregnant and had babies. That's
- 46:28Speaker 1: why they dropped out. We had very little drop out
- 46:32Speaker 1: and like I say, the majority, sixty seven of us qualified.
- 46:37Speaker 1: And I'm at the conference Bob Moran was talking, and
- 46:44Speaker 1: I remember looking at Bob Moran's hands and thinking of
- 46:49Speaker 1: the amazing drawings that he does and the gifts that
- 46:53Speaker 1: he's got, and that he uses his hands. And I
- 46:57Speaker 1: remember my grandmother saying to me when I had my daughter,
- 47:02Speaker 1: She held her hand and said, what will these hands
- 47:05Speaker 1: do as they get older? And I look at my hands,
- 47:09Speaker 1: and I look at your hands and the hands that
- 47:12Speaker 1: we've held along the way, and we still need to
- 47:15Speaker 1: hold Where have we gone wrong, Jane? What's gone wrong?
- 47:20Speaker 2: It's not us that have gone wrong, Debbie, it's the
- 47:24Speaker 2: system that has been so altered. I can remember it
- 47:29Speaker 2: was nineteen seventy nine, somebody had put me forward for
- 47:36Speaker 2: one of these Nurses of the Year awards. I think
- 47:38Speaker 2: it was rung by the Daily Express, I think, and
- 47:43Speaker 2: it was at the time of a Salmonar report coming
- 47:46Speaker 2: in which was looking at a more academic style of training,
- 47:51Speaker 2: university style training and getting rid of the apprentice style
- 47:58Speaker 2: training that we had, although it's still, of course, as
- 48:02Speaker 2: you know, we still had blocks, three month blocks in school.
- 48:06Speaker 2: We were still being taught. And I went before this
- 48:12Speaker 2: panel two or three times and they kept saying about
- 48:17Speaker 2: university education for nurses, and I still have I said, no,
- 48:23Speaker 2: it is not necessary. That is not what is going
- 48:28Speaker 2: to make a good nurse. I said, a degree is
- 48:31Speaker 2: not going to make a good nurse. You know, nursing
- 48:35Speaker 2: is very, very practical, and I think that's why I
- 48:38Speaker 2: lost out. Actually, I knew what they wanted me to
- 48:42Speaker 2: say was, yes, let's go for the university. But of
- 48:48Speaker 2: course lots of things happened, didn't it. I think it
- 48:52Speaker 2: was nineteen eighty six that we started to then move
- 49:00Speaker 2: nurses into the university system. And I don't even think
- 49:08Speaker 2: we can compare like we'd like, Debbie, because it is
- 49:12Speaker 2: so different. And in recent years with my husband spent
- 49:19Speaker 2: quite a lot of time in hospital and in the
- 49:22Speaker 2: Royal Free I might add. One said, and I stayed
- 49:26Speaker 2: with him twelve hours a day because the nursing wasn't there.
- 49:33Speaker 2: I mean, it's an awful thing to say, isn't it.
- 49:36Speaker 2: I mean we also had a routine going, and all
- 49:43Speaker 2: those routines seem to have fallen away. We were looked after, Jane,
- 49:50Speaker 2: And I think as I've spoken to newly qualified nurses
- 49:55Speaker 2: and nurses that are training now, they don't they're not
- 49:59Speaker 2: being looked after. They're in university for eighteen months. Nurses,
- 50:02Speaker 2: like you've just said, they don't need university academic courses.
- 50:09Speaker 1: We went to the University of Nursing. We were there
- 50:14Speaker 1: on the wards. It was people think that because we
- 50:18Speaker 1: didn't go to university, then we're not clever. We still
- 50:21Speaker 1: went to school, and you don't need to be clever
- 50:24Speaker 1: to care. You don't need to be clever to be compassionate.
- 50:28Speaker 1: You just need to be kind. And you know, in
- 50:32Speaker 1: our day, it was a joy. And we got accommodation.
