“I am deeply grateful to the clinician and surrounding workforce who saved my life. What other organisation or group of people can claim to give people a life?”
Dan Hallen is the Chief Information Officer at ELHT. He was inspired to work for the Trust after undergoing open-heart surgery in 2013 and wanting to give something back. He won a competition to go to Westminster Abbey for the NHS’ 70th birthday and is immensely proud of the organisation which is ‘in his blood’.
He said:
The morning after my eight-hour open-heart operation the Cardio Surgeon came to my bedside in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). It was his day off and he had driven in specially to check on me.
Emotions overtook me and I could only croak “thank you” through my oxygen mask as he said the reason he did his job was to give people a life.
Our NHS takes care of people when they’re most in need, when they need support and when the natural feeling of wanting help can’t be done alone.
I’ve always had a personal connection with the NHS. My mother, godmother and nan were all nurses and worked in Cheetham Hill, Prestwich, Winchester and Salford. I would hear stories from my nan and my mum and I remember going to Crumpsall Hospital when I was 10-years-old as she was finishing nights!
But since my heart conditions and the bits of surgery I’ve had the NHS has become part of my blood and I’ll always be grateful.
From a young age, technology had always fascinated me, and it was inevitable that I would have a lifelong involvement with tech in some form. The NHS uses the broadest spectrum of technology in any industry, and what better place to bring technology and people together?
ELHT is a huge employer, and most of our hospitals are essentially small towns. Whatever we do, we always pull together, do the right thing and I sleep at night knowing that we’ve helped someone when they’ve most needed it.
The NHS has been around for the same amount of time as the life expectancy in East Lancashire. It’s changed over the years, but the pride, ambition and dedication are there in bucketloads.
I’m extremely proud to work for this great organisation which gives people – and myself – life.