Vivienne Hoilett

Said the following about Metro South Operations:

“I would like to nominate Metro South Team as Covid Heroes. In particular for their actions in ensuring Driver John and Driver Paul at Selhurst Depot along with their families were treated and supported whilst suffering from Covid 19.

John lives alone and remote from his immediate family. He fell ill in Jan 2021 and it was only through the Resource Managers knowing his personal situation that they alerted the Line Managers immediately. Marianna Busuttil called John and urged him to speak with his GP as a matter of urgency

As it became clear that this was a case of Covid Marianna arranged that she would drop some shopping into him so he could isolate without running out of food. Marianna is a St Johns Ambulance First responder and was very insistent on John receiving medical advice and called him each day to see how he was.

John took a turn for the worse and as he had not answered Marianna’s call that day she drove to his house along with Sam Hall who is a Competency Development Manager at Selhurst. As they were banging on the door and just about to call the police a neighbour advised them that there had been an ambulance in the street earlier and that he had gone with the ambulance crew.

Marianna, Sam and James Beckingham another Competency Development Manager then called around to all of the local hospitals to locate him. It transpired that John had fallen due to his lack of oxygen and luckily he was able to call the ambulance.

John was in intensive care for 4 months and died 6 times, thankfully resuscitated on each occasion.

As John slowly recovered, Trevor Leonard his Line Manager, liaised with his family and received updates on John’s progress via them. It was through this liaison that Trevor and Simon Bott the Area Operations Manager were key in supporting the family through this difficult time. Simon travelled to St George’s hospital to collect keys from John to enable John’s sister to access his house and get him his glasses and some personal items which Simon then delivered to John.

It was on one of the trips to collect John’s items that Simon was informed that John had died and he was directed to the bereavement team, thankfully this was not true and he was able to field away the rumours circulating.

Once John was able to leave hospital Trevor Leonard remained in constant contact and offered to accompany him to his hospital appointments as he was having difficulty getting about. Trevor also arranged for Jan Armour an off duty member of staff to get some shopping in for him.

John has now retired due to the lasting effects of Covid and Trevor is still in contact meeting for the occasional coffee and catch up. Furthermore on learning that John's brother in law had died Trevor arranged for John and his siter to talk to John Robinson the Railway Chaplain.

In the same week this all happened Driver Paul also came down with Covid and was hospitalised. Paul lives with his wife who has mobility issues. As a team we provided support to his wife whilst Paul was in an induced coma and gladly made vital and urgent deliveries to aid Paul’s recovery.

Whilst in hospital Paul died and was resuscitated 9 times. Paul will not be beaten and is back at work being supported by the whole team to becoming a productive Driver.

The Metro South Team as a whole has brought the railway into the community and ensured through all the restrictions that everyone was cared for and vital deliveries took place to keep them supported.“