Lucy Alexander Matron, Medicine and Me: 70 Years of the NHS

70 years ago plans for revolution took place,

that changed all of our lives in Britain.

We're out to improve the health of every family and the whole nation.

Its name? The National Health Service.

We're taking a look at the NHS, then and now...

-OK, adrenaline.

-He's had 6 adrenaline.

..to see how much it's changed...

Is that real?

..to meet staff and patients...

Let me help you out.

Sorry, it's my first day here.

..with extraordinary medical stories.

You died, basically.

For three minutes, yes.

It's quite emotional seeing you.

Thank you.

Surprise!

-ALL:

-Surprise!

I'm Lucy Alexander.

Without the NHS I don't think my daughter would be alive today.

Can you just spin?

LUCY LAUGHS

'I want to say thank you to the medical team that saved her life.'

-Being on a life-support machine...

-You're going to make me cry.

-I know, I know.

Mornings start like everyone else's in our house -

getting the family up, fed, and out to school.

This is my husband, former premiership footballer, Stewart...

Oh, looking good, mate. Breakfast is ready, though. Come on.

..our equally footie-mad son, Leo,

and the dog, Teddy.

-Kitty, have you got your blazer?

-Yeah.

'Oh! And running late again is Kitty, our teenage daughter.'

I always have to take a cup of tea on the school run

because I get really thirsty.

He normally, like, runs around,

acting crazy, normally, when he first goes out.

He's usually doing laps and just barking his head off.

-Normally at the cats next door.

-Yeah.

Quickly, quickly, quickly, quickly.

Quick, quick, quick, quick, quick!

All right, Kits?

-Good girl. All sorted?

-Yeah.

-Yeah?

See you later, guys.

Have a good one. See you.

Ooh, yeah - it's freezing this morning, isn't it?

'On the way to school, we talk about the normal stuff.'

Have you done all the homework you were supposed to have done?

-I think so.

-Well, that's not good enough.

'But after I've dropped them off and I'm on my own...'

Love you.

'..the route home always reminds me of an event, seven years ago,

'that changed our lives.'

We're coming up, here, to Kitty's little primary school,

which is just up here.

And, erm, I'd sent her to school that morning,

but she was saying to me, "Mum, my legs ache. I feel funny."

Anyway, so I went off, and halfway through my spinning class,

a lady from the gym came in and said,

"Kitty's school is on the phone.

"You've got to get to school, now.

"She's screaming. She's really ill."

And I, I...thought, "What? My God!"

So I jumped off my bike...

and, erm...literally ran home,

grabbed the car,

got to school...

..and when I saw her she was laying out on this...sickbed, at school.

And she looked like something serious had happened.

You know, it just...it looked like she'd had a stroke.

She just looked...really not very good.

SHE SNIFFS

It's still really hard talking about it.

In a panic I phoned Stewart, and we brought Kitty to our local A&E

where she was seen immediately.

What happened next, I'll remember for the rest of my life.

It was then they discovered, when they were doing the test,

where they get the little thing and they bang your knee

to see what your reactions are,

and her leg wasn't moving.

Nothing was moving.

And I just, instantly, saw the looks on their faces of sheer panic.

And then we were just blue-lighted to a London hospital, immediately.

And that's when they said, "This is seriously wrong.

"We think she's paralysed."

With those words all our lives changed forever.

Kitty had transverse myelitis -

a rare neurological disorder where the body's immune system reacts to

an infection, causing inflammation and scarring in the spinal cord.

It's a disease that affects those who have it in different ways,

and for Kitty it took away her ability to walk.

But it could have been so much worse.

As the weeks and the months went by, she didn't make very much recovery.

And she ended up having to

go on a life-support machine because she caught pneumonia.

She had two pneumothoraces which needed to be operated on.

She had to have chest drains, and she was, you know,

in the PICU ward, at the Evelina, fighting for her life at one point.

And we, at that point, really honestly,

didn't know whether she was going to pull through.

She was so, so ill.

Luckily, I had Stewart to support me.

Back at the house, we're taking the chance to look through

some old photos of Kitty.

This first one's a killer. I mean look at her...

She's winning hands down - winning the sports day.

She came back with all first, first, first badges, all over her T-shirt.

See, when I look at that picture of Kitty running,

I see you and Leo...and the athlete that she was, wasn't she?

Yeah, she was unbelievable.

When you go from that, gleaming little seven-year-old...to that...

