When my Dad had finished all of the treatment (aggressive surgery, chemotherapy & radiotherapy) they gave him the all clear. The trouble was, he wasn't getting any better. Everyday he was getting sicker and sicker. They said that is what chemo and radiotherapy does; it strips you bare and leaves you close to death in order to save your life. We didn't know it then, but the cancer had spread to his lungs.
One evening he stopped breathing and my mother found him grey and lifeless in their bed. She called to me. I ran in, looked at him and called an ambulance. While we tried to bring him round and he started to chain stoke. They call it the 'death rattle'. What a terrible sound.
The ambulance came. Three paramedics - two men and a woman. I told them his history as I let them in. As soon as they heard the word 'methadone' they decided he was a junkie. The woman said it must be an OD. They didn't listen when I told them he hadn't had anything that day, he'd been too sick. They assumed that he must have done it in secret. Drug addicts are sneaky.
They injected him with adrenaline and were surprised when nothing happened. He wouldn't wake up. I wanted to scream. They put him on oxygen. Then they put him in a wheel chair and the two men carried him down the stairs with his head banging against the stair rails. In the ambulance they ignored him and us. Sat in the front of the vehicle I cried and told the driver my dad was a good man. He didn't say anything, but he put on the lights and sped up. At the hospital dad came round. He was frightened. He was shaking and his body had gone into withdrawal. There were drunks fighting and the police.
After a long wait they decided to keep him in for oxygen and dehydration. Only they didn't give him oxygen and left him in a bed for 8 hours without even a cup of water by his side. When my mother asked for some water the ward nurse told her to use water from the hot tap at the sink. I eventually found the doctor who had been told by the paramedics that my dad had AIDS.
We found him a wheel chair, called a taxi and took him home.
No comments:
Post a Comment