Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Last week I had this letter published in a local paper

"I was not surprised to hear about the lack of security in RNSH’s Morgue and no that I.D.’s being asked for when bodies were removed.

When our eldest daughter went to RNSH some time after my husband Don’s death (May 2007), I had phoned the X ray dept the day before (from Port Macquarie) to say she was coming to pick up the records. These records were very important for us to see as there were about 50plus X rays and CT scans. We had previously written and asked for and were given permission to access and receive his all records, due to the nature of his death and time spent in RNSH, but the X rays didn’t turn up.

When she went to pick up the records at RNSH she just said her name and they were all handed over - no ID at all. She was quite surprised and alarmed. I could have been anyone ringing in and she could have been anyone picking up original records. Those very important original records could have just disappeared into thin air had somebody wished them to and perhaps it hasn’t happened but it is extremely likely it could happen.

Not good enough again RNSH. RNSH has far too many “Human errors” and not enough accountability. We have to hope that this is not a state wide problem."

But today this story broke - I am still shockable even though I think I have seen and experienced the worst suffering possible - my heart breaks for this family.

Body 'forgotten' at Royal North Shore Hospital

  • Body moved from morgue for family viewing
  • Worker forgot to take it back again
  • Found days later because of bad smell

HOSPITAL staff checking on a bad smell have discovered a body left to rot after being forgotten about for four days.

The man's body had been moved from the morgue in Sydney's Royal North Shore Hospital to another room to allow his family a viewing, but a morgue worker forgot to return it afterwards.

The viewing took place on a Friday. The body was found on the following Tuesday.

The man's brother has told the Sydney Morning Herald he was contacted by the hospital when the terrible mistake was noticed.

''They told us he had been left out of the freezer and I can't say we were terribly happy about it,'' he told the paper.

He said he was keeping the grim news to himself because it would too distressing to other family members.

The ABC quoted a hospital spokesman as blaming the incident on "individual human error".

The spokesman said staff had been strongly reminded of correct procedures when handling dead patients.

New South Wales law prevented corpses from being left unrefrigerated for more than eight hours when being viewed by next of kin."


This is the bastard of a place I have been working hard to expose after they collectivelly through "human errors" tortured and then killed my husband, along with too many other people. All they keep saying is "Human error" and then nothing changes because no one cares enough.

Whatever you do and whatever happens to you Do not ever go to Royal North Shore Hospital if living in or visiting Sydney - there is something terribly wrong inside that place. Its almost as if the building and culture inside that place seems to "infect" people working there -



Monday, September 28, 2009

A Practical woman just like me!!!

Sort of -

I love it



Sunday, September 27, 2009

The Snake was still in the house - 2 days later

and i just saved it...I am so pleased with myself. The poor thing was just worn out and had not much fight in it - so got the cat away from it again - she had hunted it out from behind my filing cabinet and i just came out in the nick of time. I have a stout snake stick that i use if i walk about coming on dusk - amid it has a nifty split branch on the end...so was able to get the snake in between the two branches and it didn't fight at all...took it outside where there is water and trees and of it went...a little scarred but okay...I didn't think I would have the guts to do this, but it honestly was a really pretty and quite placid snake once the threat was gone...

What to do with a killer cat...when even a cat bib doesn't stop her?
(see earlier post for clarification on cat bibs)The latest on "Tiger" has me looking over my shoulder and being very careful where i poke my hands an
d feet.
On Friday afternoon - I was talk
ing on the phone (again) with a daughter - when there was a scuffling noise at my feet under the kitchen table. At first I thought it was a black snake till I saw the small head, and lighter colour - bugger me she'd landed a one metre long tree snake at my feet and it was all over the place...as was I. I grabbed the cat by the tail (sorry cat lovers, no choice) and had to fight her off the snake which was lashing back at both of us now. She got flung unceremoniously onto the bed and I shut her in there. I had a horrible smell on my hands which I found out later is what these snakes do when badly threatened. How this cat managed to bring inside the house a one metre long snake is a mystery. I think she might have super powers.

When I came out the snake was n
o where to be seen. I was hopeful he had gone out the door but checked under and around everything. After a while I went up to let the cat out - into the house not outside) and saw a tree snake crossing the path near the bedroom window.

Happy ending!

