Nikki brings personal insight to new role
Date of release: 16 July 2024
A Nurse whose young daughter died is now helping to care for very sick children in an “amazing” role new in Wolverhampton.
Nikki Hewitt’s daughter Bethany was just two when she died. The devastating loss led to a career in intensive healthcare and the mum of four, 37, is the first Paediatric Cardiology Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) at The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust (RWT).
Nikki, from Cannock, trained at New Cross Hospital, where she is now based.
“When I lost my daughter I felt like I had nothing,” said the mum to Katelyn, 18, step-daughter Poppy, 11, Renesmee, nine, and three-year-old Luna. “Nursing wasn’t something I’d thought of, but I applied for the course a month after.
“I was accepted and everywhere I went on placement, I loved it.
“But I always felt more drawn towards sicker children. That’s why I went to work in intensive care at Birmingham Children’s Hospital (BCH), for 11 years. ITU felt like home.
“We used to do all the chest closures (where the breastbone is closed after heart surgery), and watching a baby’s heart beating, I found it incredible’.”
Nikki took her expertise abroad too. She was invited to Jamaica to support Nurses with post-operative patients by charity Chain of Hope, which supports families of those needing heart surgery.
But she has found her next calling at Wolverhampton. “I thought ‘what an amazing opportunity – a place I can really make a difference doing Cardiology, something I truly love, and supporting a better work/life balance.”
“There’s a lot of families with chronic congenital heart conditions which are life-shortening and they need support.
“Until now, Wolverhampton didn’t have that. There are other things to be put into place, such as supporting teenagers with transitioning from children’s services to adult services.
“Also supporting families through the ‘flow’ – whether antenatally I can be there straightaway, rather than the families having to go to BCH and returning here.”
Nikki says her loss helps her in her job now.
“I thought it would help me with the parents but it actually helps with the staff, to explain to them that they don’t know what it’s like to live with these conditions, because it affects every bit of your life,” she said.
“When a parent is irate, they might not have slept or ate properly for days or worked and money’s tight. Hopefully I can provide that understanding between the medics and the parents.
“I would never be doing this if it wasn’t for Bethany.”
Bethany was born with gastroschisis, where the intestines stick out through a hole in the belly wall, a one in 5,000 birth defect.
Transferred to BCH, she lost most of her bowel and suffered liver failure, before having a liver and bowel transplant.
The family lived in the Intensive Care Unit at BCH for eight months as Bethany suffered more problems, needing a tracheostomy.
She contracted sepsis and died at two years and three months in September 2009, having spent just four weeks of her life at home.
ENDS
- For further information, please call Tim Nash on 07714 741097 or email tim.nash2@nhs.net