- 50:37Speaker 1: Yes that's right, new nurses, if you're watching, we got accommodation,
- 50:40Speaker 1: and we had a home warden as well, making sure
- 50:42Speaker 1: that we were doing what we should be doing and
- 50:46Speaker 1: that we were okay. We supported each other, and we
- 50:49Speaker 1: had a hospital laundry, and we sent our uniforms. To goodness,
- 50:53Speaker 1: we'd get told off if we tried to wash our
- 50:55Speaker 1: uniforms ourselves. They'd have to be boiled, and they were
- 50:58Speaker 1: all labeled. Like when you were at school, we had
- 51:00Speaker 1: a subsidized canteen, we had transport. You've written about it
- 51:04Speaker 1: in your book, Jane. You've written and you've written all
- 51:09Speaker 1: about your experiences. You've written about the history, the history
- 51:13Speaker 1: of when things started to change. And I can see
- 51:17Speaker 1: that even when I started in the seventies, it had
- 51:19Speaker 1: just started just started to change into patient centered plans,
- 51:25Speaker 1: a little bit different, just a little nuance from when
- 51:27Speaker 1: you trained in the sixties. And from there on in
- 51:31Speaker 1: we went into something called Project two thousand where we
- 51:34Speaker 1: sent all of these nurses to university and it wasn't
- 51:37Speaker 1: until they got on the war eighteen months later they
- 51:39Speaker 1: decided they didn't actually want to nurse and they didn't
- 51:42Speaker 1: like nursing, and we lost loads. And we are absolutely
- 51:49Speaker 1: passionate about nursing. And I really want to do another
- 51:53Speaker 1: interview with regards to just purely nursing. But for now quickly,
- 51:59Speaker 1: because your old school. I'm old school, and you have
- 52:05Speaker 1: got the experience, Jane, of knowing what it was like.
- 52:11Speaker 1: When we had Hong Kong flu in nineteen sixty eight,
- 52:16Speaker 1: nineteen sixty nine, I was about eleven, and I remember
- 52:20Speaker 1: my mom went down with it, my grandmother went down
- 52:23Speaker 1: with it, my grandfather went down with it. We were
- 52:26Speaker 1: all very very ill for quite a while, and there
- 52:30Speaker 1: was only one lou So it was challenging. But you
- 52:34Speaker 1: nursed through it. And we've just gone through this COVID.
- 52:39Speaker 1: What's the difference. Tell us what is the difference? Even
- 52:45Speaker 1: don't get me going, Debbie.
- 52:46Speaker 2: See when it first came out about COVID and and
- 52:53Speaker 2: you you know, they said it was a coronavirus, and
- 52:56Speaker 2: I thought, well, we nursed it. That was a ownA
- 53:00Speaker 2: virus in nineteen sixty eight sixty nine was called Asian
- 53:05Speaker 2: flu or Hong Kong flu, and there was no people
- 53:10Speaker 2: have forgotten about it. Almost eighty thousand people died in
- 53:15Speaker 2: this country and nobody seemed to remember. So my views
- 53:24Speaker 2: on COVID came from experience because I had nursed through
- 53:32Speaker 2: a true pandemic where it was hitting all age groups,
- 53:38Speaker 2: you know, from children right through to the elderly. The
- 53:42Speaker 2: martrees were full throughout the country. There were cold storage
- 53:48Speaker 2: wagons in the car parks of hospitals. But people have
- 53:55Speaker 2: forgotten about it because life carried on. There was no
- 54:01Speaker 2: thought of schools closing, oh you know, being locked up,
- 54:09Speaker 2: like they tried to lock everybody up. I just refused
- 54:13Speaker 2: any of it. And on the wards it was strenuous.
- 54:17Speaker 2: But even some of my colleagues had said, oh yeah,
- 54:21Speaker 2: oh yeah, but you'll notice reading the books. There's only
- 54:25Speaker 2: the book. There's only two of my colleagues have mentioned
- 54:28Speaker 2: Hong Kong flu because you just got on with it. Now,
- 54:32Speaker 2: we have no pp on the wards. You washed your hands.
- 54:38Speaker 2: The only times you put gloves on the ward was
- 54:43Speaker 2: if you were doing a surgical dressing. So we didn't
- 54:46Speaker 2: have gloves. We weren't masks. We didn't have any disposable
- 54:51Speaker 2: masks or gowns. We had our apron. So I could
- 54:55Speaker 2: not understand what was happening in the country. And when
- 55:01Speaker 2: I tried to talk to people and say, this is
- 55:05Speaker 2: not a true pandemic. It's not a pandemic. It's only
- 55:10Speaker 2: affecting the elderly and those with pre existing conditions. I said,
- 55:17Speaker 2: there's something sinister going on here and out of it
- 55:21Speaker 2: all out of it or Debbie. I think the most
- 55:25Speaker 2: egregious was when they closed down places of worship churches,
- 55:33Speaker 2: and I could not Honestly, I still can't believe it.
- 55:38Speaker 1: A few people I know said exactly the same about churches.