Till all of a sudden the cat went crazy and came charging up the hall towards me with the snake in mouth and it was fighting to get fr
ee...I grabbed her again and the pair of us went into another room and shut the door...I know they are not poisonous but you do what you do when things happen fast - I opened the door and its on the outside, so thought I'd throw a few magazines i had in its general direction so it'd go back down the hall and outside...but it started sitting up...


these are a petty snake really and harmless but when you find yourself in this position all the primal snake fear takes over.

Then instead of going outside the s
nake went into this room where i have my computer and tonnes of books, boxes and nooks and crannies enough to hide a whole family of snakes...

So nights coming on and its not poisonous enough to call the wildlife people - I am sure they'd hoot with laughter...but a metre long snake still is a snake.
I put both cats out in the verandah room - Cuss the good cat and bloody Tiger - the bastard delinquent. How to get the snake out of the room? how to find it actually? So I closed all the doors to all the rest of the house, and opened the front door so it could get out - risky at this time of year as others can come in...

I very carefully opened the door to this room and with broom in hand entered...quiet... nothing but s bit of a rustle in the boxes behind the door - not going there people. I switched on some music on full bore - snakes are supposed to hate noise - but this one seemed to like the bagpipes...no go.

Then another daughter on the phone (the daughter who gave me this cat!!!!) suggested standing outside the window with a saucepan and spoon and bang it a bit...which I did being desperate...

That night I locked myself in my bedroom to sleep, and closed the door to this room in the hope the snake could be dealt with the next day...

It was never seen again. But the cat seems very interested in the corner of that room so am unsure...I keep expecting it to drop from a light fitting or a fan blade...snakes like water so check the toilets well... I just can not see how it could have gotten out past me...

Its a bit unnerving at times out here - but i love it - snakes and all

The snake I saw was dark on the back like the one below and am thinking that the other one i saw on the path might be its mate. This one wasn't all that thin and was close to the full length they grow to -



Green Tree Snake
Photo: C & D Frith
Australian Tropical
Reptiles & Frogs
Green Tree Snake (Dendrelaphis punctulata)
    • They are arboreal, thin, whip-like and very agile.
    • They are by far the more abundant and widespread of the tree snakes.
    • When provoked, the snake will make itself larger by inflating its neck and fore-body, stretching it so that the blue skin between the scales can be seen.
Markings:
  • The colour of the underparts varies from blackish to bright blue, green, yellow, grey or a shade of brown or tan.

Habitat:

  • These snakes are found in the northern tropics and eastern Australia.
  • If handled, this snake can produce an unpleasant odour and will bite for a final attempt at defence. Yet, its teeth are tiny and the bite is harmless, as the Green Tree Snake has no fangs.

Diet:

  • The Green Tree Snake eats small reptiles and frogs (engulfing them head first) and even the occasional fish.

Size:

  • The average male grows to slightly over one metre in length, but has been recorded to reach two metres.










Posted by Picasa

Thursday, September 24, 2009

The big dust storm had all the state in a flap yesterday.


It didn't take too long for those with short memories to claim it as another example of "Climate Change"...they are getting so desperate they claim everything as climate change these days. I remember in the 1960's when I spent most of my childhood that i can recall, I remember many dust storms; summers so hot your feet felt first ice hot and then burning cold, such was the shock when you walked barefoot on the tar, or cement. I remember huge cracks in the ground and the whole seven of us having to use the same bathwater... and no I wasn't way out west...this was in the beautiful dairy farming part of the upper Hunter valley NSW...

so this morning if it did take me from 5am till about after noon to clean up inside and out, I spare a thought for those who do this regularly and not with a broom and hose as i did - but starting with a shovel on the verandahs.

I found it hard to breathe, having had a few doses of Pneumonia as a kid...my lungs are my Achilles heel, but how much more so must it have been hard for the elderly, kids with asthma, people like Don with Quadriplegic lungs etc...

There were even some tossers pictured jogging in the dust laden air...so dedicated to keeping the arms and legs running they they risked their lungs and hence their heart...crazy stuff.

These days to question Al Bore's version of the world to come is akin to heresy and that worries me, consider this, - Gore who has become Godlike and infallible has been found to have some glaring errors in the "documentary" An Inconvenient truth - which is treated like gospel by school teachers and without double blind research or any scientifically accepted statistical research - is basically the textbook (or text DVD) which is being drummed into our kids heads as the ONLY truth and this is dangerous.