So that was the first day. That was, that was hours

after she was taken into hospital.

And we still didn't quite understand the enormity of what was happening.

-Look at her. She's so happy. I mean, you can see her face...

-She looks...

She doesn't know what's about to happen to her.

We didn't, for a minute, think it was going to be something as...

as huge and as devastating as what happened.

God...

-It's quite...

-And talking of devastation, I mean, that's it.

She went downhill pretty quick afterwards, didn't she?

She ended up in intensive care.

That picture is something that...I haven't looked at for...

-about seven years.

-Mmm.

This is where the inflammation is shown on the spinal cord,

So, you can see the shaded area -

that's where the messages aren't getting through from the brain.

So this is transverse myelitis.

This is the effect of the attack that she had, yeah.

-That's an incredible picture.

-I know.

You can see it, in black-and-white.

-Has Kitty ever seen that?

-Yeah.

-Has she seen that?

-Yeah, I've talked her through it.

That's the same as if she'd been in a car crash

or fallen off a horse.

Ultimately...it's a spinal cord injury.

For a while we just didn't know whether Kitty would survive,

let alone walk again.

Fortunately, she was in the right place, under the care of the NHS.

Coupled with her incredible fighting spirit,

she started to make a slow but steady recovery.

It's amazing looking at her doing all that rehab,

because look how far she came in six months.

And, look - her school journey she went on with her school.

This was still less than a year after...

-I know.

-..her injury. And she's up there, she on a zip wire.

I mean, she's just such a great kid.

Of course, Kitty wouldn't have made it if it was not for

the National Health Service.

Over the next few days I want to find out how children's health care

has evolved through the years, from days when having a condition

like hers probably would have meant a painful death,

through the major developments made possible by the NHS.

And my journey begins in the children's hospital

where Kitty was treated.

Today, Stewart and I are going back to Evelina, London.

It shares a site and history with St Thomas' Hospital, next door,

which was built here way back in 1869.

And where Florence Nightingale herself was a member of staff.

She founded a school of nursing and midwifery here,

which became renowned all over the world.

In 1948, St Thomas' was one of over 2,000 hospitals

taken under full control of the brand-new NHS.

St Thomas' hospital has changed a lot over the last 70 years.

And, in 2005, Evelina London,

a dedicated children's hospital, was opened next door.

They look after 50,000 young patients a year,

all with families desperate for help and support.

It was here that Kitty was first treated,

and where we spent around three months.

It all started in the PICU Ward - paediatric intensive care.

Today we've been invited back,

and it's the first time we've been in the ward since Kitty was admitted

seven years ago.

Oh, God.

I don't actually like...

Don't actually like this.

-No.

-It's quite emotional, actually. I feel...I do feel...

..funny.

I'm actually shaking.

Come on.

MACHINES BEEPING

You just hear the "beep, beep, beep."

It's just all the "beep, beep" - all the machines. You could...

-It's bringing it all back.

-Yeah.

-It was always really quiet.

-Mmm.

It was over there, wasn't it? In the far corner.

-God.

-Are you OK?

-Yeah, I'm all right.

And I remember I was all right, after we got over the initial shock.

-Yeah.

-And we ended up...quite liking it here.

-I was going to say,

I think, weirdly, it gave us comfort -

being surrounded by all of these people,

and everybody's in the same boat.

It's strange being back, but we're not here long before we have

the comfort of a familiar face -

Kitty's nurse, Suze Andrews.

-It's good to see you.

-Nice to see you!

-Hello.

-I can't believe it -

I didn't expect any of the same nurses to be here at all.

How are you? It's so nice to see you.

I know, it's good to see you. Is the rest of the gang here?

There's quite a few people here, yeah. There's a few of us around.

Seeing your face is just, like,

taking me back there a bit, in a lovely way,

because I know you had such a huge input into her recovery.

-How's Kitty doing?

-She is doing really well.

-She's doing amazing.

Shall I show you some pictures?

Some updated pictures? There you go. This was her...

-not long ago.

-Oh, great!

-She's thriving.

-I know. Can you believe she's just, like,

-a teenager?

-Amazing.

It's moving, being back in the place where Kitty was at her most ill.

Here, in the intensive care unit,

we really didn't know if our little girl would live or die.

Ah, hello! How are you?

Lead consultant for all of Kitty's care at Evelina London

was Doctor Ming Lim.

He still keeps track of all her progress,

and it's great to bump into him again.

