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One of the nurses has not only worked out what Mum wants when she calls out all the time, but has had an idea what to do. When we got to the ward yesterday, we found Mum sitting quietly in a wheelchair at reception! Company is what she wants and needs. Not the kind that taxes her with conversation but the kind that includes her as it goes about its business. She greeted us with a smile and for a reward we took her out to see the sunny day.
The John Radcliffe needs a garden. How can you lift a patient's spirit by wheeling her round a carpark? If a garden is not possible, then how about some daffodils planted on the banks?
We asked the Matron to taste the food Mum was given last evening. Understandably, she declined. So we would like to set up a challenge to everyone involved - the dietician, the consultant, the bosses of Carillion: taste the food! If you decline, you have no right whatsoever to put on a patient's notes 'rejects food' as if it is somehow her problem. 'Food inedible' is what should be noted. We took Mum to the cafe and she swigged down a fruit smoothie without a problem.
2 comments:
I found your blog via the gardening link, and then realise we have a lot more in common that gardening.
I send you my most sincere sympathy over your mother's plight. I had a traumatic year after my husband was brain-damaged in a road accident three years ago. Everything you say rings true for his condition too.
Thank you, RR. There is a great deal that could be done to make things better in the NHS that wouldn't necessarily involve any expenditure. Some of the staff involved with Mum are reading this blog and one can only hope that, collectively, we can bring it about that common sense prevails. I'm so sorry to hear about your husband. At least with old age you can see it coming, but a road traffic accident comes out of nowhere and changes lives forever. Did he recover? One weeps for Natasha Richardson's family today.
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