Felbridge Awards - staff zone

A sunny evening added an extra touch of sparkle to the second and last of this year’s award ceremonies.

Held at Felbridge Hotel in East Grinstead, more than 50 members of staff attended with their guests. The ceremony also brought together eight volunteer drivers who had never met before.

Several members of staff received Chief Executive's Commendations.

Critical Care Paramedic Andy Hitt received one for Clinical Excellence after he revived a 42-year-old father when his heart had stopped beating for half an hour.

Being a father himself, Andy was inspired to think outside his scope of practice by the patient’s young daughter: after provisionally diagnosing a pulmonary embolism when the patient failed to respond to intubation (invasive oxygen therapy), Andy sought authorisation to thrombolise from Dr Jane Pateman.

The patient went on to make a full recovery with no lasting effects.

‘When I saw the patient respond so well to the thrombolysis, it brought a lump to my throat. As a father myself, I just kept thinking of the little girl downstairs and about doing the very best to keep her dad alive. The award was a lovely surprise. It’s very important to remember that I wasn’t working alone.’

Arundel Critical Care Paramedic, Shaun Baron received an award for Outstanding Patient Care after he saved the life of a 21-month-old baby and prevented brain damage to the baby after a fit.

To rehydrate the baby and bring its temperature down, Shaun’s emergency cannulation allowed the administration of resuscitation drugs, an extremely difficult procedure in an unwell child.

Chief Executive, Paul Sutton, praised both clinicians. ‘The efforts of these two clinicians in these examples is remarkable. The level of care they were able to provide through innovative clinical practice literally saved lives and is amongst the most advanced practice you will see performed by paramedics anywhere in the UK.

We should all be tremendously proud of what has been achieved through the year.’