I can remember when Kitty was first diagnosed,

and getting the laptop out, and I was reading every...

every paper, all the documentation, and you were great...

You know, these conditions are very rare. In a year,

in the whole of the UK, we would probably see 20 or 30 patients

with this condition.

So, Ming - come on, be honest, in all honesty,

have you ever met another dad like Stu, because we can tell him now,

he was actually doorstepping you, at one point.

I have to admit I actually thought it was by chance rather than him

stalking me!

Oh, no - sorry about that.

-But it was all for the greater good, you know that.

-Yes.

No, that was well appreciated.

Only because, as you said, it's a rare condition

and he's actually doing all the hard work for me.

It's like having a research assistant, so it's very...

-Professional.

-Yeah.

It was another paediatrician,

the quietly spoken Doctor Andrew Durward, who was with us

when we faced the ultimate decision about Kitty's health.

I think the moment that I really remember the most,

out of the whole of this journey, was you coming up to Stewart and I

and saying, "Listen, guys, this is really important,

"the day we take her off the ventilator -

"and today is that day."

Kitty's life was in your hands.

I mean, she was artificially breathing from a machine, here.

-She was on a ventilator, wasn't she?

-And, you know, at any point, I mean,

it's the last place you are before you end your life.

And...God, we were scared.

Did you ever have a flicker of worry that this wasn't going to work out?

Always.

We don't have the tools in medicine to predict 100% whether you

succeed or fail on a ventilator.

The difference is being prepared for all the different options,

and to pick the best moment so that we're maximising the chance.

Andrew, I need to know - what was it about the actual day, the time?

Why did you say, on that day, at that time,

"this is what we're going to do - Kitty is coming off that today"?

I think everything here is teamwork.

And we all, as a team, sat there and said,

"Right, she's showing enough strength to try and get her off."

Her life was in the balance,

and I think it's moments like that that makes us appreciate that,

even though she's in a wheelchair now,

we could have lost her.

She could have gone, and we've still got her.

And that helps us get through day-to-day life as it is now,

that she's leading a happy, healthy life.

I think a lot comes down to character.

Going through the hurdles, the physiotherapy,

all the hard work to rehabilitate, to actually get out of here,

and we've seen that in patients who end up, like her, doing so well,

even knowing what they've been through.

They have that resolve, from the word go.

You did an outstanding job.

Honestly, it's quite emotional seeing you.

-Thank you.

-Thank you so much.

-You are a man we talk about often,

at the breakfast table, when we're all talking about it.

You do such good work here.

-Thank you.

-And if I could jump over and hug you now, I would.

Come on - do it anyway. He's a top man.

-Thank you so much.

-Thank you, Andrew.

-Thank you.

-Seriously, from the bottom of our hearts, honestly,

you are very special to us.

-It's a pleasure.

-I'm glad we've had this chance to see you again.

Thank you.

It would be impossible to say thank you to all the people who helped us

at Evelina London, but this morning has given us some sense of closure.

While Stewart heads off to pick up the kids from school,

I've headed across to Evelina's next-door neighbour, Saint Thomas'.

The Royal Dalton tiles that lined the original children's wards

are still displayed proudly on the walls,

and it makes me wonder what Kitty's experience might have been like

before the NHS.

Children's health care back then was a bit of a lottery.

No-one would deny that bad housing, poverty and overcrowding

are evils that contribute to ill health.

Before the Second World War, poor living conditions and nutrition

meant childhood epidemics like polio and diphtheria thrived.

This boy is not expected to live.

He was not immunised.

And while there were famous hospitals like Great Ormond Street and Evelina,

these were for the lucky few.

I'm meeting up with historian Dr Tanya McIntosh to find out

how things would have been for children and parents back then,

before the NHS ever existed.

There wasn't this idea that if you were sick you went into hospital.

The hospitals that there were for children tended to deal with

slightly older children, so if you were, sort of, under five,

they wouldn't have wanted to know about you. They thought they were

babies and they were better off at home with their mothers.

They also only really looked after children with short-term conditions,

so, perhaps, if you broke your leg

you might be taken into a children's hospital,

but if you had a chronic condition or a long-term condition,

you would be looked after very much at home.

This is a world away from what happens at the likes of

Evelina London, where children of all ages,

including babies and infants, are treated.

But it's not just the little ones

for whom the hospital experience has been revolutionised.

Before the NHS, if a child was in hospital,

they might be visited once a week by their parents,

if the hospital was really, really generous.