- 55:41Speaker 1: They weren't allowed to sing, they weren't allowed to go
- 55:44Speaker 1: to church. But the minute the vaccine rollout started and
- 55:47Speaker 1: they started to administrate it in church halls and churches,
- 55:51Speaker 1: all of a sudden they.
- 55:52Speaker 2: Reilab back in. I know, yeah, I know there's something
- 56:00Speaker 2: I'm saying sinister going on. There is, and there's you know,
- 56:07Speaker 2: there must be more like you and I, Debbie, who
- 56:10Speaker 2: can see through it. It was an absolute, total sham,
- 56:15Speaker 2: total sham.
- 56:17Speaker 1: Jane, what you've just said, You're right, people have forgotten,
- 56:22Speaker 1: and we've been saying a lot about how history is
- 56:25Speaker 1: suddenly just vanishing. People are forgetting people are forgetting COVID.
- 56:29Speaker 1: There is no there's nobody's doing diaries on every day
- 56:33Speaker 1: of what's happened during COVID. People have been too busy
- 56:36Speaker 1: on Zoom or they've been on WhatsApp or has been
- 56:38Speaker 1: digital and the history's gone. People have forgotten. Young mums
- 56:43Speaker 1: don't know about it. Yeah, that's they've they've forgotten. And that,
- 56:48Speaker 1: I think is why it is so important that our
- 56:53Speaker 1: generation baby boomers, that we stand up together and we
- 57:00Speaker 1: show the youngsters what it was like in our day,
- 57:04Speaker 1: because what do the public expect of nurses? And I
- 57:09Speaker 1: just read an article and I am keeping an eye
- 57:12Speaker 1: on the clock because I know that sadly we're running
- 57:15Speaker 1: out of time. But I read an article the other
- 57:18Speaker 1: day written by a professor who said that perhaps the
- 57:24Speaker 1: word nurse and care should be separated, and I was horrified,
- 57:31Speaker 1: because inextricably linked. But what she said was that nurses
- 57:39Speaker 1: now have become more technicians. They're they're in my opinion,
- 57:45Speaker 1: they're they're performing more of a junior doctor role than
- 57:48Speaker 1: they are hands on patient care, holding hands TLC basic
- 57:54Speaker 1: nursing care role. And what she said was that since
- 57:59Speaker 1: pupil nurse is stating rolled nurses, auxiliary nurses have been banished,
- 58:07Speaker 1: we now have a new breed of health care assistance,
- 58:13Speaker 1: and therefore it's the health care assistance that give care
- 58:19Speaker 1: and no longer the nurses. So Actually, the public shouldn't
- 58:22Speaker 1: expect nurses to take their pulse, talk to them, wash them,
- 58:29Speaker 1: feed them, bed bath them, care for them, how to
- 58:34Speaker 1: them communicate with them, touch them, what the reactions?
- 58:39Speaker 2: Well, the problem is technology is take note for Debby.
- 58:44Speaker 2: You see, when the technology takes over the nurses now
- 58:53Speaker 2: and the doctors, I think if they've lost their autonomy.
- 58:57Speaker 2: They are spending so much time looking at the machine
- 59:03Speaker 2: and not making the observations that we were making. So yes,
- 59:08Speaker 2: we might have been holding their hands, but we were
- 59:12Speaker 2: look at watching their color, their reactions. We were making
- 59:18Speaker 2: observations of the patient, and it was innate in us.
- 59:24Speaker 2: We just did it. But now this is why I
- 59:28Speaker 2: like to keep reminding myself. I know, I keep bringing
- 59:31Speaker 2: back into midwa three. You see, now probably midwives wouldn't
- 59:37Speaker 2: know how to use this to listen to a baby's heartbeat.
- 59:41Speaker 2: But when you are listening like that and you are
- 59:47Speaker 2: in contact with that abdomen, you are in tune with
- 59:53Speaker 2: the baby and you can pick up any differences in heartbeat.
- 59:59Speaker 2: So what do we do? And out We're putting an
- 1:00:01Speaker 2: electrode on the baby's head so that the midwifeld coming
- 1:00:05Speaker 2: and she'll be looking at the machine, you know, looking
- 1:00:10Speaker 2: at all it's reams of paper that's coming out to me.
- 1:00:15Speaker 2: We have lost something, We've lost the art of touch, because.
