A senior nurse from St Mary’s Hospital has been shortlisted for a prestigious award after helping save the life of a six-month-old child.

Anna Bedrich has been nominated for the RCNi Nurse Awards 2016 for her ‘outstanding and compassionate care’ after she treated baby Freya Nupponen in January 2016.

The child lives with cerebro-costo-mandibular syndrome (CCMS), a condition which causes tissue abnormalities due to a defect in cellular growth and bone formation, and was admitted to the Children’s Intensive Care Unit at the Paddington hospital where she spent the next few months fighting for her life.

Her mother Elina Nupponen nominated the nurse and was keen to praise her colleagues too. She said: “Anna’s efforts were endless. The team in the children’s intensive care unit looked after her and us with the highest level of skill and true compassion.

"Aside from her faultless clinical skills, she went beyond the call of duty and arranged for us to do 'normal' baby things.

“When your child is critically ill in a very controlled and clinical environment it’s easy to feel at a loss as a parent.

"You are rarely able to have cuddles or do those normal parent things like changing nappies or feeding. The knitted blankets make the environment feel a bit more like home."

'Seize the chance to do normal things'

She added: “We don’t know how long we will have with Freya, but Anna helped us to relax during the most stressful time in our lives and is part of some happy precious memories we have been able to make with our daughter.

“She is so dedicated to her job and deserves recognition and that’s why I nominated Anna for the award.”

Anna, a nurse for 10 years, said she was honoured to nominated: “I’ve found it quite overwhelming and really appreciate what Elina has done. I am so pleased that something I did helped someone.

“Our patients are very ill and often on ventilators so you have to seize opportunities to do normal things as you don’t know when the chance will come again. I wanted to give Elina confidence and make her comfortable as a mum.”

Elina is hoping her story will help support of the More Smiles Appeal, a £2 million fundraising effort to help fund the expansion of the Children’s Intensive Care Unit at St Mary’s Hospital. It will mean that over 200 more children can be treated by our specialist team every year.

Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, is among those who have thrown their support behind the plans.