Live ChatAfter almost losing his life to COVID, Group Captain Martin Ogden was treated at the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre (DMRC) in Leicestershire.
Located nearby, SSAFA’s Norton House provides free accommodation for servicemen and women undergoing rehab at DMRC and their families.
Martin pays tribute to this ‘fantastic facility’ and shares his personal story.
“I work in Air Operations,” says Martin. “I'm what used to be called an Aerospace Battle Manager, which is meaningless to anybody! We're pretty unheard of because there are not very many of us!
“Effectively, my job is to make sure we attack the right things in the right way. So, whether it's air-to-air or air-to-surface, we've got the right weapons systems to engage the enemy.
“It can mean working with a small team, as I did in the 2003 Iraq war, to working in a massive air operation centre in Al Udeid (Qatar), which I did when we first went into Afghanistan.
“The job is huge and varied. One minute you can find yourself working with 10,000 Peshmerga in Iraq’s Kurdish autonomous zone, the next minute you're sat in a nice warm air operation centre 3,000 miles away from the conflict.”
More recently based at The Defence Academy of the UK, Shrivenham, near Swindon, Martin has enjoyed an impressive 36-year RAF career.
David Cameron called me by my nickname: ‘Oggy.’
“I worked in the Ministry of Defence in counterterrorism and resilience. My specialism was airborne counterterrorism. I briefed three different prime ministers and very senior cabinet level ministers, to the extent that David Cameron called me by my nickname: ‘Oggy.’
“I also wrote the airborne security plan for the London 2012 Olympic Games, and then I had to deliver the security apparatus, which involved everything from surface-to-air weapons to aerial snipers in helicopters to fast jets based in Northolt. It was a very complex piece of airborne security architecture which I designed and then had to implement.”
But when the first wave of the COVID pandemic struck the UK in early 2020, Martin became seriously ill. “It was Friday 13th March, ominously,” he recalls. “I went to a leaving do in the very early stages of COVID when people were not sure of the rules. The following Tuesday, the Chief of the Air Staff wrote saying, 'Don't come into London.' And I thought, 'That's good, because I feel rotten.'"
By Saturday I was in A&E and on Sunday I was in ITU.
“So, I stayed at home and thought, ‘I've got it, obviously, but I'll just keep warm, and I'll get through it like most people.' By Saturday I was in Accident and Emergency and on Sunday I was in an Intensive Care Unit.
“By the time the paramedics picked me up. I was wearing five layers of clothing because I felt cold. I had a temperature of 40 degrees. They stripped off my clothes, put me in the ambulance with the air con on me and said, 'We're not going anywhere until your temperature comes down.'
“I got very ill, very quickly and was admitted to intensive care. I was in hospital for five weeks. It was pretty life-changing for a while; I thought I was going to die several times."
I thought I would never see my kids again.
“Unfortunately, my wife and I had separated in January, so it was a year that just kept on giving! Luckily, the kids were with her when I got it. But there were moments that I thought I would never see them again, so that was pretty rough.
“I was drifting in and out of consciousness. I had a chest X-ray and no-one in the X-ray department had any PPE. I remember seeing five different doctors, none of whom had any PPE on. No protection whatsoever. I don't know if they're still alive.
“There were loads of really ill people all around me, the majority had COVID, judging by the coughing and moaning and groaning. Then they put me in an ITU bed which was like a goldfish bowl because it had a big glass wall so the nurses could look in on me. That's the first time I saw a nurse with PPE. She had full breathing apparatus and a mask and a hazmat suit. I thought it was a little bit too late.”
Suffering from long COVID, in May 2020 Martin was admitted to DMRC, outside Loughborough, to take part in one of the UK’s first COVID rehabilitation courses.
I lost a third of my lung capacity.
“I'd lost a third of my lung capacity. They reckoned I'd lost two thirds but regained some. They managed to make sure my lungs re-inflated and got me back on to a medical pathway to fitness. You get regular check-ups every day and go through all these exercises to gradually build up your lung capacity.
“The issues were very strange. For example, your short-term memory goes and that was quite common on the course. The first assessment test they do is make you walk up and down the gym with an oximeter on your finger to see the oxygen saturation levels, but they ask you to count how many repetitions of this walk you've done. And all of us just laughed because we couldn't remember the number!
“So, there's some serious long-term aspects with COVID that medical science I don't think understands,” says Martin.
“The process of rehabilitation is not just musculoskeletal or recovering the amount of oxygen you can get into your body. It's all about your mental health, your mood, and your occupational therapy. And the whole well-being aspect that's delivered at DMRC is supported really well by Norton House."
Huge for people's mental health.
“The team here have got a superb atmosphere going on. But it's not just them, it's the other families. There were two or three families staying at Norton House, struggling through all the regulations around COVID, so they could directly support their loved ones that were on the COVID course with me. What the Norton House facility provided during the pandemic would have been huge for people's mental health.
“It doesn't matter what service you're in, whether you're a dependent or an active member of the Armed Forces, you're made to feel welcome and given effectively a second home while you're at the rehabilitation centre.”
Martin stayed at Norton House when he returned to DMRC in Summer 2022 for another course of rehab following knee surgery.
“Unlike a lot of people at Stanford Hall, my injury's pretty minor,” he explains. “I had a knee replacement which didn’t go particularly well insofar as I had clots which then didn't allow my knee to operate straight. I had all the pain from the operation but no gain from increased movement.
“I need to maintain the degree of movement I've got, but also to build up the strength and the muscle wastage. My left leg is about half the size of my right leg because I just haven't been able to use it.
A fantastic facility.
“The rehab took a holistic approach. It's not just about musculoskeletal activity, it's about your nutrition, about your mental health, the whole thing. That's how they approach it.
“I've really struggled with my mental health for quite a long time, and what I took from that course has been immeasurably helpful,” Martin says.
“The last couple of years have just been the biggest challenge ever. My recurring knee injury and loss of mobility has really taken its toll. I've never been diagnosed before as clinically depressed, but that's where I am. Luckily in Defence we've got a lot of really good staff that can help you out in these areas.
“I was used to running five miles a day, but I haven't been able to straighten my knee for two and a half years,” says Martin. “I know I'll never run again because you can't do that with a knee replacement. But if I can swim and cycle, that's great. So that's my goal.”
“Obviously, a lot of people at DMRC are very unwell, far more unwell than me. But their parents or their loved ones can come and stay at Norton House for quite often extended periods of time and provide direct support.
“It’s a fantastic facility. It’s making sure people's mental health is as well as it can be during really difficult times. During moments in service when they could be seriously injured, with life-changing conditions and looking at alternative futures, they absolutely need the support of their loved ones, and proximity is a big part of that. It means a great deal to service people that their loved ones can be very close to them during their most urgent times of need.”
