Covid nurse's photos give rare look into life working in intensive care

A North West nurse has been documenting the fight against coronavirus on her social media pages.

Emily Gilhespy is an intensive care nurse and has been photographing her colleagues as they tackle the third wave of Covid-19 in the hope that it will give people "a window into ICU" so that they realise how serious the situation is.

She said: "The NHS has never faced a situation like this, and the numbers are growing, and we are having to deal with incredibly poorly individuals from COVID.

"I've never dreaded going into work before, but now I do in many ways." 

An intensive care nurse treats a patient who is on a ventilator. Credit: Emily Gilhespy

Emily said she wants the photos to show why there are lockdown measures in place and said that seeing reports of people not following rules after working a 13-hour shift are "devastating".

"Working in the ICU at the moment is like controlled chaos," she said.

"You have incredible numbers of admissions, you expect to come on to a shift and you know there aren't many beds available but they're most likely going to be filled."

She added: "We're seeing young people with Covid critically ill and also dying, people are losing their loved ones, and I just hope that people will understand why we have these measures in place.

"Why we do have to social distance, why we do have to put this effort in place into stopping the spread of this virus."

"I want people to look at these images and realise - they do not want to be there."

All of Emily's photos can be found on her Instagram page.