It could be once a month if they were in for a long time,

or quite a few hospitals had a policy of

absolutely no visiting at all by anybody to the children who were in.

-Oh, I mean, that's just heartbreaking to think.

-Yeah.

I spent so much time here with my daughter,

laying next to her on a pull-out bed, I can't bear to think that,

you know, Mummy wouldn't have been around.

So how did it affect those poor kids? I mean, how did they cope?

Well, really interestingly,

the hospitals thought they coped really well,

cos what they saw was young children coming into hospital,

being really upset, crying, being sad, looking for their parents.

And then after a while, when the parents didn't turn up,

they'd go quiet.

And the hospitals would think, "OK, they're all right now.

"They're quiet. They're settled. They're fine. It'll be OK."

What they didn't really seem to see was that, actually,

what you had was children feeling despair.

They, kind of, put all of those feelings in themselves,

and lost hope that somebody would come back for them.

So there was no sense that they were doing something that was wrong.

I can remember Kitty being on a life-support machine,

at the Evelina hospital,

and they told me to get in bed with her, lay next to her, cuddle her.

She can still hear you, even though she looked out of it.

And it did. Her sats went up,

and we were all so surprised and I kept cuddling her.

And she could hear me.

She needed the Mummy touch, and she needed to hear my voice.

They were always very worried about infection so they thought

if we keep people away we'll have less infection.

But one of the other things that they were concerned about

was anxious mothers disrupting the routine, making nursing difficult,

making children sad and emotional.

So they decided, actually, the easiest way to deal with it

was to just keep parents well away.

And it took a long, long time to change that.

It took some real campaigning, by women's groups as well as

psychologists, to say that,

actually, we're causing children some real harm, here,

by not letting their parents be with them

when they're at their most vulnerable and really need somebody.

And it was the NHS that started the revolution.

-ANNOUNCER:

-On July fifth, the new National Health Service starts.

The new service promised a fresh start for children's health

in the UK.

'Have you chosen your family doctor?

'If not, ask your doctor now

'if he'll you look after you under the new scheme.'

In the wake of World War II, Britain desperately needed to rebuild.

Over 450,000 people had been killed in the war,

and hundreds of thousands more were injured.

The country needed healthy boys and girls

who could go up to become productive adults.

Our plan is a service which will provide the best medical advice and

treatment for everyone - every man, woman and child in this country.

And it worked. Over the last 70 years,

thanks to advances in maternity and antenatal care,

infant mortality rates have been slashed by over 90%.

And many childhood diseases, once so prevalent in the UK,

have been eradicated.

Back in the present, it's like the bad old days never existed at all.

Four-and-a-half-month-old Ruby is recovering from life-saving surgery.

She's been intubated for six days, and her mum, Amelia,

hasn't left her side.

Amelia, it's so lovely to meet Ruby.

She's absolutely gorgeous.

-So, she's intubated.

-Yeah.

What happened? What's the story?

At my 20-week scan they found out that she had a hole in her heart.

They've managed to close the hole,

but there is just a tiny bit of it still.

So before she was even born, you knew this was going to happen?

Yeah. We've known for a very long while.

I know you've got a book down there,

and I have got one almost identical for my daughter, Kitty.

Show me what you've done so far.

So I put some little bits on the front to make it pretty,

and some animals.

And then I've left spaces in here for photos,

but I've just been writing each day what's gone on, from start to end.

And I've had some of the nurses write in.

I know from experience that keeping a patient diary

provides a lot of comfort.

It's an idea that was originated here,

and has now been adopted nationally.

Hopefully today will provide lots of material,

because in a few hours Ruby may be breathing for herself.

Are you nervous? Are you excited?

It's quite a big day, isn't it, when they take the tube out?

I've been through the same thing with my daughter.

I don't know, they've kept me so calm and...

-It's just lovely.

-You seem really calm.

I think you have to be.

I think if I keep calm...it just makes things seem like they're getting better.

And what's the one thing you're most looking forward to?

Having a cuddle!

Aw... She's so lovely.

I might have to have a cuddle before I go - I'm sorry.

If she's off, I'd be more than happy.

-Good luck. Good luck.

-Thank you.

It wasn't just newborns the NHS was committed to taking care of,

from the off, and through its long history,

the relatively recent medical field of paediatrics have been

at the heart of the service -

everything from research into childhood illnesses

to mass inoculation programmes and free fillings.

