Wolverhampton healthcare worker left unable to speak by rare disorder praises hospital

Kerry Williams, an assistant stroke practitioner in the community at The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, was admitted to New Cross on February 13 after feeling unwell.

At the time, she was experiencing pins and needles down her left side and was struggling to walk.

After an MRI and blood tests, doctors diagnosed Kerry with Guillain-Barré syndrome which is a very rare and serious condition that affects the nerves.

It mainly affects the feet, hands and limbs, causing problems such as numbness, weakness and pain with severe cases, such as Kerry’s, causing breathing difficulties.

Kerry, 52, from Wolverhampton, said: "I didn’t feel well at all and my legs felt numb. I was going downhill rapidly.

"I then found it very hard to breathe and rang my family saying I couldn’t speak on the phone any more as I couldn’t breathe which was terrifying.

"I was so frightened. Last thing I remember was being told they were going to sedate me."

Kerry deteriorated rapidly and was admitted onto the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) on February 15.

She then required a period of support from a ventilator as well as the placement of a tracheostomy on February 25 and various other medical interventions.

Kerry spent 76 days in ICU receiving breathing support.

When she started to regain strength, she was introduced to the Speech and Language Therapy team, which is based on Critical Care.

Emily Davies-Veric, advanced practitioner speech and language therapist - critical care and tracheostomy, said: "When we met Kerry due to her ongoing ventilation needs, she was unable to use her voice initially.

"She also had significant globalised weakness meaning she was unable to move her arms or hands to point or hold a pen to write.

"Facial weakness meant that Kerry was unable to mouth words.

"She was essentially, ‘locked in’ meaning that movement in her eyes was her only method to communicate."

Kerry added: “Not being able to talk or communicate was terrifying. I was so grateful to the speech and language team for their intervention. Without them my mental health would have really suffered.

“For me being able to communicate was the biggest priority. I am a very chatty and outgoing person and I love to talk to people. Not being able to was so hard.”

Emily said to help Kerry they used a technique called partner assisted scanning with an alphabet chart.

This meant that a member of staff would hold an alphabet chart and move through line-by-line following Kerry’s eye movements to spell out words.

This is a very time consuming and tiring method of communication however was the only one available to Kerry at the time.

Emily said: “We then moved to an e-tran frame which uses colour coding to spell out words.

"Kerry’s facial movements began to return at this time and she would mouth the colours making the process faster but still found this tiring.

"Throughout this time Kerry continued to received rehabilitation from the whole team with a particular focus on movement from ventilator support and the tracheostomy, as well as exploring a return to eating and drinking.

"We began to look at short periods of reduced ventilation which enabled us to work with Kerry on restoring normal breathing and airflow which led to hearing her voice for the first time in months.

"A massive moment for Kerry and all those caring for her.

"Kerry has now had her tracheostomy removed and is eating and drinking normally and receiving ongoing rehabilitation."

Kerry added: "The SLT’s were my lifeline. Without them I wouldn’t have been able to communicate for weeks. I am so grateful for their help and support.

"As well as being able to talk to my family again, the aids mean I was able to communicate with the doctors and nurses.

"The staff were first class, thank you."