Undeterred despite disability
Key points
- But Nicola has only one arm, and she has had to fight against people's preconceptions about what she can and cannot do to reach her current position as a staff nurse at Birmingham City Hospital.
- Nicola Heazell was born three months premature, weighing just 2lbs 1oz.
- While she was in special care, a small tube was put into the radial artery in her forearm to enable staff to monitor her blood pressure.
- But it became clotted and she developed gangrene - which meant her left arm had to be amputated at the elbow.
Many little girls dream about becoming a nurse. Nicola Heazell was one of them.
But Nicola has only one arm, and she has had to fight against people's preconceptions about what she can and cannot do to reach her current position as a staff nurse at Birmingham City Hospital.
Nicola Heazell was born three months premature, weighing just 2lbs 1oz.
While she was in special care, a small tube was put into the radial artery in her forearm to enable staff to monitor her blood pressure.
But it became clotted and she developed gangrene - which meant her left arm had to be amputated at the elbow.
The resulting regular trips to hospital for plastic surgery stimulated her interest in nursing.
"When anyone asks how I do things with one hand, I say how do you manage with two?"
Nicola Heazell
"It was just the fact that I was in the hospital so much as a child.
"I was in the children's ward, and just really enjoyed what they did."
All the time she was growing up Nicola, now 24, knew she wanted to be a nurse.
"My occupational therapist was always there to give me encouragement and said if that was what I wanted to do, then I should go out and achieve it."
Coping
But others were not so encouraging. Careers advisors said nursing needed dexterity, something Nicola "obviously didn't have".
When she did apply for nursing degrees and diplomas, she was asked to perform tasks, such as drawing up fluid in a syringe and injecting it into an orange, or putting a plaster to a doctor's hand.
Nicola, from Birmingham, qualified last July. During her training, she went through as many clinical skills as possible, so she could practise them while she was being supervised.
Staff would wonder how she could manage, but after they saw her coping with nursing tasks, she said they forgot about her arm.
Nicola will not wear an artificial arm when she nurses, believing she copes better without it.
She said: "When anyone asks how I do things with one hand, I say how do you manage with two?"
Nicola often cares for stroke patients who have lost the use of one arm, who appreciate her showing them how to fasten buttons or zips with one hand.
"I showed one young woman who had suffered a stroke how to fasten a bra with one hand," she said.
Concerns
While patients tend not to notice her disability, she said, "occasionally relatives have been a bit offhand with me".
"But I have a very good ward manager, and she asks if they have a problem, and says if there was a problem, I wouldn't be on the ward."
Written and revised by
Gerald Hurowitz, M.D.
Our doctors write and review articles for accuracy and keep them up to date.
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