Paul “Snowy” Condon
QEII Hospital’s resident gardener, Paul “Snowy” Condon has proved that going out of his way to help a grieving patient has its own reward.
It all started when an elderly patient of Ward 4B needed help from staff to prepare for his wife’s funeral. Staff rallied to coordinate everything from his suit and tie to his transport.
Nursing Director Surgical, Amanda Garner phoned in a special favour with Snowy for flowers from the QEII gardens.
Snowy says he was moved to help the man, but knew his rose garden was out of commission for the winter, so Snowy took it upon himself to buy a bouquet.
“He had no flowers and I had no flowers in my garden either. So I went down the road and bought him a bunch of flowers just so he had something to put on his wife’s coffin so he could farewell her.
“He was very overcome with emotion, and so was I,” Snowy said. “He was a lovely gentleman.”
Snowy hopes the good karma will return to him someday.
“I always say to everyone, hopefully someone will help me in my hour of need, so that's what I wanted to do for him in his hour of need.”
Nominated by Amanda Garner for going the extra mile to show person-centred care, Snowy took out the ICARE² Values Individual Award in June for his outstanding compassion and empathy in assisting the patient.
The ICARE² Reward and Recognition Awards are a QEII Crew Culture Committee initiative celebrating staff across QEII who demonstrate exemplary ICARE² core values at work.
Snowy says his gardens still get plenty of compliments which means a lot, and he looks forward to contributing more to the QEII community in the years to come.
“The campus is changing a lot for me at the moment, because of all the development that’s going on. Things are going to change but this will be my job till retirement.”