How many of us heard about the court findings mentioned below - and how many of us realised that film footage of the icebergs breaking away into the ocean as evidence of global warming...were taken of normal seasonal events but the commentary was added to what was normal events to alarm people watching into thinking Armageddon was on the way. Also its not "Carbon" trading or credits - we are talking about CO2 so Carbon Dioxide Credits etc should be the term but hey not catchy enough...

"From
October 10, 2007

Al Gore told there are nine inconvenient truths in his film

 Al Gore

Not everything Al Gore says in his documentary is a proven fact

A High Court judge today ruled that An Inconvenient Truth can be distributed to every school in the country but only if it comes with a note explaining nine scientific errors in Al Gore’s Oscar-winning film.

The Government had pledged to send thousands of copies of the film to schools across the country, but a Kent father challenged that policy saying it would “brainwash” children.

A judge was asked to adjudicate between Stewart Dimmock and the Department of Children, Schools and Families. Mr Justice Burton ruled that the film could be sent to schools, but only if it was accompanied by new guidlines to balance the former US vice-president’s “one-sided” views

The judge said some of the errors were made in “the context of alarmism and exaggeration” in order to support Mr Gore’s thesis on global warming.

He said that while the film was dramatic and highly professional, it formed part the ex-politician’s global crusade on climate change and not all the claims were supported by the current mainstream scientific consensus.

He went on to list those errors:

Error one

Al Gore: A sea-level rise of up to 20 feet would be caused by melting of either West Antarctica or Greenland “in the near future”.

The judge’s finding: “This is distinctly alarmist and part of Mr Gore’s ”wake-up call“. It was common ground that if Greenland melted it would release this amount of water - “but only after, and over, millennia.”

Error two

Gore: Low-lying inhabited Pacific atolls are already “being inundated because of anthropogenic global warming.”

Judge: There was no evidence of any evacuation having yet happened.

Error three

Gore: The documentary described global warming potentially “shutting down the Ocean Conveyor” - the process by which the Gulf Stream is carried over the North Atlantic to western Europe.

Judge: According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), it was “very unlikely” it would be shut down, though it might slow down.

Error four

Gore: He asserted - by ridiculing the opposite view - that two graphs, one plotting a rise in C02 and the other the rise in temperature over a period of 650,000 years, showed “an exact fit”.

Judge: Although there was general scientific agreement that there was a connection, “the two graphs do not establish what Mr Gore asserts”.

Error five

Gore: The disappearance of snow on Mt Kilimanjaro was expressly attributable to global warming.

Judge: This “specifically impressed” David Miliband, the Environment Secretary, but the scientific consensus was that it cannot be established that the recession of snows on Mt Kilimanjaro is mainly attributable to human-induced climate change.

Error six

Gore: The drying up of Lake Chad was used in the film as a prime example of a catastrophic result of global warming, said the judge.

Judge: “It is generally accepted that the evidence remains insufficient to establish such an attribution. It is apparently considered to be far more likely to result from other factors, such as population increase and over-grazing, and regional climate variability.”

Error seven

Gore: Hurricane Katrina and the consequent devastation in New Orleans to global warming.

Judge: There is “insufficient evidence to show that”.

Error eight

Gore: Referred to a new scientific study showing that, for the first time, polar bears were being found that had actually drowned “swimming long distances - up to 60 miles - to find the ice”.

Judge: “The only scientific study that either side before me can find is one which indicates that four polar bears have recently been found drowned because of a storm." That was not to say there might not in future be drowning-related deaths of bears if the trend of regression of pack ice continued - “but it plainly does not support Mr Gore’s description”.

Error nine

Gore: Coral reefs all over the world were bleaching because of global warming and other factors.

Judge: The IPCC had reported that, if temperatures were to rise by 1-3 degrees centigrade, there would be increased coral bleaching and mortality, unless the coral could adapt. But separating the impacts of stresses due to climate change from other stresses, such as over-fishing, and pollution was difficult."

Much is made of the melting of Ice in Greenland and surrounds - for a long time now it has been mainly snow and Ice but once people farmed there and lived there, BECAUSE THE WORLD WAS WARMER MUCH WARMER...

