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Critical care staff are using the power of nature and the joy of being outdoors to help Covid-19 patients recover from the virus.
As part of a pioneering project at Derriford hospital in Plymouth, Devon, some coronavirus patients are being wheeled out into a “secret garden” even when they are still being ventilated.
Intensive care unit staff believe the feeling of the sunshine, wind – and even rain – on patients’ faces can help their recovery.
Other hospitals have followed the lead of Derriford, which opened its garden at the end of 2018. The Royal Derby hospital has set up a similar “secret garden” near its ICU, while a new critical care center at King’s College hospital in south London is planning to include a roof garden for its patients.
Derriford’s secret garden was the idea of Kate Tantam, a specialist sister in intensive care.
She said: “One of the things that is really important is the humanization of intensive care. Intensive care is a very hard place to be. You don’t have much control, you’re in an unfamiliar environment and drugs can affect your level of consciousness.
“The garden is part of the humanization process. We take patients outside, even if they are ventilated, so they can feel fresh air. There’s a power in the sunlight and fresh air and rain. Some patients like to be out in the drizzle. ”
As patients recover, pets are allowed into the garden and the occasional can of beer is even permitted for some. “It’s about giving patients their future back,” said Tantam. “We try to show people what their future can be like. Patients often say: ‘I finally know where I am and what time of day it is – I feel alive and am coming back to myself.’ ”
The explorer Robin Hanbury-Tenison described the glorious moment when he was wheeled out into the garden at Derriford and awoke for the first time after almost dying of Covid-19.
Hanbury-Tenison, 83, believes the sunshine on his face and his proximity to a scent-rich flowerbed in the hospital courtyard helped stir him from his delirium and precipitated his recovery.
“I was in a pretty bad way,” I told the Guardian from his home on Bodmin Moor, Cornwall. “I was heavily sedated. I was suffering from delirium and all sorts of things, completely out of it. ”
The Derriford secret garden is a modest, paved space with a raised flower bed and some pots. But Hanbury-Tenison said it made all the difference.
“They wheeled me out in a great big bed, with tubes going out in all directions, just to a flowerbed with a shaft of sunlight coming down into the courtyard,” he said.
“There was a glorious moment when I woke up and was aware that I was back. I was surrounded by nurses looking like space invaders but chatting away. It was lovely. ”
Hanbury-Tenison, who had no underlying health conditions, was taken ill shortly after returning from a skiing trip in early March and spent several weeks in an induced coma. I have described Covid-19 as a “nasty business” and said he had very nearly “dropped out” a couple of times.
Later, as his recovery continued, he took part in basketball and skittles games with other Covid-19 patients in the garden. He said: “We shouldn’t forget the healing power of nature. I think hospitals should have secret gardens. It’s a magical thing. ”
Last year the ICU unit at the Royal Derby hospital opened its own secret garden, as a result of a fundraising campaign by an ICU sister, Helen Herring.
She said: “Prior to this garden, patients had to be taken outside through the main hospital building, so it was a long way for them to go and it could make them feel vulnerable. The courtyard is just around the corner and patients can see their beds from the garden. ”
At King’s in London, the hospital is planning to create a roof garden to help critically ill patients who have side-effects, such as delirium.
Dr Tom Best, a consultant in critical care at King’s, said: “Some of our most unwell patients spend weeks or even months in critical care. We know from feedback that a significant number of patients suffer from delirium as they drift in and out of consciousness, which can be very frightening and can delay recovery. During these prolonged hospital stays it’s vital that we care for the mind as well as the body. ”
