Excellence Award for life saving nurse

A Minor Injuries Nurse from Ystradgynlais has received a special recognition award for her quick, calm and professional reaction saving the life of a patient earlier this year.

Alice Chappell had already finished her shift at Ystradgynlais Community Hospital and had stayed on to complete some paperwork in the Minor Injuries Unit at the hospital after it had closed for the day when Brendon Clancy stumbled into the hospital having driven himself there after suffering serious injuries with a circular saw at home.

Minor Injury units are not designed for major trauma patients such as Mr Clancy but Alice was quick to step in and deliver life saving care.

Alice was a trainee Emergency Nurse Practitioner at the time but her training and calm professionalism enabled her to take charge of the situation. She enrolled other colleagues to help and allocated roles to manage the trauma.

Not only was she reassuring the patient, but also checking that the staff were all OK. The injuries were severe and not something the hospital staff had seen before. Thanks to Alice, Mr Clancy was stabilized before being airlifted to Cardiff and he has since had a full recovery.

Alice received her award from Kirsty Williams, Vice Chair of the health board and ex Welsh Government Minister.

Brendon Clancy was also able to attend the award presentation along with many of the other staff that had been there on the day.

Released:16/01/2024