Story
Heading to work on Saturday 24th October 2009, I never in a million years expected that later that afternoon I would be sitting face-to-face with a senior consultant in a cubicle at the Royal United Hospital in Bath listening to the words ‘your dad is catastrophically ill, we must take him to theatre immediately. You should say your goodbyes to him now, we haven’t got time to spare.’
In the company of great friends, Mum, George and I were then to spend the longest, most painful eight hours of our lives in the waiting room of intensive care jumping at any sound, perhaps the footsteps of the life saving anaesthetist bringing the latest updates from theatre. Finally at about 2am Dad was wheeled into ITU having survived, against all odds, the operation to ‘replumb’ his abdominal aortic aneurysm. Next he had to keep fighting to give his vital organs the chance to begin functioning again. He was fully sedated, unable to breathe for himself or communicate in any way. Over the rollercoaster 10 days that followed the doctors and nurses worked a miracle, forever chasing the 1 in 100 chance of survival that dad was given. We were instructed to take things hour by hour, then day by day, the thought of life without dad unimaginable, the words ‘brain damaged’ unbearable but the support of every nurse whether it be a 4am phone call or an evening visit to find the nurse singing along to the Beatles gave us the strength to keep going. Remembering the line ‘he is on every type of life support we have’, typical, dad isn’t a man to do things by halves! There were times when our hope wore thin, but the incredible work of the ITU team gave us the moment dads eyes fluttered as we kissed him goodbye, before he moved a finger attempting to squeeze our hand and then the miraculous day that we arrived to find him awake, ‘talking b*****ks’...Although unable to thank these wonderful people sufficiently, I thought I’d make a start and enter this half-marathon. I am asking you all kindly if you would mind donating whatever you can so that we can give something back to the Intensive Care Unit to help others...