.....Daniel's Saga.....

Are you sitting comfortably....then I'll begin.

Dad fell on Saturday....neighbours called paramedics...paramedics examined him and said he was o.k. just a few bumps and bruises and a tiny cut....but the neighbours insisted he should go to hospital ....the upshot was he spent Saturday night in hospital.

Saturday Dad began to complain about a sore wrist....a neighbour who obviously has x-ray eyes declared a broken arm...despite the hospital x-ray showing nothing.

Monday the pain was worse and the wrist had begun to swell....the neighbours made him ring a taxi and go to the out of hours doctor at 11.30 at night.He was examined and given pain killers and antibiotics for suspected cellulitis. Dad phoned me to tell me he'd been to A&E at the hospital and got a prescription!

Tuesday morning I phoned Dad to remind him he needed to go to the hospital pharmacy to get the prescription filled......at this time I didn't have the full story and believed his version of Monday...rather than the true version and the out of hours centre.

Tuesday afternoon dad got into a taxi at 4.00 ....and vanished! The neighbours got twitchy about 6 and phoned my sis. She let herself into dad's and discovered he'd gone out in jogging bottoms and a sweatshirt...and hadn't taken his mobile phone. One of the neighbours told her that Dad had mentioned a hospital appointment....although he hadn't mentioned it to her or me when I phoned him.....another neighbour mentioned that Dad had said something about flowers for mum's grave.

My sis phoned the hospital....they had no record of an appointment for Dad....and no record of him attending any clinic...or even arriving at the hospital. She phoned me....I told her what I knew....next to nothing...and we decided to phone the police. By this time he'd been gone 5 and a half hours and it was gong dark and the temperature was dropping..... the police informed us that he wasn't officially missing until he'd been gone 12 hours but they promised to look into it because of his age.

Two coppers came to Dad's house to talk to my sister about relatives in the area etc and then they set the wheels in motion.... a car went to the cemetery...two others went to parts of the town where relatives lived...a copper contacted the taxi firm who confirmed they had taken him to the hospital...so he went to the hospital to view the CCTV footage.

We got a call from my sis at 11.30...he'd been found....in bed 10, ward 32 of the hospital!

She drove to the hospital....Dad told her the hospital had sent the taxi for him because he had an appointment....and then they'd just admitted him!....and then he went ballistic with her for phoning the police and making a fuss!

She phoned me to tell me this at 1.30 a.m!

I phoned work to tell them I wouldn't be in this morning and got 5 hours sleep....and then drove up to dad's. The bungalow looked like a bomb had hit it....at least 5 days worth of washing up....piles of clothes everywhere.....food packaging stacked up in the kitchen I tidied up, did the washing up, threw out the rubbish, put a load in to wash, packed him a bag, and sorted out some change for him. Drove to the hospital. They didn't want to let me onto the ward.....but I explained the long journey...and my tiredness...and the fact that I wasn't impressed with them losing him last night....so they directed me to room 12. He wasn't there....eventually we tracked him down to room 10!

He was pleased to see me....but then launched off about the police and last nights episode...he didn't seem to see why any one was worried....and he couldn't remember who his appointment was with.....but he was adamant that the hospital had sent a taxi for him......and when he arrived he was made to sit in reception and then just hauled up to the ward.

I had a word with the staff....they knew nothing about an appointment...or why he had been sent up to them....but they confirmed that he had had a CT scan and he was receiving IV antibiotics for cellulitis...and was likely to be in for 4 to 5 days.

Me being me I looked in Dad's notes, but didn't see much as they hadn't been completed.

Went back to Dad's, ate, put the washing in the dryer....and then went back to visit. My sis came too.

We looked at his notes again...they had been completed....and it was like Billy's weekly liar!

We discovered............
he had an appointment at the fracture clinic...on Monday at 9.30 but he'd missed it
he had phoned for the taxi on Tuesday himselffor an non-existent 4.30 appointment
he had been seen at the fracture clinic...they had spotted the cellulitis and referred him on
the hospital had told pork pies about having no records of him being there at 4.30
he has told them dozens of fibs about how good he is at walking, looking after himself etc

This is going to take some sorting out.

At least there was one bit of good news today....we are going to be grand parents again in December!

It's just gone midnight, I'm weary...but wide awake...I think it mght be the three energy drinks I had today.

Das vidanya moy padruga.