A dental hygienist is giving away £10,00o worth of treatment to NHS frontline workers to thank them for saving her mother’s life.
Renate Cusumano saw her mother spend three weeks in intensive care after she caught COVID-19 at the beginning of 2021.
As a result, she wants to give back to frontline staff who helped to make her mother’s time in hospital as comfortable as possible.
‘On 11 January my dad text me to say she suddenly seemed much worse,’ she said.
‘I called and I could hear that her speech was very slurry, and she couldn’t lift her head off the pillow. I panicked as I thought she was having a stroke. So I hung up and called the ambulance, sobbing down the phone and feeling angry at myself for not calling sooner.
‘Due to limited staff and the NHS being so overwhelmed at the moment, they took almost an hour to arrive. Her blood oxygen level was down to 56% and her lips were blue (normal blood oxygen is between 98-100%). They gave her oxygen and rushed her to hospital.’
‘Amazing’ hospital care
She was in hospital for three weeks in total after slowly responding to the oxygen she was given.
‘The hospital was amazing. I could call and get an update whenever I wanted to, even in the middle of the night,’ she said.
‘They always reassured me but never made any promises. It’s such a cruel and unpredictable virus and sometimes when people appear to be recovering, they suddenly get worse with no explanation. So, they never got our hopes up but hearing the word “stable” always brought some relief.’
Saying thank you
She added: ‘She’s out now but I was thinking that I wanted to say thank you to the people who helped her. I was going to send flowers and chocolates to the ward but I felt it wasn’t enough. It’s quiet at work at the moment so I thought it’d be nice to treat a bunch of them.
‘I thought this is what I have to offer. Everybody loves a teeth cleaning and everyone likes to feel good. It was my way of making them feel good as they’re very run down and tired at the moment.’
The treatment will be carried out at Bow Lane Dental Group, where Renate works four days a week.
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