- 1:00:24Speaker 1: Jane, I wish that I could hug you through the screen,
- 1:00:27Speaker 1: because it's exactly how I feel. And I was never
- 1:00:32Speaker 1: a midwife, but I remember the OBS rounds, right, and
- 1:00:38Speaker 1: walking going with my trolley with my spig mormonometer and
- 1:00:42Speaker 1: my steposcope, and I had everybody's charts, fluid balance charts,
- 1:00:46Speaker 1: and we do those obs perhaps four hourly, perhaps four
- 1:00:51Speaker 1: times a day, maybe one hourly, half hourly, whatever. But
- 1:00:55Speaker 1: we weren't just taking a blood pressure. We were taking
- 1:00:59Speaker 1: a pulp and we were noting the rates, the rhythm,
- 1:01:03Speaker 1: the volume. You can't do that on a machine. We
- 1:01:06Speaker 1: were carrying patient respirations. You know, a machine might say
- 1:01:10Speaker 1: to you old patients respirations are twenty, but actually they
- 1:01:15Speaker 1: they might not be regular, they might not be deep,
- 1:01:18Speaker 1: they might be shallow, the patient might be pale. In
- 1:01:21Speaker 1: that time that we were filling up water jugs, that
- 1:01:25Speaker 1: we were making sure a patient had something to drink,
- 1:01:28Speaker 1: that we were doing our observations, that we were on
- 1:01:32Speaker 1: a drug round. We had one to one contact with
- 1:01:35Speaker 1: that patient. We were on the ward all the time,
- 1:01:39Speaker 1: all the time, the patients knew who we were, and
- 1:01:43Speaker 1: more importantly, we knew all of our patients, and if
- 1:01:47Speaker 1: we didn't, we were in trouble. Because we knew all
- 1:01:51Speaker 1: of our patients, We knew their relatives, we knew what
- 1:01:54Speaker 1: they liked, what they didn't like, We heard about their problems,
- 1:01:58Speaker 1: and it was that golden time, that one to one
- 1:02:01Speaker 1: time when we were with them, talking to them, by
- 1:02:04Speaker 1: their side. That was the most precious time. And we
- 1:02:07Speaker 1: were the bridge, the bridge between a consultant coming around
- 1:02:12Speaker 1: with a load of students and maybe speaking in a
- 1:02:15Speaker 1: language that they didn't understand. The patients were scared. Nobody
- 1:02:19Speaker 1: likes to be in hospital, right, nobody. Different smells, different food,
- 1:02:23Speaker 1: different people, different noises, You're worried about what's going on
- 1:02:27Speaker 1: at home. We were the bridge, and it seems as
- 1:02:31Speaker 1: though that bridge has now gone, and I desperately want
- 1:02:35Speaker 1: to bring it back. You desperately want to bring it back.
- 1:02:39Speaker 1: And that's what nursing is all about, right, Yeah.
- 1:02:42Speaker 2: That world that we knew has gone. It's gone. And
- 1:02:47Speaker 2: also there's been a change in bed structure. And read
- 1:02:52Speaker 2: this from the King's front at how the number of
- 1:02:57Speaker 2: beds have gone. So if we're look at in the
- 1:03:02Speaker 2: nineteen seventies, there were four hundred thousand NHS beds for
- 1:03:09Speaker 2: a population a fifty five million. In twenty twenty there
- 1:03:15Speaker 2: were one hundred and forty one thousand beds for approximately
- 1:03:21Speaker 2: sixty nine million people. Now we can put the loss
- 1:03:27Speaker 2: of beds down. I know they closed a lot of
- 1:03:30Speaker 2: the huge mental institutions, so that would take away some beds,
- 1:03:36Speaker 2: and of course a lot of maternity beds went because
- 1:03:40Speaker 2: we used to in those days. If somebody went in
- 1:03:43Speaker 2: for the first baby, they stayed in for ten days.
- 1:03:47Speaker 2: Somebody who had a cesarean section would be in for
- 1:03:50Speaker 2: two weeks. But other things day beds have taken over.
- 1:03:56Speaker 2: But things have changed so much. And if we go
- 1:04:01Speaker 2: back to looking at COVID as well, since when Debbie,
- 1:04:07Speaker 2: did doctors follow government dicta? I mean doctors made used
- 1:04:15Speaker 2: to make their own diagnoses, you know, with their help,
- 1:04:21Speaker 2: they knew how to treat their patients and with what drugs,
- 1:04:27Speaker 2: and all that seems to have gone. There is no
- 1:04:31Speaker 2: individual care.
- 1:04:33Speaker 1: I hear your passion, and before I throw to you
- 1:04:37Speaker 1: for your last word aside saying get uniform ready matron,
- 1:04:41Speaker 1: because I'm ready to go back on duty. I also
- 1:04:45Speaker 1: want to say that when I was in when I
- 1:04:47Speaker 1: had my daughter, my first, I was in for eight
- 1:04:52Speaker 1: days and she was taken off to the nursery so
- 1:04:56Speaker 1: that I could have some rest. I was looked after.
