Godsends in our Hospitals

On Saturday, just before midnight, I had the radio on.  I heard an interview with a man whose 12-year-old boy was killed in the Warrington bombings.  Whether it’s been 2 years or 20, talking about your son’s death must be an ordeal and he handled it so well; I’m sure I wasn’t the only one touched by it, but one thing I noticed that wasn’t commented on was the role of hospital chaplaincy.

 

He spoke of the surgeon who told them:  “Your son may not survive the night.  Now if you’ll excuse me …” and left them alone in the room.  Then the next day, after the chaplain gave them coffee and biscuits, he went to see Tim.  The contrast really hit me:  A surgeon – so busy with other duties that he didn’t have time to talk, and a chaplain – prepared to have coffee with the parents of a wounded child, and come alongside them in their grief.

 

The NHS talk about cutting hospital chaplains, but this to me is proof that they shouldn’t.  I’m thankful for the way the hospital chaplain and his team helped one of my friends when she was in hospital back last year, and I’m sure that patients and their relatives need the emotional and spiritual support as much as the medical care.

Friend Friday: A New Luxury

If you were to ask people what they were thankful for, you might get several answers at this time of year – warmth; a roof over our heads; food; clothes, but last night as I went to bed, I had a different answer:  Silence … absolute silence.  How often I must have taken that for granted!

 

I visited my friend yesterday and they were just moving her from one hospital-ward to another.  They’ve put her in a bed next to a lady with Alzheimer’s who’s half-shouting, half-singing.  “My my my my my my my …  Oh …  Will you leave me alone.  Get off!  Get off!” and she’s so loud, it’s difficult to have a conversation at times.  If this was me, I don’t think I’d cope stuck in a ward for days on end next to someone making all that noise, specially if my body was racked by seizures and after one of those I felt zonked-out and really in need of sleep.  If I was a millionaire, private health insurance would be one of the first things I’d invest in – for myself and those I love.  I want my friend to have her own room with an en suite bathroom, not to have someone in that state in the bed next to her.

 

Another of my friends suggested weeks ago that I pray for time to get together with my friend and talk, and visiting her in hospital has meant more time to sit and talk to her than I’ve had for years.  I’m very grateful for that unexpected answer to prayer.  My biggest prayer-requests at the moment are that she’ll get out of hospital soon, and that I won’t get a cold or anything while she’s in because I won’t be able to keep visiting her if I’m ill.  Will you pray with me?