Royal Surrey Staff Applaud Beloved Nurse Recovered After Four-week Covid-19 Ordeal

Published on: 15 May, 2020
Updated on: 15 May, 2020

Edgar Sabley leaves the ICU

A much-loved and long-time nurse at Royal Surrey has returned home in a highly emotional moment after spending four weeks in hospital with Covid-19 and 10 days on a ventilator.

Edgar Sablay, 48, and his wife Bing, have worked at Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust for 18 years after coming to the UK on the hospital’s fourth cohort of Filipino nurses. He began to develop Covid-19 symptoms in April, including a fever, cough and shortness of breath. This quickly developed into a life-threatening condition.

He was admitted to hospital and transferred to intensive care (ICU) to support his respiratory functions. Of that time, Edgar said he “felt physically and emotionally exhausted”.

After an extremely concerning few weeks, he started to recover and left intensive care for a general ward then was allowed home.

Given the all-clear, Edgar was reunited with his wife and on his way home he was applauded by colleagues who lined the front hall reception in a moving show of support.

Sue Herson, matron of the ICU, said: “Edgar is a well-known face around the Trust and is popular with all who know him. Unfortunately, he became extremely unwell and was on ICU requiring significant respiratory support for nearly three weeks.

“His discharge and recovery was a very touching moment. These types of happy events make all of our jobs worth it.”

Edgar said: “I want to thank all of my colleagues and friends who looked after me for their tremendous care, love and support. They are all in my heart and I am proud to be their fellow front-liner.”

He is now recovering at home with Bing and their two dogs and is looking forward to returning to the front line to support his colleagues.

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