Shielding nurse from Plymouth says 'it only takes one person to not follow the rules' to kill her
A Plymouth nurse who is clinically extremely vulnerable has warned how her life is at risk if other people break Covid-19 restrictions.
Lisa Crips - a Lead Nutrition Nurse at Derriford Hospital - has an unusual form of severe asthma. She has been shielding at home, alongside her family, since March 2020.
Lisa said: "It only takes one person to not wash their hands, wear a mask, or follow the rules and, at the end of that chain, the virus can end-up killing someone like me and my patients.”
Lisa went from being an extremely fit, healthy Intensive Care Nurse to being diagnosed with mucus hyper secretory phenotype and having to leave her job.
With this condition, her lungs produce too much mucus which her body struggles to clear. It lead her to leave her role as an ICU nurse.
Ten years ago, Lisa was described as a "phenomenally fit 40-year-old who spent two-and-a-half hours in the gym, four mornings a week".She did up to ten hours of Tae Kwon Do each week and competed at a national level. Lisa also had personal trainer, cycled to work, and did lots of running.
The symptoms which lead to her diagnosis started gradually with disturbed sleep, fatigue, pneumonia, recurrent chest infections and wheezing on exercise.
Lisa said: “I’ve spent the last ten years under the care of a respiratory consultant trying to get myself stable."
“I have to nebulise daily, take drugs to breakdown the mucus, nebulise saline to try and make it easier to clear.
"I take daily antibiotics to dampen down the immune response in my lungs. I also have to take immune response blocker tablets, long acting steroids and muscle relaxant inhalers every day. If I do this I can function.
“Without this, or if I catch any respiratory illness, it has a huge impact on my ability to breathe, speak or work and my recovery is longer than those with normal lungs."
Lisa is still working from home whilst she is shielding, something which she now has in common with lots of her patients.
She said: “I’m very lucky to have been supported to work from home and many of my patients in the community are in similar situation to me."
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