'If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans' is a well known adage from the Bible, and we have all experienced the truth behind it at different times in our lives. Monday was one of mine!
I was donating a Cindy doll house full of furniture and accessories to a family with three small girls aged 8, 6 and 4. My grandchildren had long grown out of it and as it was well used it was only worth the pleasure it could bring to another generation of children. I had found the children's mother via a neighbourhood App and we agreed a time for her to collect it. When she arrived I liked her immediately. She was thrilled with the doll house and said she would send me pictures of her children playing with it once it was set up. She also made a great fuss of my small dog, saying she loved dogs and had two of her own.
We carried the doll house and the boxes containing the furniture out to her car, which was parked a short distance down the road despite my driveway being clear. It was slightly odd but I thought no more about it after she said it wasn't necessary to move the car, and I walked down the road carrying two bags. Her husband was standing beside it with a large dog on a rope lead, again slightly odd as it wasn't a big car and there were a lot of boxes. I assumed, however, that they were going to take it for a walk before they went home as we live opposite a big field popular with dog owners.
I've owned and been around dogs of all breeds, shapes and sizes all my life so, as any responsible dog owner would, I asked her if I could say hello to him and, when she said yes, held my hand out, fingers safely curled under, for him to sniff. Unfortunately he wasn't interested in sniffing. Instead, with absolutely no warning, no flattened ears, bared teeth or any sign that he was angry or scared, he reared up on his hind legs and lunged at me. His master couldn't hold him back and before I knew what was happening he had taken a chunk out of my upper lip and gouged my nose. There was a lot of blood!!
Now stitched up, I am recovering entirely thanks to the English National Health Service (NHS) which is really what this post is about. Free at the point of delivery since 1948 it has, for many years, been extolled across the world...until recently. Now, every newspaper seems to find a daily criticism and the new UK government is telling everyone it is broken. It is NOT!
I was treated with nothing but kindness from the moment I entered the Accident & Emergency Department of our local hospital. I was given a tetanus jab and a very strong dose of intravenous antibiotic as an immediate precaution as dog bites are known to cause infection. This was followed up with a 7 day course of equally strong antibiotics and, after cleansing and dressing the wounds, an appointment was made for me to attend the Plastic Surgery Unit of another hospital at 9.30 the following morning. I was also given packs of gauze, dressings and a wrapped pair of sterilised scissors in case I needed to use them during the night.
By 1.30 the following afternoon I had been stitched up by a very clever and kind Plastic Surgeon who has assured me all will heal with little if any scarring. Before stitching he doused my lips in so much antiseptic wash I was grateful to be covered in plastic sheeting. He then applied more antiseptic cream before even starting to stitch. What was particularly clever was the way he used a marker to draw my lip curve before he gave me a local anaesthetic. This, he explained, was to ensure he stitched it back into the correct shape. Before I left he double checked all my meds and gave me additional antiseptic cream to use for 7 days.
And it is not only me who has received such prompt treatment. My husband had a very successful hip replacement last year within 2 months of first seeing a doctor and within 6 days of an appointment with the orthopaedic surgeon. So not the long waiting list for him that is so often referred to in the news. And neighbours, and friends in different parts of the country, have all received similar efficient treatment from nurses and doctors who have been unfailingly caring and professional. Some for broken bones, one for osteoporosis, one for oil burns, several for suspected heart problems only one of which proved to be an issue, but all of whom received electrocardiograms anyway to check the symptoms. I could go on. As well, we receive regular texts from our local surgery asking us to make appointments for flu and COVID vaccines plus now another one for a respiratory virus called RSV. All free. No waiting. Yes, I know we pay our taxes and I know it is becoming increasingly expensive for the country, something that needs to be dealt with, but when we are at our most vulnerable we don't need to stop and think. We know we will be seen and treated.
Now I am not naive enough to think that all hospitals and clinics are the same. I know that some will be inefficient and that there will be less caring nurses and doctors, because that is the same in all walks of life. Waiters, shop assistants, police personnel, administrators, chief executive officers (CEOs), anyone in any role can either be excellent, good, moderately okay, poor or dreadful. What is not fair, however, is that the excellent are conflated with the bad so that the whole system is considered to be failing. It is not fair to the huge numbers of medical staff who are doing a good job and it frightens the population as a whole.
Oh and the woman who came to collect the doll house, and who I liked immediately...she has disappeared! She's no longer on the Neighbourhood App and, as I had no reason to ask for her address and phone number until the accident, at which time I was too busy thinking of other things, I cannot contact her. All I hope is that she protects her three little girls from what is very obviously an out-of-control dog that is far too big and strong for its owner. The thought of what it might do to one of them doesn't bear thinking about.
At the insistence of the medics I reported it to the police but with only a name to go on it is unlikely they will be able to do anything. So my message is, however much you like dogs, think twice before you make physical contact, and don't believe everything you hear about the NHS! It might no longer be the best in the world but it still does what it says on the tin. It's an ever constant, free at the point of entry, caring national health service.