- 1:05:00Speaker 1: If a patient came in and had hysterecto me. They
- 1:05:02Speaker 1: were normally in ten days to two weeks total hip replacement.
- 1:05:07Speaker 1: You could be looking at three weeks, four weeks, possibly convalescence.
- 1:05:10Speaker 1: What's that you ask yourself. That's a whole other interview.
- 1:05:15Speaker 1: And here I'm hearing today of women that are going
- 1:05:19Speaker 1: in and having caesarean sections that are literally admitted and
- 1:05:22Speaker 1: discharged within twenty four hours. I'm hearing of people having
- 1:05:26Speaker 1: total hip replacements that are admitted and discharged the next day.
- 1:05:31Speaker 1: One of my own family had a cardiac surgical procedure
- 1:05:36Speaker 1: a Tavvy, an elderly member of the family. She was
- 1:05:41Speaker 1: admitted to intensive care one day and discharged from intensive
- 1:05:45Speaker 1: care the next day after the procedure. So hospitals are
- 1:05:49Speaker 1: not where anybody wants to be, but they're certainly not
- 1:05:53Speaker 1: where the NHS want you to be. And I think
- 1:05:55Speaker 1: that's probably a pertinent moment to enter today. For anybody
- 1:06:01Speaker 1: out there that's scared to go to the NHS, because
- 1:06:05Speaker 1: I know that a lot of people are scared at
- 1:06:08Speaker 1: the moment. What I'd say is, if you're watching this,
- 1:06:11Speaker 1: and if you're watching UK column, you're going to know,
- 1:06:16Speaker 1: you're going to be very well aware of some of
- 1:06:19Speaker 1: the pitfalls. And we've spoken many times about don't be scared,
- 1:06:25Speaker 1: be aware. Take somebody with you when you go for
- 1:06:28Speaker 1: your appointment, make sure somebody knows what you're having done
- 1:06:31Speaker 1: and what your wishes are. Perhaps make a living will.
- 1:06:35Speaker 1: But Jane and I come from the same stable where
- 1:06:39Speaker 1: hands were held, not iPads, and we're going to be
- 1:06:42Speaker 1: having more interviews with Jane, and we're going to be
- 1:06:44Speaker 1: talking about nursing and what the public expect nurses to be,
- 1:06:49Speaker 1: who they expect them to be. Do you want uniforms back?
- 1:06:52Speaker 1: I do. Do you want to see the nurses on
- 1:06:55Speaker 1: the wards, not in an office? I do so. On
- 1:07:00Speaker 1: that note, Jane, an extraordinary, extraordinary journey and adventure that
- 1:07:06Speaker 1: you've had, and my goodness, what an incredible achievement. I
- 1:07:09Speaker 1: can't thank you enough. I'm sure there are going to
- 1:07:11Speaker 1: be lots of people wanting to contact you and to
- 1:07:14Speaker 1: help the charity. But for now, Jane Senior Matron, thank you,
- 1:07:20Speaker 1: and it's over to you for your last word.
- 1:07:23Speaker 2: Thank you, Debbie. It's been a pleasure chatting. So my
- 1:07:28Speaker 2: last word would be to everyone to really take control
- 1:07:35Speaker 2: of your own health because your health is God given.
- 1:07:41Speaker 2: You have an immune system there and to me that
- 1:07:47Speaker 2: is the most important thing. But do not be afraid
- 1:07:53Speaker 2: to go into hospital if you have an acute condition,
- 1:07:58Speaker 2: if you have broken your life, you've been in an accident.
- 1:08:02Speaker 2: Obviously you need the services at the hospital and there
- 1:08:06Speaker 2: are good people working, particularly in trauma in the trauma units.
- 1:08:13Speaker 2: But basically you must we've got to all start and
- 1:08:17Speaker 2: take control back and looking after your own health actually
- 1:08:27Speaker 2: is the choices that you make. It's the choices keep
- 1:08:32Speaker 2: hold of your own health because as I've said, it's
- 1:08:38Speaker 2: God given. So you are in control of what you eat,
- 1:08:43Speaker 2: what you drink, what you take into your body, and
- 1:08:48Speaker 2: just know that your body always wants to be well,
- 1:08:53Speaker 2: always wants to be well, and take care of yourself.
- 1:08:59Speaker 2: That's my sig