Category: Nursing/medical reminiscences

How well I remember my first sight of Marilyn, wearing her pristine pink overall as she bent over the deep ward kitchen sink; arms and elbows deep in soap suds.  Never was the phrase ‘they have a face as if they are chewing a wasp’ more appropriate; indeed she looked as if she had not only chewed the […]

Within a few days of qualifying as a doctor in the 60s, I found myself working overnight in the Casualty Department of a large city hospital.    These were the days before emergency medicine emerged as a specialty and had permanent medical staff.    The initial management of the most acutely ill patients was initiated by […]

Alan was a four year old boy who had been on the children’s ward for several weeks. His strength was slowly slipping away. On his ‘good’ days, he would play with the other children, enjoying the toys and teddy bears that they invariably had – but he had not. On his ‘bad’ days he was […]

Mrs Meek was a big woman. She was loud, domineering and opinionated – all in all an intimidating woman who certainly wasn’t ‘meek’ by nature. She had been admitted with abdominal pain but bitterly resented having to be in the main ward and she wearied the nurses with her constant demands and criticisms. She also irritated her […]

Elsie’s committed suicide in the hospital bathroom. She bought the razor blade in the shop downstairs and by the time the nurse found her the water was as red as the body was white. The bathroom door’s locked now, but Elsie’s still inside, and the nurses are whispering in corners when they don’t think we […]

Scene; the Nurses Home, Manchester Royal Infirmary, 1970 In those days, men were strictly forbidden to enter any bedroom in the Nurses Home and, unless you had a late pass, nurses had to return to the Nurses Home before 10 pm. One morning, a cleaner entered a nurse’s room and, shock horror, found a man […]

Name the meals These are all popular meals, the clues are given as the initial letter together with the number of letters in the word. Example S5 A3 K6 P3 would be Steak and Kidney Pie T4 I 2 T3 H4 I 5 S4 B5 B5 O2 T5 C3 A2 V3 C7 P6 (though some […]

The next patient’s problem was apparent to anyone with a sensitive nose, long before the team arrived at his bedside. The smell was that of a putrid decomposing, animal carcase. Powerful and offensive, the odour drifted freely down the ward, undiminished by the deoderant that had been placed on the bedside locker. It was the […]

Brian was in his fifties and recovering from a heart attack but he also had mitral valve disease and was an ideal patient for teaching students. He enjoyed being the subject and the centre of attention. I introduced him to a group of undergraduate students and took them through the basics of history taking before […]

I had just taken delivery of a Triumph TR 2 Sportscar. It wasn’t new, of course, but it had still cost me the best part of a year’s salary.  Low, sleek, and streamlined, in British racing green, with wire wheels, it was my pride and joy. Whenever off duty, I spent my time waxing the bodywork, […]