A DOCTOR who has worked around the clock on Barnsley Hospital’s intensive care unit during the coronavirus pandemic has vowed to raise cash to fund a bespoke wheelchair to help the town’s recovering patients get back outdoors.
( Dr Sughrat Siddiqui, consultant in intensive care and anaesthetics, is running 2,278 miles - 45 miles a week, every week, for a year.
The 47-year-old is running the equivalent length of the famous Route 66 in America by completing trails round the Peak District whenever he can find time outside his work schedule.
Dr Siddiqui, who has been a consultant at Barnsley Hospital for ten years, said: “We can and do take patients outside using a combination of equipment which is laborious, inefficient and excludes certain patients for safety reasons.
“We want to broaden the number of patients we can offer this service to by building a bespoke chair that allows us to do this more often and with more complex patients.”( Dr Siddiqui said his challenge was inspired by one of his patients, 61-year-old Jean Hancox, of Darfield, who was in intensive care for 90 days and almost lost her life to pneumonia.
“As Jean slowly recovered and got to the point where it looked like she might actually make it, we decided to take her outside for some daylight and a change of scenery,” he added.
“You can imagine the effect on someone of being in the same room for 90 days - we went outside, taking all the precautions needed, and she immediately burst into tears as she was overwhelmed by happiness.”
To donate, visit justgiving.com/Sughrat-Siddiqui2.
