Chris said: “Elizabeth (Bess) Bambridge was a Senior Sister in the A&E department at Peterborough District Hospital for 40 years.”
She worked at the hospital at the same time as Chris was a casualty porter and he captured a photo (above) of her suturing a patient, a very common procedure after road accidents.
Chris said: “I would often go along a line of accident victims with a bucket and sponge so that the nurses and doctors could see what they were dealing with.”
Bess added: “It was horrendous as people would go through the windscreen and I would spend hours carefully taking the glass out of their faces.
“There weren’t as many members of staff in A&E in those days and less paperwork.
“It was very hands on.
“I remember one morning at 7.15am the porter called me as there was a couple with their 13-year-old daughter in the car and she was having an asthma attack. There was no receptionist or doctor around and I resuscitated her in the back of an ambulance.
“I’ll always remember that day.
“Fifteen years later her family sent me a photo of her at her wedding and said she wouldn’t be alive if it hadn’t been for me. The job was very rewarding.
“We saved lives and helped people every day.”
Elizabeth is now retired and does charity work for the Thorpe Hall Sue Ryder hospice.
She lives in the village of Thorney and the reunion photo was taken in her back garden.
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Elizabeth is now retired and does charity work for the Thorpe Hall Sue Ryder hospice. She is pictured by Chris Porsz in her Thorney garden. Photo: Midlands