The health of the next generation, under the NHS,

has improved dramatically.

Millions of you have got the spectacles you needed.

And tens of millions of you have visited the doctor under the scheme,

and got your medicine.

Wahey!

Today, paediatrics has grown to be one of the NHS's biggest and

progressive departments,

with children at the centre of everything.

The wards at Evelina London

were even designed with the help of children,

who advised against long straight corridors which were seen as scary.

There's a cinema, a school and, in wards like Savannah,

where Kitty spent three months recovering,

plenty of toys and games.

Underneath the fun, though, is serious health care,

as play specialist Julie Ainsworth explains,

while Cameron thrashes me at Connect Four.

What do you think the importance of play therapy is?

I know you've been doing it for many years. How many years?

-34.

-Oh! 34 years.

I've stopped you from making a line.

Oh! You're concentrating.

Obviously, this is an alien environment,

so the things that actually are very normal are

games and television and DVDs.

It actually gives the children security to know that, actually,

they're getting better.

Certainly, in some children's cases,

where they're not being able to speak to us, or let us know,

if they're doing something that makes them smile,

or brings some kind of joy into their life, it's obviously all worthwhile.

And have you had a good time playing lots of games

-since you've been in here?

-I've won.

-What?

You're too good at this! I'm not concentrating.

Up until yesterday you were in PICU, weren't you?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-Were you in PICU?

-Yeah, he was in PICU.

Is it good being back up here, now, though?

-Are you having a nicer time, playing with all the games?

-Yeah.

As well as advances in paediatric care,

by the '60s, the NHS had developed a new attitude

towards parents visiting their children while in hospital.

-ANNOUNCER:

-If you've ever been in hospital you'll

recognise the symptoms - yes,

Jane's been got ready for visitors.

Even Sister's helping with seven-year-old Marlin's pretty hair.

Suzanne's a lucky one, and so is ten-year-old Graham -

he's glad he made such a thorough job of cleaning his teeth.

Marlin's not forgotten - though Mummy and Daddy are too far away

to see her, she's not allowed to feel neglected.

That's where the art of nursing comes in.

Today, recovery rates for kids like Lauren are helped by having

Mum constantly around, although I know only too well

it's a tiring business.

She's starting to enjoy herself because she's on her feet now.

She's giggling. Look at you laughing!

It's quite funny, cos I did pass Lauren in the corridor earlier -

you could not have crammed any more pens into her arms!

MUM LAUGHS She was literally running up the corridor.

So how are you feeling?

I'm really tired.

Tell me, are you sleeping on that bed that's in the cupboard?

-It's not bad.

-What?!

-It does the job.

-I slept in that and it killed my back!

But it does the job,

and it's something that a lot of hospitals don't have.

There's not much you can do about sleep when your child is ill.

It does take its toll on you.

And you are feeling supported?

Yes, I am. 100%.

Because I want to go home today, and they said no. They're not finished.

You're so tired, you want to go home to have a sleep!

I want to go to bed! My own bed!

I get that. I can remember.

-Oh, dear...

-I understand.

I remember so well that feeling of stress and exhaustion,

and the parents' kitchen was a place I would often come and escape.

But watching the rest of London get on with their lives

made me long for normality.

I also contemplated the consequences of what happened to Kitty,

and how we would cope, as a family, with her new disability.

Our experiences with the NHS have been overwhelmingly positive,

but I want to know if that's always been the case.

Over the years, how disabled adults and children have been treated has,

like other areas of health care, changed and developed.

This is Noel swimming, there - he's paralysed from the waist down.

It's pretty difficult to think of any greater disaster than this,

which we call paraplegia.

But to know the real story,

you have to hear from those who have lived through it.

I've arranged to meet some people who have grown up throughout

the NHS's history,

and whose conditions have given them a lot of experience of its care.

Hugh and Margie were diagnosed with cerebral palsy during the '50s.

Mansur was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy in the late '80s.

They weren't treated here,

but they've kindly agreed to meet me in a cafe at St Thomas'.

While Molly, Margie's canine partner, settles down for a lazy

afternoon, I'm interested to find out their experiences.

I was at the beginning of the NHS, so it was all new ground.

There was only one unit in the whole of the country that specialised in

cerebral palsy. I'll tell you something -

when I was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, around two and a half,

I was told that I would never be able to hold a conversation,

never be able to read, write or anything.

They told my parents to go away, leave me there

and go and have another child.

