This month’s You Made a Difference team award goes to the NCCU team, who has demonstrated extraordinary compassion, professionalism and teamwork in supporting one of their long-term patients through the final stages of her life.
Over the course of more than six months, the NCCU team cared for a ventilated patient with extremely complex clinical needs. Despite every effort, the patient ultimately made the brave decision to discontinue life-sustaining treatment. She came to terms with her prognosis and expressed a final, deeply personal wish: to die outside, in the sunshine, surrounded by her loved ones - and her dog.
Honouring this extraordinary request required an immense team effort. As one colleague shared:
We brought in support from consultants and palliative care for symptom control, liaised with Division D to use the J2 Garden, worked with Facilities and Portering to arrange parasols and ensure dignity and privacy. Even the D2 team kindly closed their own garden to ensure peace.
Thanks to seamless collaboration between nursing staff, medics, AHPs and support services, the patient was able to be moved safely from J3 to the garden. There, in the fresh spring air, she spent her final moments at peace, surrounded by her family and her dog, just as she had hoped.
Another colleague reflected:
The communication and planning were exemplary. Medical, nursing and AHPs worked as a family to ensure that this planned extubation was calm, peaceful, and dignified.
“A special thank you to her nurse, Zoe, who encapsulated everything it means to be a nurse. It made me proud to be one too.”
This deeply moving experience speaks volumes about the values that guide CUH. Kindness, compassion, dignity, and collaboration shone through every action. The NCCU team went above and beyond—not just to provide clinical care, but to give this patient the chance to pass away on her own terms, in a place of beauty and peace.
As one colleague concluded:
I cannot express how proud I am to work with a team who put the patient and her family’s needs first. This is what care should look like.
Congratulations to everyone in NCCU – your compassion, professionalism and teamwork made a lasting difference in this patient’s life, and in the hearts of all who witnessed it.