2010's final kick in the nads.
Dec. 30th, 2010 05:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
askygoneonfireI feel like I can hear those frantic early morning phonecalls, as though I was there in the car as they raced across the county to reach the hospital in the dead of night.not knowing what would meet them.
S, you silly bugger.
Through a series of non existent circumstances, S's girlfriend and I never exchanged mobile numbers; why would we need them? She sent me a message on facebook just as soon as she could. I didn't pick it up until last night and, shaking, I phoned her.
It was simultaneously worse and better than I expected; he was being kept in for a few days, he has swelling on the brain but he was not in a chemically induced coma and had eaten twice that day. I offered her everything I could - lifts, company, food, cat sitting, love.
Went to visit today and very nearly had a breakdown trying to find which building I needed to be in at the Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham which has apparently adopted a very relaxed approach to signing buildings - you get to know what floor the department you want is on, but not which building it is in. Not to mention signs outside pointing in opposite directions for the same places. FUCK IT.
Eventually found the right building, began my hike around the corridors and was very nearly foiled trying to get into the ward by a locked door and no indication of which of the many buttons I should press to get in. Was saved by more visitors turning up behind me.
S seems....ok. He was occasionally a bit confused and very, very lethargic. But we - there were 6 of us visiting when I was there - managed to raise a smile and a few times a laugh from him so I'm not despondent. He's pretty bashed up but nothing like I expected - if he'd fallen through a hedge he probably wouldn't look much worse.
Discussion turned, as he slept, to the crash itself. He can't remember anything, and I mean ANYTHING. I asked him what the last thing he remembers is; he doesn't remember. One of our friends, Jay, drove around to try and find where the crash happened - the police have recovered his vehicle - and took pictures of the site in the hope it would give us all some clue. It looks as though he skidded on mud, ploughed off the road, across the verge and into the ditch where the van carried on sliding along on it's side until it hit a tree.
As yet - the police may be able to tell us - nobody know what time he crashed or who found him. It is certain that he was there, unconscious, for some time before he was found. It may have been half an hour, it may have been 2 hours - there is a window of about an hour and a half in which it is likely he was driving home from work - again nobody knows what time he actually left - and there is a roundabout time at which he was found based on when his girlfriend received a text from a fireman she knows telling her they just pulled her boyfriend out of a wreck.
That he was alone for so long - and could have been for much longer had someone not stumbled on him on a back of beyond country road does not bear thinking about. Intending to go back tomorrow, either just to visit or to make myself useful and give his seriously sleep deprived girlfriend a lift home so she can shower and maybe sleep - tonight will be her second night on a chair and
It feels as though we've all suddenly come terrifyingly close to tragedy and simultaneously feels like it's not really happening.
S, you silly bugger.
Through a series of non existent circumstances, S's girlfriend and I never exchanged mobile numbers; why would we need them? She sent me a message on facebook just as soon as she could. I didn't pick it up until last night and, shaking, I phoned her.
It was simultaneously worse and better than I expected; he was being kept in for a few days, he has swelling on the brain but he was not in a chemically induced coma and had eaten twice that day. I offered her everything I could - lifts, company, food, cat sitting, love.
Went to visit today and very nearly had a breakdown trying to find which building I needed to be in at the Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham which has apparently adopted a very relaxed approach to signing buildings - you get to know what floor the department you want is on, but not which building it is in. Not to mention signs outside pointing in opposite directions for the same places. FUCK IT.
Eventually found the right building, began my hike around the corridors and was very nearly foiled trying to get into the ward by a locked door and no indication of which of the many buttons I should press to get in. Was saved by more visitors turning up behind me.
S seems....ok. He was occasionally a bit confused and very, very lethargic. But we - there were 6 of us visiting when I was there - managed to raise a smile and a few times a laugh from him so I'm not despondent. He's pretty bashed up but nothing like I expected - if he'd fallen through a hedge he probably wouldn't look much worse.
Discussion turned, as he slept, to the crash itself. He can't remember anything, and I mean ANYTHING. I asked him what the last thing he remembers is; he doesn't remember. One of our friends, Jay, drove around to try and find where the crash happened - the police have recovered his vehicle - and took pictures of the site in the hope it would give us all some clue. It looks as though he skidded on mud, ploughed off the road, across the verge and into the ditch where the van carried on sliding along on it's side until it hit a tree.
As yet - the police may be able to tell us - nobody know what time he crashed or who found him. It is certain that he was there, unconscious, for some time before he was found. It may have been half an hour, it may have been 2 hours - there is a window of about an hour and a half in which it is likely he was driving home from work - again nobody knows what time he actually left - and there is a roundabout time at which he was found based on when his girlfriend received a text from a fireman she knows telling her they just pulled her boyfriend out of a wreck.
That he was alone for so long - and could have been for much longer had someone not stumbled on him on a back of beyond country road does not bear thinking about. Intending to go back tomorrow, either just to visit or to make myself useful and give his seriously sleep deprived girlfriend a lift home so she can shower and maybe sleep - tonight will be her second night on a chair and
It feels as though we've all suddenly come terrifyingly close to tragedy and simultaneously feels like it's not really happening.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-12-31 01:55 am (UTC)Remember to take care of yourself as well.
Good luck to him.