That's what they were told.

So, Hugh, were your parents away from you?

Could your parents come and visit you? Did you see much of them?

You're talking mid-'50s and transportation was very limited.

So, I got to see my parents about once every 6 to 12 weeks.

And can you remember being removed from your mum and dad

and, all of the sudden, not seeing them so much?

It broke my heart, basically.

We weren't even allowed to talk to our parents.

They said it was bad for us.

The plus side is it made us very strong.

It made us... But it pulled us away from our families.

I lost nearly 90% of my family life,

because of my education, basically.

But it made me a very strong person.

That makes me feel so sad, to hear that from you.

And, you know, I've been through a terrible trauma with my own child

and I cannot imagine...

..leaving her and going away somewhere.

And I'm so sorry that you had that experience.

Well, I grew up with it,

so I learned to adapt.

I learned to become independent,

and I learned to live on my own

and...get on with life.

You know, I've...

I've got two degrees,

I did it off my own back.

I've flown around the world on my own.

I've done far more than my brother and sister have ever done

in their lifetime.

I've been married for 23 years.

So...no, I don't regret it.

So, it's hard to think way back,

but do you think the attitudes have changed today, you know,

the NHS and how people now think or deal with disability?

I mean...how do you feel, Margie?

Well, part of me, I mean, when I first, kind of...

..looked into the NHS was when I was about 16.

My mother had conned me into going to see this consultant.

She said, "Now, Margie, don't be difficult.

"I want you to come and see this doctor.

"There's a new treatment for cerebral palsy".

By which time, I was quite happy being me with CP.

I was getting on. I was OK.

So I thought, "Oh, all right."

And, basically, he was going to take the top of my head off,

shove a few electrodes in,

give it 240 volts,

put it all back together and say, "Right, there you are".

So I said, "Hang on a minute. Hang on.

"This is MY head - can I ask a few questions?"

I said, "What are the odds?"

-And, eventually, he said, "50/50".

-LUCY GASPS

So I said, "Right. Come on, Mum - let's go. I'm off".

You were out that door.

But, yes, things have improved.

They have, to a certain extent.

There's always room for improvement, Margie,

but you've always got Molly to come home to -

your beautiful little dog that's so good, that's down there.

She comes with me.

She comes with me into the hospitals,

so I get preferential treatment

cos all the nurses like to say hello to Molly.

Without Molly, I'd have to have a human being round all the time,

-which would be awfully boring.

-SHE LAUGHS

Unfortunately, the rights for

people with disability have often had to be fought for.

-What do we want?

-We want our rights!

-When do we want them?

-Now!

In the 1960s and '70s,

the civil rights movement in America inspired disabled groups to take

direct action against discrimination.

This encouraged a change of attitude to disability here,

and, eventually, a new Disability Discrimination Act

was passed in 1995, when Mansur was ten.

So, what about your experiences, Mansur?

I've had a, kind of, a long journey with the NHS

and had some positive experiences as well.

I used to get chest infections quite often,

so, you know, you'd have to go to your GP or the A&E

and so it, kind of, used to be quite late into the onset

of my chest infection to actually get into hospital.

And then one year they recommended this red card system,

where the GP would be allowed to issue, kind of, an emergency card

that would fast-track me into the relevant ward.

So that red card definitely helped to bridge that gap.

It literally depends on

which hospital you go to...how you get treated, basically.

And I went to one hospital and they...

they were scared of me.

Really?

Absolutely petrified of me.

I was in a lot of pain and they didn't know what to do.

And yet, I went to another hospital

and it was the completely opposite effect.

They were asking me what I wanted,

how I needed it and what I wanted to do about it.

So that's the difference between two hospitals in the same area.

Just two different hospitals.

The medical profession is trying to improve its image.

It's always been difficult for them.

If they can't cure you, which, in our cases, you can't...

..then you have to work WITH us.

And that, surely, is their ethos.

They can't cure you, but they can support you through life's changes.

And, if anything comes of learning through history,

I'm sure that's the lesson that they ought to come home with.

I don't think I've ever met three more interesting people, characters.

They've all got their own individual character.

It was heartbreaking talking to Hugh, though.

That really, actually, did make me want to cry

and just...leap out my seat and hug him.

To think of what he went through.

To be that institutionalised.

But how they're all living such full lives, now, is amazing.

And I just loved having that chat.

It's been an emotional and fascinating look back

on the NHS's past,

but before I leave St Thomas' and Evelina London,

there's someone I must check up on -

brave little Ruby.