There are two written sources on the origin of the name, in The Book of IcelandersÍslendingabók), an historical work dealing with early Icelandic history from the 12th century, and in the medieval Icelandic saga, The Saga of Eric the Red (Eiríks saga rauða), which is about the Norse settlement in Greenland and the story of Erik the Red in particular. Both sources write: "He named the land Greenland, saying that people would be eager to go there if it had a good name." (

At that time, the inner regions of the long fjords where the settlements were located were very different from today. Excavations show that there were considerable birch woods with birch trees up to 4 to 6 meters high in the area around the inner parts of the Tunuliarfik- and Aniaaq-fjords, the central area of the Eastern settlement, and the hills were grown with grass and willow brushes. This was due to the medieval climate optimum. The Norse soon changed the vegetation by cutting down the trees to use as building material and for heating and by extensive sheep and goat grazing during summer and winter. The climate in Greenland was much warmer during the first centuries of settlement but became increasingly colder in the 14th centuries with the approaching period of colder weather known as the Little Ice Age." and 15

It alarmed me to hear so many commentators conveniently use the day of dust as some sort of proof or warming which is an unnatural warming. I wonder how on earth the earth survived at all because right down the great dividing range in Australia there were in ancient times many volcanoes which were constantly smoking or erupting and this was happening world wide. Life existed...and just a few of those volcanoes put out more CO2 into the air than all the cows farting and belching, than all the industry etc does today. I do believe major moves to clean up the industries which emit toxic chemicals from the smoke stacks of industry need to be addressed and as a priority - but how will a tax on us make that happen. I think some people have had just a bit too much fluoride in their water if they think our Government either Federal or state can be trusted to put the money they will take from us all with the new taxes.... (which will be on top of the GST...) to any worthwhile cause. What doesn't get eaten up in the towering and top heavy tiers of bureaucracy which seem to be endemic these days...will disappear as have the GST . In NSW it costs between 3 and 4 dollars a day to "feed" public patients...and you should see the sickening crap they feed them. But it costs $11 to package and transport that so called food. The Garling enquiry which i took part in found that over half of NSW public hospital patients were malnourished and some were starving. I have personal knowledge of this fact... taxes into the black hole of no accountability. Once our lotteries funded our hospitals and we had the world's best in the 1960's and early 70's... that money seems to just get swallowed up by a voracious system which shows no accounting at all. Now our hospitals are in dire straits -

When I was having Melissa in 1974 - I worked in the kitchen of Newcastle hospital...The meals were cooked in the kitchen under the wards only a short time before mealtime. Potatoes, pumpkin etc and real meat/chicken, fresh eggs, and plenty of it - were prepared, put onto ceramic plates...cups of tea were served in ceramic mugs or cups...real knives and forks...


it was environmentally much more an aware way than the tonnes of packaging that every hospital produces with all the take ways packaging, cutlery, cups etc which serve up frozen and barely thawed inedibles...the freezing and transport also is very environmentally wasteful.


We all talk about the environment today as if we have so much more understanding that the poor old rednecks from the 60's...but when I got the groceries for mum with her string bags, the flour and sugar etc was put into brown paper bags - which were reused for lunch bags - the milkman picked up the empty bottles for reuse... a holiday meant a visit to relatives not a polluting plane trip to some place where they are poorer than us and so we can get bargains..

The bastardry which stuffed up too much of the farmland often came not from the dairy farmers etc...but was advocated by educated boffins from the department of agriculture who advised DDT and deildrin etc to be used if you wanted your crops to be acceptable by the new supermarkets which began to spring up...my own dad handled with bare hands the poisoned carrots for killing rabbits - no warnings at all that this stuff was 245t a major ingredient in Agent orange... Its a given too many trees were cleared but when the understanding was made that this land can't be farmed like Europe because of the thin soil and the lack of rain...farmers in the '70's began to change themselves because the farms meant something to them - they were home...not a business. The good changes seldom come from up top...the good changes usually come from the ordinary people...pollies never act - they react. What they are reacting to these days has all the danger and fervour of zealotry

Garrgh... I get so bloody annoyed when such a normal for inland people event as a dust storm has those commentators most of who live in the comfortable coastal cities wringing their hands and crying Apocalypse.


I feel a bit better now










Thursday, September 17, 2009

Enough Bush Tucker for even the most fastidious cat - ME!!!

