Nurse fighting for her life ‘after treating sick patient without PPE’

A nurse is in a critical condition with Covid-19 after treating a patient with the disease without protective equipment.

A nurse is in a critical condition with Covid-19 after treating a patient with the disease – without being provided personal protective equipment (PPE).

Becky Usher, 38, is in intensive care where she’s been put in an induced coma and relying on a ventilator to breathe.

Relatives claim she was not provided with any PPE when treating the patient – who staff did not initially know had coronavirus – at Dewsbury and District Hospital.

Usher first developed a high temperature and a sore throat on April 5.

She experienced breathing difficulties at her home in Heckmondwike, West Yorkshire, on Tuesday and began to slur her words, so her partner Martin Parker called 111.

Usher, who has a six-year-old daughter, was rushed to Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield where she was admitted to intensive care after her condition worsened.

Her family said she has tested positive for coronavirus and remains in an intensive care unit (ICU).

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Her sister Kelly Cardwell, 42, said the family is ‘heartbroken’ as they are unable to be by her bed side, where she remains in a critical but stable condition.

Cardwell said: ‘Becky has basically risked her own health for others.

She added: ‘She was told they didn’t need any as there were no patients with coronavirus.

‘I believe they do have it now, but obviously a few days too late.’

Usher has underlying health conditions including Long QT syndrome, a hereditary heart condition which left her fighting for her life in 2004 after multiple heart attacks.

Usher’s partner Parker, 40, said: ‘I miss her and I love her.’

The government has come under heavy criticism for not doing enough to provide frontline staff with personal protective equipment.

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