A woman who collapsed at a flower show and broke both of her legs has become one of the first patients to leave the newly opened National Rehabilitation Centre (NRC).
Liz Mant, from Melton Mowbray, had been at the Rutland Flower Show in August when she collapsed in the heat, and broke her left leg in two places, and her right leg in one place.
She spent almost four weeks at the Queen’s Medical Centre (QMC) undergoing operations on her legs and beginning her recovery journey before being transferred to the NRC on 9 September – just a week after it had opened.
The 70-bed, state-of-the-art specialist rehabilitation centre, for NHS patients who have experienced a life-changing illness or injury, opened on 2 September and is run and staffed by Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH).
Liz explained that her injuries were the result of weakened bones due to steroids to treat her Crohn’s disease.
She said: “I went out to a flower show on one of the hottest days of the year and was very silly and didn’t have a drink before I left the house, so I was a bit dehydrated and I passed out.
“Very unusually, I managed to break both my legs when I went down which was a bit of a surprise and I spent four weeks at the QMC.”
The NRC is able to accept patients who have a complex combination of fractures which will make their recovery particularly difficult, such as Liz who was unable to bear weight on either leg due to her injuries.
Liz explained that coming to the NRC had been ‘a huge relief’ and that until that point she had been bed-bound.
She said: “I’d had the surgery I needed, and I was just needing some rehab to be able to turn the corner, so it was a huge relief to hear I was going to the NRC.
“I arrived on Wednesday afternoon, they settled me into my bed and even before I’d been formally checked in the therapies team had found me and made me a bespoke programme.”
The therapies team worked with Liz to identify what she needed to learn to do again in order to go home, which was to be up and mobile again, and within half an hour they had already put it into action.
She said: “I went from being bed-bound on Wednesday morning to walking up and down the stairs by Friday.
By Wednesday afternoon they had me out of bed. They got me the right equipment so they got me a frame which meant I could go and use the bathroom, and a wheelchair so I could wheel myself down to the dining room.
“I knew then that I was going to be able to get home, and to be able to get home safely and be able to move about. And now I am, in just a week.
“I said to the physio team ‘you throw it at me, I’ll do it, whatever it takes’, and between them they have nailed it and every day I am working on stuff which is personal for me when I get home.
“It means that I have confidence in going home and not doing myself any damage.”
For Liz, this has meant practicing how to get in and out of her house, how to get up the stairs, particularly practicing with the side where her bannister is at home.
She is delighted to now be able to go home and says she is looking forward to getting back to normality.
Ellie Brown, NRC Physiotherapist and a member of the multi-disciplinary team providing Liz’s rehab, said:
“Liz has done incredibly well, and I think she’s surprised herself with how much she has achieved in a week.
“He attitude towards her rehab has been really refreshing to have someone so engaged in their own rehab journey to carry it forward. She’s also been very open to all the opportunities that we’ve presented to her, which is 80% of the battle.
“Being at the NRC allows us to use multiple different spaces and incorporate the rehab into daily activity, such as going to get some fresh air and doing some walking outside, or walking down to the dining room for meals, rather than having to practice repetitions in a gym space, and that seems to be working well for patients such as Liz.”