Video shows emotional reunion between hospital worker and her daughters after nine weeks apart

A King's Lynn hospital worker has reunited with her two daughters after isolating from them for nine weeks.

In a 45-second video, which has gone viral on social media, QEH operating department practitioner (ODP) Suzie Vaughan, 43, who has been working in a Covid ward, surprises her children Bella, 9, and Hettie, 7, followed by some emotional hugs.

It has been viewed at least 2.6m times on Twitter after it was posted by Suzie's sister Charlotte Savage yesterday, who has been looking after the girls over the past couple of months.

Suzie told the PA news agency: “We had said it was only going to be for a maximum of a month, but nobody knew at the beginning of this how it was going to go.

“It was amazing to see them again, I missed the girls terribly.

“When they started crying I felt so bad but so relieved I was back with them.”

Suzie even had to spend her birthday apart from her daughters, instead working a 12-hour shift as an ODP in an intensive care unit.

She said: “Now they won’t let me out of their sight. When I put them to bed they said, ‘Am I dreaming mummy?’

“I do hope it doesn’t have a knock-on effect on them, but kids are quite resilient.

“It was a hard decision to make. I just had to think to myself it was to keep them safe and I was so worried in case I was bringing something back.”

The family will spend the next week together before the girls return to school on Monday.

Suzie said: “We still have patients coming in but it’s not as bad as it was, and now I am fully donned with PPE when treating a Covid patient.

“I just kept thinking of the girls, I wanted to keep them safe. And I was able to put more hours in at work and help the patients at work who needed it.”

She said she hopes the public will continue to follow the rules despite the gradual easing of lockdown.

“There are so many people making sacrifices and until you experience it yourself you don’t always appreciate what has gone out,” she said.

“To see people suffer the way I have had to see patients suffer, I wish people could see the other side of it and think of other people.”

The video has also been shared by Pride of Britain on their social media.

They said: "Susie is an ODP at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King's Lynn.

"As she has been working in a Covid ward her daughters Bella (9) and Hettie (7) went to live with their Auntie to keep them safe.

"They haven't seen their mum for 9 weeks, until today. @Lottsoflove21 #ourprideofbritain."