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

[photo.philippe.amard at gmail.com (Philippe)]

Sad circumstances - Excellent narrative - Funny photo - that guy and those 
folks MUST be Irish :-)

Hope everything cools down on your side.

OTT : I?ve started learning Korean so that I can order the voice-controlled 
car to get to a halt with a perfect unambiguous commanding accent on the 
road.

Amities

Philippe



> Le 23 nov. 2019 ? 02:15, Douglas Barry <imra at iol.ie> a ?crit :
> 
> 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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