Beverley's story

One minute I’m an adult, the next a seven-year-old child.

It goes without saying that our ambulance crews need to know so many different types of conditions and illnesses. Often, they need to think quickly if something changes with the patient they are treating. That may seem obvious for physical conditions such as if someone’s heart rate or breathing drops but what if a 52-year-old suddenly has the demeanour and understanding of a young child?

This is exactly what happens to Beverly Greenwood, one of our Patient and Public Panel members from Northwich in Cheshire and who is also a NHS Governor for mental health and social care. Beverly has various medical conditions and has been diagnosed with three complex neurological conditions; Functional Neurological Disorder (FND), Non-Epileptic Attack Disorder (NEAD) and Dissociative Conversion Disorder (DCD).

Beverly is keen to raise awareness of what may happen to patients if they have a neurological episode, as they can all present in different ways and in some instances may be mistaken as being drunk. This is why she wears a medical bracelet and lanyard to provide guidance to others if something does happen to her and potentially save an unnecessary ambulance call out.

Beverly explains how a DCD episode affects her: “If my body gets under too much stress or I’m ill, my brain takes me to a safe space. One minute I can talk to you as a 52-year-old and at some point I can turn into a seven-year-old and my voice changes and I would have no clue where I am.”

If this happens her husband is often around to reassure her and explain but if she’s on her own it can cause confusion for her and those around her.

On one occasion during the COVID-19 lockdown, Beverly had to travel to hospital in an ambulance alone. When she got in the ambulance she spoke to the crew as an adult but soon after she suddenly changed into a seven-year-old.

Beverly recalls the sound of her inhaling the nebuliser was like the noise Darth Vader makes in the Star Wars films. So to help make her journey into hospital a more exciting one for a ‘seven-year-old,’ the crew caring for her took on the roles of different Star Wars characters, as she explains:

“They made my journey into hospital an exciting trip because we pretended that the ambulance was a starship and then when we got to hospital one of the crew said to me don’t forget to use your lightsaber, which was my walking stick.”

“This was amazing for me to get a crew like that, they were still treating me, they were still giving me what I needed. I must admit, I’ve been very very fortunate, I’ve always had crews that have been able to think on their feet very, very fast.”

It took Beverly two years to be diagnosed with Dissociative Conversion Disorder by specialist neurologists and has been told that one day she could go into a seven-year-old and not come out of it.