Celebrating our lockdown heroes

When contacted, Jill admitted she was surprised by the nomination. “This is such a treat, but I don’t know what to say to my team; there were so many of us. It’s lovely having this acknowledgement, especially now that some time has passed. It’s truly special.”

Working on Burwood Hospital’s Covid ward, Jill said it was extremely challenging as many of the patients were from Rosewood’s level six dementia care unit. “I’ll never forget the first day I walked into the ward in full PPE. For a good five minutes I was totally overwhelmed, thinking, ‘oh my goodness, this is going to be huge’. But then, working in a very supportive team, it didn’t take long for us to do what we could; to do the best we could.”

It was also a big responsibility, as the patients’ loved ones weren’t allowed in to see them, even those who were dying, said Jill. But the team made sure they were well looked after and someone was always with them, she said.

Morree Tinson

Nominated by her optometrist Jennifer Cahill, Papakura pharmacist Morree Tinson was thrilled when contacted about her win, but immediately thought of others. “How amazing is that! I never win anything. I was going to buy some sunglasses anyway, now I’m thinking I will make a donation instead. It gives me an opportunity to give back.”

Morree spent lockdown dispensing and delivering medications and flu vaccinations to vulnerable people in her community. “Covid-19 has been an eyeopener. Six months ago, who would have thought we would ever experience something like this. It’s been amazing to see how everybody has pulled together.”

Cahill said Morree worked tirelessly through level 4 to now, “always with a smile on her face” and constantly offering a helping hand. “She was outside, nearly every day since 25 March administering flu injections in full PPE gear.”

Luke Wigram

Clinical nurse specialist Luke Wigram from Wairau Hospital in Blenheim, worked right through the lockdown seeing high volumes of patients and extending his hours to manage the physical distancing and extra cleaning required, said Nelson-based ophthalmologist Dr Derek Sherwood who nominated Luke.

“While many other eye clinic staff were able to reduce their personal exposure during level 4, Luke kept turning up, providing help to our vulnerable patients with macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy and retinal vascular disease. He carried on the injection service by himself in Blenheim, with no medical staff to support him other than the one day a week when I went over. He was managing calls from anxious patients, triaging acute patients and more, with much less support than usual.”

Saying he was pleased to be nominated and to win, Luke also said it felt slightly undeserved. “I was just one of many essential workers in the health sector working through during level 4.”

But it was challenging to be isolated from his family during lockdown, he said. “Professionally, the hardest thing was to ensure we kept our remaining ‘in person’ clinics, especially our nurse-led intravitreal injection clinics, running at full capacity.”

Maui Jim and the team at NZ Optics would like to extend a warm thank you to everyone who worked hard to help others during the lockdown and for all the wonderful submissions we received; you are all heroes!