Photo left to right: Nicky Atwood, Keisha Bartlett, Lucy Laird. Absent: Gina Meredith, Kerry Coburn, Gareth Roberts, Michelle Metz, Peter Stiven, Peter Birch.
“I love you, and I’ll see you when I see you,” is what associate theatre clinical nurse manager Nicky Atwood said to her husband and 13-year-old daughter when she left for her shift during Cyclone Gabrielle.
With the hospital running on generators, no phone or internet to the whole region, bridges closed and the rivers in Gisborne City about to flood nearby houses, the on-duty Gisborne Hospital theatre team knew they were in for a long haul.
“We made the call quite early in the day for all of us to sleep in our day of surgery unit,” said Nicky.
“We couldn’t even call any of the team and the bridges that connect city were shut, so we knew they wouldn’t be able to get to the hospital. We didn’t even know how they were coping with the weather.
“There were quite a few of us - six theatre nurses, an anaesthetist and two surgeons.
As night arrived and the rain and wind lashed the windows, the team hunkered down, watching the news on the waiting room TV.
“We could only think of our whānau at home and how vulnerable they were.
“One of the senior surgeons brought in DVDs for us to watch, which was nice.”
Theatre nurse Keisha Bartlett had left her two children, 7 and 9, with her Mum and Dad.
“We had no idea how bad it was out there, but we just needed to trust that everything was going to be OK and they were going to be fine, said Keisha.
It was such a vulnerable feeling, but we knew we had a job to do and the community was counting on us.
Associate clinical nurse manager Lucy Laird is new to Tairāwhiti and said the experience has brought the team even closer together.
“I’ve come back to Aotearoa from nursing in Saudi Arabia to such a caring, close-knit team here at Gisborne Hospital.
“The way the whole organisation has responded to the emergency for the community was great to see.”