Campaigners tell of PRH's help

Campaigners who say they owe the Princess Royal Hospital for the gift of life today had a message for health bosses - hands off our hospital.

A string of Shropshire Star readers have come forward to say they and their loved ones would not be here today were it not for the Telford hospital. Now they have added their voices to a growing campaign aimed at stopping any attempt to transfer some acute services from the PRH to the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital by 2012/13.

Richard Bradford, of Albrighton, said staff at the PRH had saved his life not once, but twice.

The 44-year-old said: "I was treated for non-Hodgkins lymphoma at the PRH in 2006. Without a doubt the staff there saved my life by treating me promptly.

"The following year I suffered heart failure due to damage caused by the chemo.

"Again, the staff, who were under immense pressure due to a mass shortage of beds, looked after me and again saved my life.

"I witnessed on more than one occasion nurses crying due to the pressure they were under working double shifts."

Phil Davies, 51, of Ketley, said several members of his family had been treated at the hospital.

He added: "Last year we had to rush one of my sisters down on a Sunday morning and she was rushed through A&E with blood pressure of 273 over 170.

"They told us that she could have had a stroke at any time within the next few hours. Would the extra distance to Shrewsbury have been the cause of the stroke or even her death? Keep the PRH open at all costs."

"I've been told if I have to travel to Shrewsbury there is an 80 per cent chance I will not survive the trip.

"My mother had ovarian cancer and they treated her for two years and they treated my grandfather through three heart attacks, two mini strokes and one big stroke.

"To remove any part of this hospital is absolutely ridiculous."

Biker Rob Breeze, of Stirchley, was given just a small chance of surviving the night after he was brought into the PRH after a crash in Telford 15 years ago.

He ended up in the intensive therapy unit for two days before spending nearly a fortnight in an orthopaedic ward.

The 54-year-old said: "My injuries included multiple skull fractures and bleeding within the skull. As it was my relatives were told that I had a 40 per cent chance of living through the night.

"I've often wondered what might have happened if I'd had to be taken to Shrewsbury - the accident occurred during the early evening of spring bank holiday Monday."

Mr Breeze, who is a partner in Madeley Print Shop, said his survival was a question of him getting treatment very quickly and he did not know what would have happened to him if he had had to travel to another hospital.

Mr Breeze said his daughter, Laura, had to be treated for concussion at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital when she fell of a slide when she was about six or seven years old but it had been a "nightmare" getting there without a car. But he said he did not agree with a campaign supporting one hospital over another.

Lee Ward, a 55-year-old carpenter, of Coronation Crescent, Madeley, was admitted with an embolism. He said: "Earlier this year I was admitted to PRH and was there for a week. The care I received was second to none and all the staff were excellent, making me feel at ease and comfortable as being admitted can be a scary experience.

"Why on earth should they be treated as second to RSH? They deserve better than this, and so do the people of Telford."

The father-of-two said his daughter had also given birth at the PRH and added it would have been too far to travel if she had had to go to the RSH, especially for any visitors.

Pauline Love, of Lawley, said without the efforts of paramedics and PRH staff her son, Andrew, would have died after he was critically injured in a crash in Donnington in April 2007.

The grandmother-of-four, of Glendale, said: "He was not breathing when paramedics got to him due to their care and quick transfer to the PRH he survived internal decapitation.

"I know my son, who is now 33 years old, would not have survived if he had to be taken to Shrewsbury. I will be forever eternally grateful to the PRH. This service is vital."

She said her husband, Colin, had also received emergency treatment at the hospital when he suffered a heart attack and an allergic reaction to medication in 1998.

Mrs Love said: "I live in Lawley where we are undergoing major redevelopment of 3,500 new houses, plus all other developments in Telford totals thousands more people. I say we need our hospital extending not reducing.

"I lived in Telford before the PRH was built and had to rush both my children up to Shrewsbury on separate occasions, not life-threatening but a nightmare when you are worried sick."

Serena Sibson-Bartram, of Victoria Court, Hadley, said: "I had my second baby boy at the PRH and the overnight stay was lovely. Shrewsbury is a 20-minute journey and anything can happen in that length of time, not to mention all the job cuts, its not fair.

"It shouldn't happen, many people do not own a car and rely on other people for transport."

The 22-year-old, who has sons Tyler, who is nearly four months old, and Jared, three, who was born at the RSH, said: "It's a long way because only my dad had got a car in my family and it was hard for all the family to get up."

Diana Nicholson, of Whitchurch, said doctors at the PRH had saved the life of her daughter, Lilli.

She said: "Eighteen years ago my daughter was admitted to PRH, two weeks before her first birthday, within an hour she was diagnosed with meningococcal meningitis.

"She was treated there and their quick diagnosis saved her life. The care we received there was outstanding, I am totally against this move."

By Lisa Rowley and Simon Hardy