After the incident with the cat - Its all happening here folks! - I was outside talking with my daughter on the walk around phone and spotted this big weed in the rose garden. Rather than walk around the other side of the fence I decided to stick my arm through the railings to pull It out.



I got stuck! I wiggled and twisted but couldn't get my arm out - lucky I was talking with Alison - I said "Don
't hang up or anything - I might be stuck here." Then it occurred to me that had this same thing happened to me minus the phone connection, I might be stuck here for days before anyone visited..."Woman (middle aged - to lessen my importance) found with arm stuck in fence, dead - face eaten off by cats and covered in snake bites..."

I wiggled about some more and realised i was really stuck - down on my hands - no make that hand and knees - talking with Alison - for some reason i started to laugh - I am someone who would laugh like this at my own execution - seeing from outside the situation - once i start laughing like this i am bloody useless.






So I looked abo
ut me and thought I might be looking at this view - up the verandah and down the verandah for some time...

















After a while in which I panicked - I finally relaxed and then with Alison egging me on had another go - twisted very painfully and FREE at last... still very sore and worse for wear but hey...
How easy a normal day can end up being something else...like a night spent on the cement hoping someone would come - knowing they wouldn't and that it would be at least 24 hrs before anyone thought to even enquire...

Silly old chooken... I am sitting pretty now with a glass of De Bertolli's (no not the same as we gave to the Pope..Il papa) cask Columbard Chardonnay - and happy to be doing so ...it could have been so different.
Posted by Picasa
Tiger's new "Cat Bib"

Tiger is almost a "feral" tame cat. Her bird killing was becoming a problem so much so that i was going to try and find a new home for her - we have so many birds here. MY youngest found out online about a thing called a Cat Bib - Now she can't catch birds - while I was filming this she had a swipe at a little honey-eater which landed above her - in a pot plant - it was almost as small as a blue wren...ah got such a start and had to move just in case it didn't work - that I accidentally turned the camera on its side - she's really pissed off now she realises she can't get any more winged tucker.
After that she got another moth and a lizard's tail - its like she can't stop herself - then she just crashes. Whereas Cuss doesn't even bother - happy with the food she has - I guess just like people - all different.

Friday, September 11, 2009

She turns 35 today!!! Happy Birthday Melissa

Brand New in 1974















A little older
































Long long ago!!!

















And at 15 (on left)

Wednesday, September 09, 2009

Again from the archives...these two photos were taken about 1987.

The first shows my younge
st sister Jackie about to do the birthday candle bit - Alison on the right aged 9 and her little cousin are watching with bated breath... at the time of taking this photo,
I noticed my mum sitting back from the table on a stool in the top left and swung the camera up to her only to be rewarded with the most wonderful laugh...she had no idea I had focused on her and was in her own private heaven no doubt laughing at things the rest of us were unaware of. And no, the
glass of wine was not hers... mum never... not ever ... not even once tasted any alcohol - although she didn't mind others doing so.
She died not too long after this... aged sixty six - but this is one of the favourite memories and photos that I have of her.
I know why mum wasn't sitting down at the table with others...mum would not push herself forward and if she saw the seats were full was happy to take a back seat with no resentment and no hurt...


She lived so much in the present having been diagnosed in her late 40's with end stage Cardiomyopathy and told she could die at any moment and suddenly- which was what happened... )she was not found for a few days after she died - something i still have nightmares about), but knowing this didn't turn her into someone who was fearful or felt sorry for herself...the last photo here of her means a lot to me because
it shows,( as with how Don was) that being sick, or facing death - didn't mean being self absorbed, or sorrowful or dark - she still carried light with her. Mum was normally in laughter...she always saw the ridiculous in life ...and revelled in it...I have been so lucky to have such a mum
. I still recall her telling me when I was about 9 not to be angry with people who were cruel because they were "just ignorant".... not bad for the mid 60's. And No mum was not part of the "blue rinse set" she had dark black /blue hair when we were kids - like many celts - and only faded a bit as she got older but retained the blue tinge...
Posted by Picasa

Sunday, September 06, 2009


From the Archives for Father's day.

