NHS 75! Sam’s story: from patient to teacher at Sheffield Children’s

Sheffield Children’s shares stories to celebrate 75 years of the NHS

Meet Sam Hiley. He has a special connection to Sheffield Children’s!

Many of the children and young people attending the wonderful Becton School at Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust might recognise Sam as their fabulous Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) teacher. However, even before he joined our team, some of our colleagues were already well acquainted with Sam, who had previously spent time at Sheffield Children’s as a 14-year-old after sustaining a serious head injury.

Sam said: “I fractured my skull right the way round and was in a coma on intensive care for three and a half weeks. Things didn’t look very good when I first came in. From there, I spent a long time in hospital and did some rehabilitation after that. I had my last operation when I was 18, on my arm. I struggled with short-term and long-term memory loss during my 20s, along with tiredness and fatigue. Now I feel completely fine!”

In a truly full-circle experience, Sam was recently given the opportunity to revisit the ward on which he was treated alongside colleagues who had looked after him during his time on our Intensive Care Unit (ICU). He was even shown the exact bed in which he received treatment from our teams.

Sam said: “It’s a funny old thing because I don’t remember much about it. I’ve been told snippets. I have been to those wards and walked through them many times. It gave me a bit of perspective.”

One of these colleagues was Jenny Longden, now our Deputy Chief Nurse at Sheffield Children’s.

Jenny said: “It is fabulous to see Sam back at Sheffield Children’s after so many years! I was very lucky to have the opportunity to show him where we treated him and it’s great to see that he is doing so well – it was a beautiful moment. Sam’s story is a wonderful example of the power of our Sheffield Children’s community, and the passion demonstrated by our colleagues in making Sheffield Children’s a brilliant place to work.”

In the years since his accident, Sam worked as a Teaching Assistant for four years before undergoing his teacher training. As fate would have it, he found himself with the opportunity to take on an alternative placement here at Sheffield Children’s during this period and has never looked back: “I’ve always worked with young people, and always enjoyed that. Working at Sheffield Children’s felt like a dream job. You’re giving back.”

Now settled into his role as a STEM Teacher, Sam is fully focused on how he can continue to make a difference to the children and young people who we see every day at Sheffield Children’s. His key objective is to make sure that each and every child that he teaches comes out of his lessons with a smile on their face and a little bit more knowledge in their head: “Some days, when you can inject some fun, I think that’s my favourite thing, just making that little difference. The academics are massively important too, obviously!”

Sam still feels an immense amount of gratitude to the team at Sheffield Children’s who aided in his recovery. He said: “I need to say a massive thank you to Jenny. To all of the doctors, nurses, ambulance staff too. If it wasn’t for them and the team, I wouldn’t be here today. There’s a definite sense of gratitude and I owe them my life. That’s why I’ve found my way back here. You see the good that these teams can do, being around Sheffield Children’s every day.”

We would like to thank Sam for sharing his story, and we can’t wait to see how he continues to inject some more fun and creativity into his lessons in the future.