Award for nurse whose quick thinking saved man with saw injuries
Posted 23 January 2024 - 15:30
Nurse Alice Chappell gave lifesaving care when Brendon Clancy arrived at a minor injury unit with severe abdominal injuries after falling on a circular saw
A trainee nurse practitioner has been recognised for the lifesaving care she gave a critically ill patient who drove himself to hospital after a gruesome accident with a circular saw.
Brendon Clancy drove himself to minor injury unit with severe abdominal injuries
Nurse Alice Chappell was finishing her shift at the Ystradgynlais Community Hospital in Swansea when Brendon Clancy arrived at the closed minor injury unit cradling his intestines in a T-shirt.
Ms Chappell, who was completing training as an emergency nurse practitioner at the time, was ‘doing paperwork and having a cuppa’ when receptionist staff leaving the building alerted her to Mr Clancy and his need for urgent care.
He had managed to drive himself to the unit after tripping and falling on a nine-inch circular saw, which had cut through his abdomen and bowels, while working in his garden.
‘Mr Clancy managed to get himself to the front doors and when I saw him he was very pale, diaphoretic and in and out of consciousness. He was covered in blood and had an evisceration and injury to his abdomen,’ Ms Chappell told Nursing Standard.
As the most senior person Alice Chappell realised she had to take the lead
Despite working for years in emergency departments in the UK and Australia, Ms Chappell said she had never seen an injury so severe, especially outside of a trauma unit.
‘I had a moment right at the beginning where I thought: “Oh I’ll get help”, then realised quite quickly that I was the most senior person in the unit and I was the help, I would need to take the lead,’ she said.
‘The minor injuries unit isn’t equipped with everything and we had limited resources. But I pressed the buzzer and a load of the district nurses and staff from the elderly care wards came to help. We got him down flat on his back and I instructed a colleague to call for an ambulance and ask for the major trauma team, as I knew we needed an air ambulance.
‘Then my main focus was to keep everyone calm, especially Brendon as he was daunted by his injury. We covered the injury with a saline soaked gauze and put the automated external defibrillator on him in case of deterioration.
‘I was so surprised that he had managed to get to us. He must have been running on adrenaline, but you could see that adrenaline slump as soon as he got to hospital.’
Mr Clancy was later airlifted to the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff and is fully recovered from his injuries. He later returned to the unit to meet staff who saved his life and to thank Ms Chappell for her quick thinking and lifesaving care.
Excellence award for lifesaving care
In honour of her work, Powys Teaching Health Board gave Ms Chappell an Excellence Award for Life earlier this month, at an award presentation attended by Mr Clancy.
Ms Chappell said that the day will stick out as one of the most memorable of her nursing career.
‘It was one of those days where everyone pulled together. It’s made us closer as a team. It is days like those that you realise that you are much more capable than you ever would know,’ she said.
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