The Unprovoked Goodness of People
- by anna
- 19 April, 2016
Last week I fell on the street – it was entirely my fault – and broke my shoulder. We were passing the Mill Bridge on East Hill in Colchester, walking with a couple of friends towards The Colchester Arts Centre, where we were due to watch a comedy show, when it happened. Both me and my fried fell on the ground – our husbands were waking ahead of us, but quickly returned to help “the fallen women”. A man appeared, almost out of nowhere, who asked whether we needed any help – he was travelling with his car on the road behind us. When he saw us fall, he stopped the car somewhere and crossed the very busy road to come to our assistance. He asked whether we wanted a lift to somewhere. Having assumed vertical position, I knew that something was very wrong with my shoulder and asked to be taken to A&E.
In the car, we realised that he was a Head of one of the Sixth Form Colleges in town, and as such my colleague. We arrived, barely finding time to say “thank you” and he was gone. I wonder now, how much extra pain I would have had to endure, if he wasn’t there. I am also grateful that he stopped and helped – not many people do it these days.
In A&E I had to wait for about an hour and a half to be seen in quite serious pain. Then I was sent to a scan, to see the damage done. At about 8 pm I was admitted into the Fordham Ward of Colchester General Hospital. It was a difficult night, full of pain, with an operation promised for the next day.
Something happens to us, when we are in severe pain – we somehow loose our empathy, we assume it is due to us. Pain had reduced me in size – in my imagination, I was so small, I was attempting to hide from the pain-monster in a nutshell. Various nurses came to work on me and help me during the night – I am not sure how well I responded. I felt grouchy.
The operation happened between 3 and 5.30 pm. Then I spent a long time in reanimation and I was back on the ward at 6 am the next morning.
It was a revelation to me to discover how many people were involved with me during my stay – from the cleaners, and canteen staff, the nurses with various grades, the ward doctors, the specialist, who operated on me, the operation team, the anaesthesiologist, the recovery team, who had a serious problem with me, porters, the X ray department, the chemist, the physio-therapy advisor. The list is positively endless! All those people listened to me about my problems and attempted to explain to me either the process or the consequences or helped me to go home early. I did not believe my luck when they allowed me to go home 12 hours after I returned to the ward! They engaged with me in a professional way, with a sense of humour and a smile.
This is only the second time (discounting childbirth), which allowed me the opportunity to observe the life in a hospital ward – especially in the climate of the criticism, recently poured over Colchester General Hospital in the press. I am not aware of the statistics quoted or the comparisons made, but my heart warmed at the humility and professionalism, with which the even the most mundane or unpleasant tasks were executed. I was very surprised by the meticulous way the team approached the tasks. There was a period, when my blood pressure and temperature had to be measured every 15 minutes – not only they did not forget even once to do it, but sometimes two nurses were coming to take the measurements.
I had no great expectations, except may be of professional behaviour, but what I received, was so much more! Being nice to people, who are nice is easy, but coping well with people in severe pain is something else! What I am trying to say is that I felt that I received so much more positive attitude that the pay-scale required staff to give! For this, I will be eternally grateful!