[Leica] IMG: Houston, we've got a problem

[don.dory at gmail.com (Don Dory)]

I am glad you could have a sense of humor over serious business.   Life can
be filled with sadness or joy, most of the time the choice is ours.   Your
mother's attitude is refreshing.

On Fri, Nov 22, 2019, 7:15 PM Douglas Barry <imra at iol.ie> wrote:

> Haven't been around for a while, least of all doing any photography.
> However, wending my weary way into hospital this morning for a
> photographic procedure with a large Olympus (a cystoscopy - not a great
> experience, unpleasant in fact - so unpleasant, I almost admitted, under
> the torture, to hanging Jeffrey Epstein), I came across this
>
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/DouglasBray/Houston+-+we_ve+got+a+problem.jpg.html
>
>
> Apparently an elderly man in his 90s, arriving at the hospital car park,
> had an issue with his automatic, and pressed hard on the accelerator
> instead of the brake. He smashed through the toll barrier, shot off the
> road, ploughed through a flower bed and a hedge, and scattered
> pedestrians before coming to a rest here. No one was hurt. At least, it
> happened close to excellent medical help...
>
> Douglas
> who is discovering the perils of old age as he has had to put his mother
> in a nursing home to recover after a fall at her home. There was blood
> everywhere - it looked like a scene from Psycho except it was in living
> colour. The fall had happened at 1am and she hadn't wanted to disturb us
> by ringing us at that hour of the night so had tried to staunch the flow
> herself, and dripped over several rooms looking for bandages. She them
> tried to clean up after herself in the dim light and smeared it
> everywhere. I had to get the local Winston Wolfe in to decontaminate the
> place. She had to be hospitalised as well as needing stitches, her BP
> was 220/120 which, even allowing for the fact she'll be 96 in January,
> was more than a bit too high. Now the BP has come down and stabilised,
> she's brighter - despite an edgy incident in the hospital a couple of
> weeks ago.
>
> I was visiting her in her two bedded close observation room that she
> shared with a woman called Mary who had cardiac problems. As I arrived I
> said hello to Mary who was out of bed for the first time in about ten
> days, sitting in a chair beside her bed reading, and exchanged a few
> words, before sitting down and pulling the curtain between the two beds.
> My mother and I were talking for about twenty minutes, when I heard a
> sort of cough, quickly followed by more strange sounds. Exchanging
> glances with my mother, I got up, looked around the curtain, and saw
> that an ashen faced Mary was slumped sideways in her chair vomiting.
> Worse, like some rock stars, she seemed to be choking on it. I raced -
> well, hobbled quickly as I have two bad knees - to the nurse's desk and
> told the nurses that she was having a heart attack, getting a look in
> askance in return. The nurse rose sedately and walked in to the room as
> I gibbered beside her. She then saw Mary in extremis and sprinted to an
> alarm button where upon the room filled quickly with bodies clothed in
> blue and green. It was like a scene from ER as controlled, but urgent,
> voices gave out instructions and responses.
>
> I pulled the curtain all around my mother's bed to separate her from the
> crisis. She was clutching my hands and saying "What's happening?" and
> "Poor Mary" and looking very woebegone. I did my best to comfort her,
> and eventually, as the medics seemed to get some sort of control over
> the situation, she brightened, looked at me, and said "She's more than
> ten years younger than me". Pausing, she declared, "I'm still here!"
> Then "You can't kill a bad thing" smirking sardonically.
>
> Life in its many aspects is always competitive...
>
>
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