SURPRISES.

There is no greater surprise in life than to have a stroke, not of luck, although that is nice, the stroke I mean is when the brain is starved of oxygen, you lose your speech and the ability to move down one side, if not both.

I have a very recent experience of having a stroke. Strokes come without any warning and usually without any pain, and unless they can get you to a hospital for treatment, you are a gonner.

Which leads me into the point of this blog.

My wife very quickly phoned for an ambulance which came in very short order, they did their part of the job, brilliantly; I arrived at the hospital not out of it, but unable to move or talk, and in the hands of the trauma team. Pumped full of drugs, and monitored very carefully over the following 24 hours. A number of tests followed. There is no question at all, that because of the care and attention I received, I was able to be discharged from the hospital some five days later.

It is to these dedicated people that I owe my life.

The ambulance team and all the nursing staff exhibit this wizardry every, and sometime several times a day. What struck me more than anything is the care, generosity of spirit, compassion and empathy shown not only to me, but to all patients by all members of the staff at Gosford Hospital.

To state the staff at this hospital is overworked and very underpaid would be the understatement of the year.

To say thank you to all concerned in saving my life, seems very inadequate,
but I do, very humbly indeed.

Carol Armytage
Wamberal.