Patrick (Paddy) Mcdermott

We would love to share a story about a remarkable man, 74-year-old Patrick (Paddy) Mcdermott. Paddy was one of our porters or rather a trolleyologist as he likes to be known! He worked at both Joyce Green Hospital and Darent Valley Hospital until 4 years ago when he retired. Paddy is well known and much loved by many staff and one of his favourite pastime when working as a porter was to wind staff up by inviting them for a drink with him down his beloved Irish club in Dartford. Which as many staff members will know, if you ever you meet Paddy he will always invite you for a drink!!

Paddy was admitted to Palm Ward at the end of March, when he was very poorly, he had to be placed on a CPAP machine. A couple of days later it was confirmed that he was COVID-19 positive and due to his ongoing comorbidities, his family were understandably extremely worried. However, over the course of a few weeks Paddy slowly made progress and the fabulous news is, he was well enough to come of off CPAP. Paddy continues to improve and is now on Chestnut Ward recovering.

Paddy’s family said “We want to thank everyone who has been involved in Paddy’s care. We were extremely worried as the odds were stacked against him and we all prepared ourselves for very bad news. To us his recovery is a true miracle of science but this could not have been achieved without the care and compassion shown by all the staff involved in his care. From the small but important things such as getting his daily newspaper delivered, our family Face-time calls, providing a voucher so he can use the bedside phone and the brilliant idea of the hand delivered messages. There are so many things that we could mention the list is endless. From Paddy’s, family and friends there are no words which can express enough how truly grateful we are for looking after him, you are all truly amazing. We look forward to him coming home soon.”