She's just come off the ventilator.

Mum's about to get her first cuddle in a long time.

RUBY COUGHING

Oh, good coughing. Good girl.

-Hey...

-Good coughing.

Good girl.

Hello.

Say hello.

Yeah.

You got my finger?

Can I just have a little hello?

And...congratulations.

Hello, beautiful girl.

How does it feel?

-Great.

-To hug her. How long's it been?

-Erm, nearly a week.

-Oh...

Hello.

-Well done.

-Good girl.

Yeah...

-Look at all these people.

-I'm really glad I've been around to see that,

-because it's been quite special.

-Yeah.

To think, six days ago she was having heart surgery,

then she was on a ventilator.

I feel so honoured to have been here whilst having the tube taken out

and see Mum kiss her for the first time in ages.

Oh...happy person.

Well, it's time to get back to my own little girl.

Not that Kitty's little any more.

Since leaving hospital seven years ago,

she's grown up to be a little lady,

played sports and become a teenager.

She leads as active life as anyone her age.

And a lot of that is thanks to one other part of the NHS,

the National Spinal Injury Centre at Stoke Mandeville.

It's been a while, but I'm on my way back and this time I'm taking Kitty.

-Do you always get the same feeling in your tummy when you're about to arrive?

-Yeah, I'm quite nervous.

-Are you?

-Yeah.

You see, I get that lovely, warm feeling that...

-I don't know, it's home from home, isn't it?

-Yeah, it is home,

but it's still hospital and they're still going to ask you questions.

"Have you stood? Have you stretched?"

It kind of feels like going back to school.

After Kitty's health stabilised,

she spent three months here, at St Francis,

the ward for children and young people with spinal cord injuries,

recovering and learning the skills

she would need to live with her disability.

Every time we come back here, it's like visiting family.

-How are you?

-Long time, no see.

-Hi.

-Hi.

It's great to have you back. It's been too long.

Stoke Mandeville National Spinal Injury Centre is one of the largest

specialised spinal injury units in the world.

During World War II,

the hospital was used to treat military casualties,

and in 1943 the government asked German expatriate,

Dr Ludwig Guttmann, to establish the National Spinal Injury Centre.

There comes a moment the patient is admitted to the Centre.

He will find an atmosphere of hope.

And this was quite a new conception in 1944,

when this centre was started.

He believed sport was an important therapeutic tool,

and his Stoke Mandeville Games became the inspiration for

the establishment of the Paralympic Games, in 1960.

Kitty actually had the honour of taking part in the

2012 Paralympic closing ceremony.

I will never forget it.

Watched by millions, it was one of the proudest days of my life.

And it couldn't have happened without the help of this hospital.

It's great coming back into this room. This is where we always

-would stay...if you were here just for a day.

-I remember.

-You used to get on that bed and play with the little... Look - this, didn't you?

-Yeah, yeah.

Up and down, didn't you? All the time. Ooh, there we go, look.

Do you remember how you felt the first time you came here?

Yeah, I remember feeling quite scared, and...

But, as I came in, everyone was just big smiles on their faces.

I made friends, like, super quickly.

I remember coming here not knowing anything,

not even knowing how to push and...I can do wheelies,

I can get from kerbs, I can get onto the bed.

Show me your wheelie now.

Show me your wheelie now.

Spin.

LUCY LAUGHS

-And you couldn't do that seven years ago!

-No.

I'm convinced that the social interaction Kitty had here

was just as important as her medical care.

And also visiting today is someone we've got to know really well.

Ethan Adams.

Is he in here?

-Hello.

-Hello.

-Hello! How are you? I haven't seen you!

-Yeah, fine. You?

-So lovely to see you.

When I first came here,

I met you guys as a family and I was telling your dad,

"Oh, nobody knows, you know?

"There's this thing that's happened to Kitty and it's called

"transverse myelitis."

-And you said...

-Guess what?

That's what Ethan had as well. Yes, it is still rare, it's just

concentrated, here, isn't it?

-So, have you finished school yet?

-Yeah.

-Have you?

-Yeah.

-And what are you doing?

-An apprenticeship at the family business.

-So you're working? And how is he?

-He's doing well, yes.

-Coming up to scratch?

-Yeah, he's quite independent, actually.

He's got his own assistant,

and we work mostly in different buildings, actually.

A big part of our journey is Kitty's physiotherapist, Kirsten Hart.

