11 September 2023 , 19:46
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Mum of four Gemma Wright was so overwhelmed by the devotion of the children’s nurses when her newborn was rushed into intensive care, that she made a huge life decision.
Having been unsure of which career path to take, Gemma resolved there and then to train as a paediatric nurse, even sitting an exam 48 hours after giving birth.
And that fateful decision proved to be even more momentous than Gemma could have possibly imagined - when she used her training to save her mum’s life.
After being found unresponsive in bed, her mum Pauline Wright’s heart stopped for 18 minutes, but Gemma flew into action after a panicked call from her dad Jim and performed life-saving CPR.
Gemma, from Beccles, Suffolk, says: “If I’d had none of my training I don’t think my mum would be here.”
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Nurse Gemma pictured with her familyThe 38-year-old, who became a single parent when youngest Theo was just 15 months old and she was only months into her nursing degree, says she would be lost without her parents and their support for her and Kyle, 20, Brooke, 15, Beaudyn, eight, and Theo, now seven.
Gemma, now a fully qualified paediatric nurse, has been working in the emergency department at Norfolk & Norwich University Hospital for three years.
She and her colleagues at the hospital feature in the current series of ITV ’s Emergency Nurses: A+E Stories, which looks at both the personal and medical lives of the nurses.
Gemma says: “I was poorly in hospital for a couple of weeks with a kidney problem when I was pregnant with Theo and had to be induced.
“My other three births were fine but shortly after Theo was born he developed quite bad respiratory distress. He was struggling with his breathing and got taken into the neonatal intensive care unit and given supplemental oxygen.
“It was really scary. Nowhere in the world did I think he would be born poorly.
“He had pneumonia and his lungs weren’t functioning very well so he had breathing support for a week. Then he had jaundice and needed therapy lights.
Gemma's son Theo when he was a newborn in hospital (Emergency Nurses/ITVX)“We were lucky that Theo was fine after treatment, but I saw how the nurses treated us, how they looked after him and from that moment I thought ‘Yes, that’s exactly what I want to do’.
Gemma, who had previously spent 11 years working in a mental health unit, had been torn over which healthcare path to take, but she realised children’s nursing was her calling.
She says: “I understand that anxiety when your children are sick. I wanted to be the nurse who you can put your trust in. Your child is the most precious thing in the world.
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“I’m a mum and I’ve experienced my own children being poorly, so when parents are going through this, I understand how they feel.”
Gemma was so determined that she even took a GCSE 48 hours after having Theo so that she didn’t miss getting a place on the course. “There was no stopping me at that point,” she says.
Just two years ago, her training was used very close to home when Jim, 71, couldn’t wake Pauline up one morning.
Fortunately, Gemma lives six doors away and was there in seconds.
Gemma says: “It was an absolute shock. My mum had just had her 60th birthday and had no health concerns.
“Then I got a phone call from my dad at half eight on a Saturday morning. Thank God I answered my phone. He had found mum unresponsive in bed.
“I shouted at Kyle to look after the kids and just ran round there.
“I can’t even describe the feeling. It was like an out of body experience. I tried to convince myself she would wake up any second, but I could hear my lecturer in my head, all my training kicked in.
“My dad and I took her out of bed and put her on the floor.
“Then I did chest compressions for nine minutes until the paramedics arrived and took over and they did another nine. Usually you swap with someone every two minutes because it’s exhausting but I could have carried on. Her heart had stopped, it was life and death.
“The paramedics shocked her and got her heart beating but she was still unconcsious and not breathing without help. The air ambulance came and she went to intensive care where she spent a few days on a ventilator.
“It was really traumatic but thank goodness she’s ok now. She was in hospital for a month and now has a pacemaker and defibrillator fitted. If I hadn’t been there, there could have been a very different outcome.”
Pauline, now 62, doesn’t remember anything about what happened, but she knows her daughter saved her life and says nursing was “Gemma’s calling”.
Gemma says she feels privileged to do the job she does.
She says: “On the children’s emergency ward, there are traumatic and heartbreaking moments that will always stick with you and there are always certain children and families that I will never forget. But we also have fun times and do our best to keep smiling.
Emergency Nurses: A+E Stories airs weekly on ITVBe Tuesdays at 9pm and is available to stream from ITVX