Thank you for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page. I hope that my story touches your heart and you feel that you are able to make a donation.

On 3rd January 2005 my husband, Craig Hadlington, was admitted to the Critical Care Unit at Russells Hall Hospital with what appeared to be a severe dose of influenza.  That afternoon Craig was placed on a life support machine.  Seven days later, on the 10th January, Craig unfortunately lost his battle to Pneumococcal Pneumonia.

It was a very difficult time for all of our family.

During the 7 days that Craig was in the CCU the consultants decided to transfer Craig onto a much more powerful life support machine in order to administer the drugs that Craig needed. This was a traumatic time as the consultants did not know if Craig would survive the transfer. Craig was successfully transferred.

Two days later Craig had to be tranferred onto a special bed that rotates in order to keep his body moving to help whilst Craig was going through dialysis. The bed was transported from a company in London but staff in the CCU at Russells Hall had never received any training on how to operate the bed previously.  In fact, they had never seen such a bed before.

Craig was successfully transferred to the rotating bed. The bed was inflated and rotated from side to side so that Craig's body was being moved at set times.  Unfortunately, after 13 hours the bed stopped working, deflated and Craig was left lying on a metal frame.  An engineer was called to fix the problem but, as the bed was originally from London, the company had no idea when they could arrange an engineer to attend the CCU in Russells Hall. Consequently Craig lay on a metal frame for a further 2 days.

It was heart wrenching watching someone you love on a life support machine, knowing that the equipment had broken but devastating as we could do nothing about it.

9 years have passed since Craig’s death but he is in our thoughts every day.  Nothing will ever bring back Craig but I would like to try and raise enough money so that Russells Hall CCU can buy their own rotating bed (or something similar) so other families do not have to go through the same experience as we did.

After spending days in the CCU I would also like to update some of the facilities that are used in the family room. The overnight beds need upgrading and there are no drink making facilities available.

Craig was cared for by very professional team of nurses, doctors and other members of staff so I really would like us all to make a difference to the CCU and other families that will have the misfortune to spend time there.  

Craig was a much loved, respected family man and friend and is deeply missed. I know that Craig would be proud of you all making this donation to help others.

Thank you very much.