Every picture tells a story. This beauty was taken in mid 1974...when I was 19/20 and obviously pregnant with our first baby. We were unmarried of course...it was the times. Although Mum grew to love don this photo clearly shows her "doubts" as our plans for the future were being blithely discussed. I seemed blissfully unaware of the mood about me...and surprised to see a glass of red wine in the photo as alcohol was the first thing that made me sick during pregnancy. I know my eldest sister took this, and also know that wherever she went she would bring the latest wine discovery or strange new food.


It's always amused me to see how studiously Don is eating his sausages and determinedly has his eyes to his plate - no doubt hoping not to be hit with any hard questions from Mum

We had no plans, not much money at all, although we always worked and little grasp of the thoughts no doubt rocketting about in my lovely very catholic mother.

She needn't have worried. Don turned out to be all she could have hoped for in a son in law. When we were able, which was only a few years after this he was quick to help mum where he could. Before his accident he would always get work done in mum's large yard, or fix what he could that needed fixing. When Mum and I were inside talking and having endless cups of tea, don would be outside doing something. He didn't come for a holiday, like a lot do, he came for a visit - there is a vast difference. After his accident we went over at his suggestion he funded a big clean up and clear out of stuff that mum admitted she was drowning in. The house was just becoming too much. When she finally moved over near us this continued. I think Don saw Mum's need, not just because he also suffered poverty and uncertainty in childhood, but because he had an open and warm heart and hated to see anyone suffer. There are not too many sons in law who cared as much as Don about their mother in law, and not just saying that they cared, but by actually doing things selflessly year in and out with no mention nor accounting and expecting no praise.


When we visited and she visited us I would hear them laughing out loud about this and that, quite often at my expense over some little foible or quirk that i had.

He saw the kindness in Mum and she soon saw the same qualities in him.

But in this photo we'd only known each other about 18 months. Mum never worried about the "shame" of an unmarried daughter being pregnant...that wasn't ever mentioned...she just worried...because she didn't know Don and didn't know if he would stick around.

He did. So Happy Father's day Don. Happy Father's day to all the dads out there, the grand dad's and great grand dad's.




Posted by Picasa
Just out of interest "Things are not what they seem"



Friday, September 04, 2009

Elderly patient left on bedpan for days

KATE BENSON

September 4, 2009

AN ELDERLY man is being treated for a life-threatening infection after he was allegedly left on a bedpan for as much as five days in a Sydney hospital, the Herald has learnt.

The man, 80, from Gladesville, was forced to undergo two bouts of surgery after the green pan became embedded in his skin, causing massive ulcers on both buttocks and leaving him with a hole at the base of his spine big enough to fit two fists.

The Herald understands the man, a patient at Concord Repatriation General Hospital since early July, has limited English and was not able to inform staff the bedpan had not been removed. It is believed his family was told of the incident only two weeks after the pan was discovered and his buttocks had become severely infected, requiring surgery to debride the rotting skin.

The man was admitted with pneumonia and spent 19 days in intensive care and about seven days on a cardiac ward but it is believed the pan was discovered after he was transferred to a respiratory ward in early August.

The incident raises serious questions about whether the man, who was immobile, had been turned regularly to prevent bedsores, was washed or had his sheets changed during his time on the cardiac ward.

The hospital has refused to answer detailed questions on the case, citing patient confidentiality, but one senior staff member disputed that the man's injury had been caused by a bedpan or that he had been left unattended for up to five days.

He said it was still unclear how the injury had occurred or who had been responsible.

The man has two long incisions on each buttock and a big open sore near his sacrum, but he must sit or lie lay on the damaged areas because his pneumonia prevents him lying on his stomach.

He was moved into a single room with an $8000 mattress yesterday after the Herald contacted the hospital.

A spokesman for Sydney South West Area Health Service said the hospital was taking the claims seriously and had apologised to the family for any distress caused.

''The possibility of a patient being left on a bedpan for the length of time suggested is implausible. Patients who are confined to bed are regularly and routinely turned and provided with pressure-relieving treatment to prevent bedsores,'' the spokesman said.

Lillian Jeter, from the Elder Abuse Prevention Association, said the case appeared to be one of ''severe negligence''.

''If this allegation is true, this man was subjected to significant elder abuse and mistreatment in a public place where he should have been getting care.''

Kate Benson is the Herald's Medical Reporter”

I sent out letters to the editors of as many papers as i could about this. it is just sickening and makes my flesh crawl.


