Carer Transforms Career After Covid-19 Battle

Connected Health carer, Louise Bell, has transformed her career after a near-death battle with Covid-19 which left her fighting for her life in an intensive care unit.

In 2018 Louise joined Connected Health as a care assistant after working for many years in the industry and shortly after was promoted to a Senior Carer role. Louise stated: "I just loved the job, I loved making a difference to people who wanted to stay living in their own homes."

However, in February 2021 Louise was infected with the virus which brought her 16 year care carer to a halt. When she first felt symptoms, Louise she took the prescribed lockdown precautions and isolated, later testing positive for the virus. Louise managed her symptoms for a week, but on the seventh day was advised by a nurse to go to hospital. It was then that her condition began to spiral out of control and she was referred to the high dependency unit at Altnagelvin Hospital. She spent nine days in the high dependency unit and suffered permanent damage, even after many months of rehabilitation.

Commenting on her experience, Louise said: "I felt as though I was suffocating on my own breath and could not even speak. I honestly thought I was dying. A consultant told me that the next three days would decide whether I would ever leave hospital again,” she explains.

"Things did start to improve after several days, and I was finally allowed to go home after eleven days. I remember the one thing that kept me going was looking at the pictures and videos of my then 3 month-old grandson Jackson."

The virus had long term effects on Louise as she sustained nerve damage on the left side of her body and damage to her left lung. It took her four months or rehabilitation before she was able to return to work. Unfortunately after just 12 weeks she was once again struggling to breathe and was this time diagnosed with pleurisy.

Louise said: "I was so frustrated because all I wanted was to get back to work. Everybody at Connected Health was really kind and supportive. The company referred me to a doctor in Belfast who told me I would not be able to return to homecare duties for the foreseeable future due to the nature of my condition.

"I was devastated and cried the whole way home from Belfast that day. I did not want to give up my career and really loved working with Connected Health who were so good to me since I had joined them."

Within weeks Louise applied for a front desk position at Connected Health and was successful. She said: "I was really happy to be back at work, but still wanted to be directly involved in a role that helped people who needed care to remain in the comfort of their own homes. When a Co-ordinator (Scheduler) role came up shortly afterwards, I jumped at the chance. As an on-the-ground carer for many years, I knew I would be happy being directly involved in helping people stay at home."

In October, Louise was recognised as 'Scheduler of the Year 2023' at the Home and Community Care Ireland (HCCI) Home Care awards, supported by First Ireland. Commenting on her success at the awards, Louise said: "It amazing to be given this award and I was truly grateful and shocked to receive it. It's the icing on the cake on top of the real reward of being able to do what I love best as part of the Connected Health team.

"Away from work, I just take every day as it comes and do all the things I want to do, like spending more time with family and getting out and about more, and of course watching the Ulster rugby team in action."