80-year-old UN ambassador who met Nelson Mandela recovers from COVID-19

An 80-year-old former UN ambassador who has met Nelson Mandella, Desmond Tutu and Muhammad Ali is at home making a full recovery after spending six weeks in hospital fighting COVID-19.

Once an Ambassador for the United Nations and the first black student to graduate from Oxford University’s music school, Professor Ian Hall was diagnosed with the virus during a routine appointment at hospital.

’I felt a responsibility to make sure he was alright’

Bluebird Care Westminster has been caring for Professor Hall since his return from hospital, with care manager Miguel Guilhermino telling homecare.co.uk: “The Professor went into hospital for a routine dialysis as he has a low kidney function. Whilst there, the clinician took his temperature and was tested for coronavirus.

“It was awful news for him to take in as he was in a very vulnerable position to be in with his other underlying health conditions.

“When the hospital made the decision to transfer him to the intensive care ward. He was really poorly and it was awful because we had no contact with him.”

In 2011, Professor Hall lost his wife, son and father in a short space in time. “He doesn’t have contact with any family and most of his support network is fully dependent on the professionals that visit him on the day to day basis. I felt a responsibility to make sure he was alright.”

Whilst in hospital, Mr Guilhermino kept in touch with all of the Professor’s medical team throughout his stay so they were all aware of his additional needs and medication.

The Bluebird Care manager also made great efforts to ensure Professor Hall had the necessary PPE and food supplies at home so he could be discharged. After a COVID-19 test was carried out and the result was negative Professor Hall returned home on the 4 April.

“I did a deep clean on his flat and cleaned out his fridge and updated his care plans. At the moment, I am trying to keep myself available at the weekends, so I check to see how he is.

“I feel very fortunate to be in a position to support an inspirational being like Professor Hall, I felt that I needed to do everything in my power to ensure all efforts were made to guarantee a safe return home for the Professor.”

Professor Hall was born in British Guyana in 1940. His father was the first black officer in Royal Air Force during World War II and afterwards completed a degree in dentistry. His mother died when he was only six years old and Professor Hall and his father moved to the UK in 1952 aged 12.

When he finished school, Professor Hall went on to be just like his father and broke racial barriers to become the first black student to graduate from Oxford University’s music school.

He worked as a professional organist and played all over the world such as USA, Europe and Asia and taught music at the Bloomsbury International Society.

His love for music even helped him become an unofficial global ambassador for the United Nations where he met Nelson Mandela, Muhammad Ali, Tony Blair, Dr Martin Luther King and Desmond Tutu to name a few

Mr Guilhermino said: “One of his goals when he first came to Bluebird Care was to sort his house out because it was very cluttered. We moved all of the boxes so he could make use of his piano. When he sat down at the piano, he played his first piece we put his photograph of him graduating from Oxford University on the piano for him.

“When you listen to Professor Hall’s life story and you see the pictures of his life, to me he is really inspirational having to be the one who could sit down and learn so much from this man.”

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