"The shocking instance of the elderly man left on a bedpan for days and having to have the pan surgically removed inside Concord hospital should be the last straw for all thinking and feeling people. Again this instance of brutality against a frail old man only surfaced because it was so shocking. How many almost as bad lie hidden because they haven’t caught the ear of the media?

In this instance not just the nurses to be called to account. The elderly man was in hospital with Pneumonia. Therefore he must have been seeing a doctor daily and Physio a couple of times a day. Cleaners, Nurses, Doctors, Physios and right up to the CEO should be called to account for this neglect.

The smell must have permeated the whole unit. No one would have been unaware and because of that they are all accountable. Was he not fed, at all? Did no one clean his teeth, brush his hair? I know in RNSH hospital when my husband was there that sheets and pillowslips were seldom changed, teeth seldom cleaned, but the neglect of this man is breathtaking.

Why is gross medical neglect any less a crime than assault? When will patients and relatives be able to go to the police and claim assault and other against such shocking abuse? Why because it is "Medical" is there no accountability? The NSW Health Care Complaints Commission is a joke and has no teeth at all nor the will to bite.

In NSW you are on, your own should you be injured or killed by medical assault. Its time that patients and relatives had the same rights to justice as every over person does in NSW when they are injured or killed with gross neglect and carelessness. Medical should have no claim to any moral high ground when at all levels in NSW hospitals such instances are usually covered up, the relatives quitened or worn down by a broken system, and for all the high tech they can’t even avoid pressure sores, or remove a bed pan."

Sisters!

These are two of my four sisters. It was my eldest sister's birthday yesterday and she sent me these photos of another sister giving her a pressie. Its funny how your mind misses things. I was looking at these last night, and totally missed the third party on the lounge chair. I mean he's there and quite colourful but my mind only took in my sisters. This morning I had another look and started to laugh and laugh. Only Veronica would have something like this sitting on her lounge - not for the kids or whatever, but because she likes it.

(MMMM he does look interested doesn't he)

I thought about these two (my sisters and not the gremlin) and looked at how happy they are. Veronica is now 59 and works very hard as Renal Dialysis nurse. Life hasn't been easy for her in any way. Joanie also lost her husband earlier this year and is grieving - yet barely a day goes by when I don't get or make a phone call to either or bot
h of them and we talk through how we are feeling - not being afraid to cry on the phone, not afraid to shit stir the other one a bit if needed, not afraid to share happiness, fears and mundane things like the cats fighting at my feet.
I have the same relationship with our two daughters and without this life would be bleak. It doesn't matter what we have or how much, or who is right or wrong - its the people in our lives that matter. In my life, and I know in these two sisters and my children we have few family close - actually none at all - so the phone is the link, the lifeline . We seem to be a family which although loving just scattered to the winds...all five of us sisters living hundreds of KMS apart...same with our daughters.
Veronica will begin a morning phone call with "Good morning petite Fleur!" (Mum called me Therese after St Therese - the little flower) and finish with "Piss off" when we've had enough - so I get in "No you piss off" and whoever gets in the last curse wins a bit. I love this silliness usually at 7am...lucky I am a morning person - always have been. I remember when i used to share a bedroom with another sister...the piano was in our bedroom...and at about 7am I could be found thumping away on it blissfully while she suffered my musical excesses with just the top of her head showing...finally I'd be off and out and she'd stay there till about 11am. We are all made differently.

Joanie used to come on with "Its just me" and after a time she dropped the "Just" because I would have a go at her and say nor "Just Joan" but "Its Joan". She has had a dreadful year and will still have to face the trial of the man who killed her husband, an Inquest still to be held and other things as well as a move away from the neighborhood - which will be a good thing because finally two of my sisters, the ones above will be living in the same town.

This last week I have struggled with tears which seem not to want to stop. Going down the street has become a nightmare because I don't know when it will start again - it just happens. I know in the months after don died there was so much to do that apart from at home I didn't lose it much in public - but now I just seem as if I can't stop. I'm not worried about it - it just is - a state as is birth, childhood, joy, being married, a mother etc such is the state of grieving.

But what its made me do is really truly appreciate those people around me who care enough, who have empathy and who have been kind. I find it easy to act in kind towards them...because and I have found this people seem to fall away when you are not a "couple" any more.

