The Hospital Visit

By Juliet Atherton

A true story of a visit to hospital - the ups, the downs, and the absurdities. A combination of a true medical situation and all the serious and comedic aspects involved with it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Juliet Atherton
• Release date: Mar 4, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310908057

Juliet Atherton

Hi Everyone, My name is Juliet Atherton and I thought I would tell you a little bit about myself. I am Australian born and bred, but I have traveled extensively throughout my life, particularly in the United Kingdom, Ireland and the USA. I have always loved writing but my foray into e-books here on Smashwords is my first time publishing anything. I like to write in a variety of genres, but I think choosing an absolute favourite would be a difficult task as I enjoy both reading and writing so much and there are so many different avenues to explore. Let's just put it this way, I may come out with anything from poetry to drama and all things in between. I hope you enjoy my work. It is a labor of love for me and I would like it to be a fun and interesting experience for you. Please review my efforts after reading if you would like to do so, and come back to my page often to check for updates. I will do my best to publish work of a high standard which will appeal to a large cross section of the e-book community. Look forward to seeing you here again. Also, please visit my Facebook page by following the link and say 'hi'. Cheers. Juliet.

Book preview

The Hospital Visit

By Juliet Atherton

Copyright Juliet Atherton 2015

Smashwords Edition

Thank you for downloading this e-book. This book remains the copyrighted property of the author, and may not be redistributed to others for commercial or non-commercial purposes. If you enjoyed this book, please encourage your friends to download their own copy from their favorite authorized retailer. Thank you for your support.

Cover by Jessica Lincoln.

Find Juliet Atherton’s profile at Smashwords.com

https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/JJA01

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Dear Reader,

This is a true story, only the names and places have been changed to protect the identities of those involved. Some events and characters have been incorporated together for ease of writing and reading.

Dedicated to Jess, who may well have saved my life, and to the doctors and nurses who did their work so superbly and brought me back to good health once again. My most sincere thanks to everyone who took such excellent care of me. And to N.S., one of the best nurses and best people around. My thanks also to Amy, Stacey, Emma, Belinda, Jonathan, Rachel, Nicole, Andrew, Peter and all the Georges!

Chapter 1

By the time Christmas Eve came around, I was very grateful that I had completed all my shopping and gift wrapping the month before. I have never been one for jostling through crowds at the last minute trying to find what I want whilst being pushed and shoved from all directions. And so, on the day of the twenty-fourth, while my housemate, Jessica, did all the cooking (it was her turn this year) and other preparation, I was able to sit down and look around the stunningly decorated living room and admire everything while taking it easy. Doctor’s orders.

Three weeks earlier, during a night time visit to the bathroom, I had tripped and smashed my head against the window ledge in my bedroom, causing blood to gush everywhere and a mighty headache which was so instant and horrendous, I could barely keep my eyes opened. Jessica had heard the noise from her room and came running to find me flat on the floor, resembling someone who had had a ketchup bottle (large) emptied all over them. Quick thinking, as always, she had grabbed a bath towel, given it to me to hold to my head, while somehow managing to get me into her car and drive me to the Langdon Hospital Emergency Department.

I had driven past Langdon Hospital many times. It had been renovated and reconstructed just a few years previously and, I have to admit that it was an impressive sight with all the white, shiny paint, chrome, glass and lovely, manicured gardens. It was, I suppose, relatively small, with only three hundred beds, but it had an excellent reputation for the care provided and, as Jessica drove into the car park area for the emergency department, I realized I was about to find out if they really lived up to their reputation.

It was just after 4 a.m. when we arrived and I was grateful to see that there was only one other patient waiting for treatment. While I took a seat, (my head was swimming and the headache getting worse, so I was grateful to do so) Jessica went up to the triage nurse and explained what had happened. I was taken straight through to see the doctor, who was a delightful man, with a warm and friendly smile. He and two nurses directed me to a bed and asked me to climb on to it. This proved a problem as the bed refused to lower and I couldn’t successfully climb up as it was too high.

After two failed attempts, the nurses lead me to another bed which, fortunately, lowered nicely, and all I had to do was sit down without any need for attempting to scale the hospital version of Mount Everest. However, at this point, we had another slight bed problem. As I began to sit down, the bed, with me half on and half off, shot across the room and the two of us became separated. Thankfully, a young female doctor was standing nearby and braced her feet and arms to catch me as I crashed into her. Mercifully, she did manage to stop my careering into the next cubicle and led me back towards the recently-vacated bed and sat me firmly on it. Glaring at the doctor, she demanded, ‘Why didn’t you have the brakes on this bed? The patient could have fallen again and badly injured herself!’ The doctor hung his head, looking like a school boy being reprimanded by the headmistress.

‘I don’t know how to put the bed brakes on.’ He admitted sheepishly. The other doctor rolled her eyes and gave him an incredulous look. He just looked mortified. Had it not been so dangerous, and had I not been in so much pain, I would have been very amused.

After I was placed on the bed again, (brakes on this time) one of the nurses came over and began to wipe my head wound.