Friday, October 05, 2007

Declan admitted to hospital with a viral infection

Declan spent Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in the Royal London Hospital. The name is quite flashy but the hospital is a bit run down – their lift is the slowest thing I think I’ve ever been in: the second day when Declan was moved by a worker to a ward on the top floor, not only did we have to wait for 5 minutes but on the third floor everybody in the lift (including one patient on a drip and another with no legs) was told to come out because a patient just out of theatre had to be transported back to his ward.

The Royal London Hospital is on Whitechapel Road, just a few metres from the Methodist Church-run Whitechapel Mission – where we were barred by the minister’s wife on 18 June due to concerns about our safety: not even a complaint by Declan to the Charity Commission has brought about a re-admittance – and near the Sisters of Mercy-run Dellow Centre, the only place left for us to go: this morning Declan and I had no choice but to ask the nun in charge of clothes for some warm clothing, which I was told to collect on Monday.

Declan was admitted from the Accident & Emergency Department at about 11.30am on Tuesday because of high fever – total lack of energy, sweaty, body aches and chill. The discharge report states Declan has a “viral infection”. I say has because his temperature was back up this afternoon to such an extent that he had to get a hefty prescription for Ibuprofen and Codeine from Médecins du Monde (Doctors of the World) – an international humanitarian aid organisation that recruits medical and non-medical volunteers, who provide healthcare for vulnerable populations around the world, and happened to be in the Dellow Centre this morning for referrals to their centre in Bethnal Green.

Perhaps I should add that the treatment Declan received from the Royal London Hospital comprised of Paracetamol painkillers and a fan on Wednesday afternoon to bring down his temperature. (And where did I sleep while Declan was in hospital? Well, I was allowed to sleep on a chair beside Declan’s bed because the hospital residence for the next of kin of patients was full up.)

It was while Declan was lying on the hospital bed that I came up with our campaign for embryonic stem cell research for private funding. After doing research on the internet, I believe it will be totally unique … but more about that in the next blog.

Oh, and just for the record, at the moment Declan’s temperature is 39.1C, as high as it was when he was admitted on Tuesday morning (I have a few of these single-use clinical thermometers). He is absolutely dripping in sweat and going back into the hospital now to see what they have to say about it.

We don’t have to be reminded that the Department for Work and Pensions (Declan’s whole application to the European Court of Human Rights is against this particular department) and the Department of Health (of which the Royal London Hospital is a part), share the same solicitor’s office.