And, while we're here, they're fitting in an extra session.

Let's stick these electrodes on, first of all.

Kitty still needs to do regular exercise to move her joints

and maintain her muscle strength.

The FES bike - functional electrical stimulation -

is part of her daily routine.

We have a simple model at home, and when we're here

Kirsten uses it to measure how Kitty's getting on.

The pads send an electrical impulse which make my muscles spasm,

but not in a hurty way.

And...it moves the...

pedals around and I have all feeling in my legs,

but it's just I have occasional patchy areas,

so it doesn't feel the same as it would on my arm.

I wouldn't say I love doing the exercises but, I mean,

I know that they're good for me.

While Kitty does the hard work,

I'm using the opportunity to catch up with Sister Sara O'Shea.

Although we've been here a lot,

I don't think there's ever been the right time to say a

proper thank you.

What's it like for you, seeing Kitty now?

Because I know you can remember

what she was like when she first came here?

Yeah, I think I always knew Kitty had that potential

to be just a really independent young woman.

I look at her today and she's just stunning.

And to see her independence and her thriving is...

I've got to...I've got to thank you,

and I want to thank you because I can remember coming here

and we'd just come off the back of being on a life-support machine...

-You're going to make me cry.

-I know, I know.

But we'd come here and it was really sad and we thought it was

the end of the world.

I'm not joking - well, you can remember how Stewart and I were.

Stewart practically carried her in here.

-And you.

-And me - I mean, I was in a bad place.

You gave her the best grounding.

You, 100%... In fact, I'm going to be honest now Sara,

you were a little bit scary.

You did used to frighten me.

Because I would be doing things for her like dressing her,

and putting on her socks and you would come in and say,

"Well, she should be doing that herself. Why are you doing that? Kitty!"

And you'd tell us off.

You've got lots other people around you that are...

being sympathetic and you don't need any more of that.

What you need is direction.

It's true. You are so right.

You 100% gave us direction.

Because I knew Kitty could do that.

And I knew if you...

do those things for her, she becomes so reliant,

and then can't cope with other things in life.

And dressing is just, like, a small part.

But if you start off with that and the belief that you can do that,

then that arms Kitty with the belief that she can do other things.

Because I was seven when this happened, so I'd already...

I feel like I'm quite lucky because I've already had that feeling of

running around. But, I mean, all my friends are really supportive.

Now we're teenagers, anyway, we're all quite lazy,

so we just sit on the sofa, anyway, to be honest.

This is the best part of my job, is seeing people when they come back.

Kitty coming in, looking stunning, and feisty as ever and determined.

And seeing you as a family...

..that's what makes my job.

-You do love it, don't you?

-I love it. I wouldn't do anything else.

You've got to stop crying.

SARA LAUGHS

No, cos that's when I stop caring. I mean, if I stop caring...

Let's drink to Kitty, come on.

..that's time to give up.

-Shame it's only coffee.

-Yeah, quite.

I think for me,

if I do allow myself to go back

to what I felt when I first came here...

..makes me, immediately, feel emotional because it was...

I'm in a very different place now, very different place.

And so is Kitty, to where we are now.

I didn't know what was ahead, years ago,

and now I just know whatever she does,

she's going to do so well.

And it's been emotional seeing other people I know be emotional,

and we've all had a bit of a cry.

But it's been...

It's made me feel I'm a lucky person to have a hospital like this

to support us and our family.

It's been brilliant.

It's been another emotional visit, but it's not over just yet.

Completely unknown to me,

Kitty has a final surprise that she's cooked up with her dad.

I've also got a little thank you note that I wrote.

Ah...!

Erm...

Aw, Kits!

"Dear everyone at Stoke Mandeville.

"I just wanted to thank you all from the bottom of my heart

"for everything that you've done for me.

"You have all been so caring and helpful

"and I really appreciate all of your efforts.

"You have helped me to learn to adjust to being in a wheelchair

"and taught me so many useful things that have enabled me to carry on

"having a normal life as I possibly can.

"I think that all of you are amazing

"and I'm grateful for all of your support. Love, Kitty."

-That's so lovely!

-Thank you!

When did you do that?

-I wrote it with Dad, yeah.

-Aw...

-See you soon.

-Bye.

The NHS might not be perfect,

but this journey has showed me how far it's come,

and the fact Kitty will grow up to be a happy,

productive adult is the greatest gift the NHS could have given us.