April Fool's Day. What a day to be admitted as an emergency into St.George's hospital on Hyde Park corner, it is now the Lanesborough Hotel.
The old house was demolished in the early 1800's and the new hospital was completed in 1844.
The old house was demolished in the early 1800's and the new hospital was completed in 1844.
But, of all of this she was unaware! She was admitted in the darkest hours before morning with blue lights flashing, her temperature off the scale and her marvelous GP, Dr. Arthur Unwin, dressed in an overcoat with his pyjamas on underneath!
Diagnosis.. Acute Renal Failure.. three words that strike terror in your mind! And this, Dear Readers, was years before the days of 'Key hole surgery'.
Her surgeon to be was Mr. Guy Williams a renal specialist but with a temperature as high as hers, he couldn't operate and anyway, he didn't know yet what was causing her kidneys to fail.
But Matron had seen this before and dealt with it like only a QA trained nurse could and would.. QA stands for Queen Alexandra and their full and official title is Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps.
She called Billingsgate Fish Market, explained the situation and asked them to send over a long slab of ice. It duly arrived and mama was wrapped in a blanket and a layer of tin foil and placed upon the ice to break her temperature.
It did the trick and she was whisked off to xray to have an IVP.. intravenous pyelogram. Magic stuff this, they injected her with an iodinated substance which showed her left kidney had a massive stone stuck in it and the canal leading out of the kidney was full of smaller stones and 'gravel'.
St.George's was a teaching hospital as well and just before they injected her with her pre-med, Guy, which is what she had been told to call him, explained to students the following.
"Acute renal failure of the left kidney caused by kidney stones. Now, look carefully and what do you see? What you should see is that the patient sunbathes, she wears a bikini, she's young, she'll want to sunbathe again in a bikini, so you or in this case I, must do my utmost to make the incision as neat as possible and not to leave her with a horrendous scar".
And with that he patted her on her shoulder and said.. "everything is going to be ok so don't be frightened, Arthur will be with you when you wake up".
And he was, for Guy let Arthur 'scrub up' and be in theatre to watch the operation and he came back up with her and sat by her bed.
So these were the two good guys!
She had six weeks of recuperation to do and they kept her under their 'eagle eye' at St.George's.
And, in those days, there was no such things as a mixed ward, oh no! She was in Ward 1 on the first floor overlooking Hyde Park and after a couple of days of being very sleepy and slightly sore.. she sat up and took notice of who was in the ward with her.
The woman opposite was truly amazing.. she was obviously incredibly well known and loved by hundreds of people for she was never without visitors who swarmed in bringing bottles of champagne or other alcoholic drink. Her name was Muriel Belcher.
Another woman, very elderly, but truly delightful was on the side nearest to the window and when she wanted to stretch her legs and look out of the window, she would potter off dragging her drip and chat with her. Her name was Lisette Withers.
Somebody got a visitor to bring packs of cards in! So there were lots of crazy games of Canasta, Gin Rummy and Racing Demons which had them all in hysterics.
One day it suddenly turned chilly and Lisette said "Oh, it's snowing, how beautiful", so they 'jumped' out of bed like kids and went to watch as Hyde Park became a winter wonderland, but the noise alerted Sister that something was amiss and she came in to see, to her horror, all the occupants of Ward 1 out of their beds watching the snow fall.
"What do you think you're all doing? It's far too cold to be hanging around the windows, get back into your beds immediately", there was nothing politically correct or soft about this nursing staff!
"But Sister, it's snowing" came the cry and her response was... "and all of you are over 10 years of age, get back into bed" and she left the ward before she started to laugh!
Then Constance appeared! And after checking that her youngest unmarried child was alive and getting better, was a delight to have as she was allowed to come and go as she pleased and this meant that she got to know everyone on the ward.
And one day, she was sitting chatting to Muriel when two men with very well known faces came to visit.. one being George Melly and the other Peter O'Toole!
"No no no, stay, they're just naughty boys who miss me" said Muriel as Constance got up to leave
"but someone get more chairs and do bring Lisette over, she hasn't had a visitor for a couple of days and I know that she's a bit sad as Googie, her daughter's gone to Australia"
So it was George who explained to Constance what Muriel had meant about the naughty boys missing her, for Muriel was the owner of The Colony Club, aka known as 'Muriels', an infamous drinking club on Dean Street.
And Lisette was the mother of Googie Withers and grandmother of Joanna McCallum, both very fine actors.
She never met Lisette again after she was discharged but was told "that you've got to come and have a drink with me child when you get out of here and bring Constance, the men all love a pretty face" by Muriel when she was discharged.
And she did, she remained in contact with Muriel until her death in 1979 and Arthur was her GP until he retired. And she exchanged April cards with Guy until his death in the mid '90s.
You see, you can meet wonderfully extraordinary people everywhere! Just try not to have to do it in a hospital!
GeeGee Parrot.
March 6th, 2018.
No comments:
Post a Comment