We were on night duty, the two of us sitting at the table under the shaded lamp in the middle of the large Nightingale Ward. When we’d come on duty Sister had given us a progress report on each of the 20 medical patients for whom we would be caring until morning.
By 1 am, when Sally and I went in turn for our meal break, all of the patients were asleep except Mary Wells. She was an 80 year old lady who was in heart failure having had a heart attack; sadly she was deteriorating rapidly. The doctors had given her all the support they could and it had been agreed that in the event of her demise there should be no attempts at resuscitation.
‘You know how Sister hates it when someone dies on the ward,’ Sally said, ‘we ought to move her into a side room to avoid upsetting the other patients.’
Moving the beds around entailed quite a lot noise which disturbed a number of the other patients but within 30 minutes all was quiet again.
Then Sally remembered something else that Sister had said. ‘Always check the patient’s religion; if they are Catholic the priest needs to be called to administer the last rites.’
I dashed to the office to check the notes and to my alarm found that she was indeed catholic. We needed to call the hospital padre urgently.
Sally stayed in the side room whilst the last rites were administered and, never having witness them myself, I asked her what was involved.
‘Well Mary was in a deep coma and quite unable to ask for her sins to be forgiven,’ Sally said, ‘so the priest whispered a lot of prayers for a peaceful transition and for her acceptance into heaven. He anointed her with holy oil on her forehead.’
When the day shift came on duty we explained to Sister what had happened and she responded by saying ‘I didn’t think she was Catholic. Let me check.’
She opened the notes which clearly said she was a Methodist. In my haste in the night I had obviously looked at the wrong set of records.
‘Never mind,’ said Sister, ‘it can’t do her any harm.’
And indeed it didn’t; when Sally and I came on duty that evening Mary was back on the main ward cheerfully chatting and joking with her neighbours!
Quotation
God and the Doctor we both adore
But only when in danger; not before
The danger over ,both are alike requited
God is forgotten, and the doctor slighted John Owen 1563 – 1622
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