Most of you will have suffered some form and degree of grief, its as sure a state of being as is birth - The times I find it hardest is when there is hurt delivered. Instead of its just being a minor thing, which you can flip off your shoulder, when you are already hurting and damaged, a hurt delivered is made worse by grief. - it hurts more in other words.

I have noticed a change in attitude many acquaintances don and i knew. People who would come up to the pair of us in the street and stop for a chat seem to barley nod, and then only after I actually say "hello". It could be that some of them didn't appreciate the stink I raised when Don was killed by the Hospital - as i have been very quiet publicly apart from that.

Yesterday I just wasn't ready to go home - the nights are just too long. So went for a cup of coffee and a read of the papers...something I like doing. As I walked in I spotted what used to be a friend of Don's and another at a table. After Don died he came over to me once and said with tears in his eyes how sorry he was. I watched this same long time friend cross the street to avoid me when i was gathering names for our petition. I saw him take the long way round rather than go past me...I wasn't imagining this.

So yesterday I just nodded to him and said hello as i passed to my own table. No response at all. Later as I left I just said "see you later" something I do to even shop assistants - its just a form of good bye. Nothing. No response at all. We have known this person since about 1984. Not to worry - but yesterday I was just feeling so fragile. I had trouble leaving the coffee shop and making it to the van before I burst out crying.

It came on top of my being excluded from a small gathering of very close friends on the lamest excuse...not my imagination again. Even if there was the remote possibility of my social calender being over full (?) even to be invited with the hope I might say know would have been easier to handle.

My sisters and daughters were shocked at how this one went. No details here...
I am luckier than some. Many people have actually no one they can talk with ...mine may be at a distance but I know that they are there at the end of the phone when i need them and vice versa.

I don't know what it is but have heard people from broken relationships talk about how most of their friends disappeared...but this is different.

But in the reverse, yesterday I went to Pilates, and the teacher noticed I was upset. She was so kind that it made me more upset. But she said to me "don't ever not come because you are upset...the session will make you feel better" and she was right. I left that place remembering all the good people that there are in this world, who don't know me from a bar of soap but give kindness, because they are kind - like you guys...the odd shopkeeper. There is a woman my own age who's name I don't know, (I am embarrassed that I can never recall it and now not game to ask) when she sees me in the shops she comes over and just gives me a hug - thats all and off she goes.

Being an Aquarian - I find myself sort of analysing why we act the way we do...reflecting on how I may affect others, on how I present. On maybe there are reasons for my exclusion. Most days I go out and about with a smile and hello. Mum's greatest complaint about me as a child was that I would talk to anybody known or unknown. I am over careful about not talking too long. I never just turn up at anyone's place. I never invite myself to a person's place but wait for the invite. we had too many visit when we lived in town, unannounced and just plop for hours on end, so am aware to be a good visitor...

Its really only in here that I express fears etc...I hardly ever talk about these to others apart from close relatives.

I have been considering a move...but where to. I love this place, my house, the land and the peace. I feel really safe and peaceful here. I have never really liked Port Macquarie - its a bland sort of place. I have lived here since 1976, got involved to try and make it a better place to live in, alongside Don. We fought for decades in areas of social justice, accountability etc and our home was over full at times of people folding letters, making posters. I could leave tomorrow and I doubt it would be noticed...not that it really matters...its a good life lesson in ego and not having too big an ego about the idea that you actually matter at all to most.

But I do matter to Veronica and Joan and they to me. I do matter to Melissa and Alison and the reverse of course. They have been my rocks. So after all the above, I realise I am much luckier than many people, but human enough to feel hurt and thats okay as well. Just got to make sure I don't dwell on it and can get the control back that i need to flick away the little hurts that don't really matter in the long run.

Mum used to say when i asked her about certain things...if they mattered etc...She said "Ask yourself , does it really matter in the long run". She was as usual right. What matters in the long run are those people about me that I can show kindness to...and how I act towards others who are having a bad time of it. In the long run it is the people who matter. In the long run there are people who once were important but who I need to let go of as we go our separate ways in life. One day I will understand the whys and wherefores...for now I have just got to be stronger and not allow silly things to upset me as I have been doing lately.
If anyone got this far they are indeed dedicated Hahah
Posted by Picasa

Tuesday, September 01, 2009



what can I say