The Tribune

TO MY great regret, for the first time in some four years I have failed to produce this column for three successive weeks. This is because I have been laid up in hospital with a broken hip. I should like to write about it today in order to draw attention to the excellent treatment I received at Doctor’s Hospital here in Nassau.

Briefly, early on the morning of November 3, I stupidly and carelessly slipped over on our tiled kitchen floor at home. It was still slightly wet after my wife had dutifully just mopped it down. Nonetheless, it was entirely my own fault. I fell heavily, landing on my side. At first, I put up with the pain and discomfort in my hip, assuming it would gradually go away. But on the third day the pain became excruciating and I had to be taken by ambulance to Doctor’s Hospital.

A fracture of the hip was diagnosed and I was successfully operated on a few days later. I was told that walking on it for a couple of days had only made it worse. But I am now slowly recovering at home and the orthopaedic specialist and surgeon who carried out the operation, Dr Akin Minnis, assures me that, although this was classified as a major operation, in another few weeks I should be up and about and walking properly again. What a relief!

With so much real suffering in the world, my minor misfortune is of little relative significance in the great scheme of things. But, being hospitalised and operated on has been a big deal for me individually since it has prevented my functioning at all these past few weeks.

The care and treatment I received at Doctor’s Hospital was very good indeed. I realise, of course, that other people may have had different experiences, but I can only speak about my own wholly satisfactory one at the hands of Nassau’s leading hospital. It is also the case that such good medical treatment carries a hefty price tag, and this underlines the importance of health insurance for which I have been paying increasing premiums for my wife and myself over many years.

In the past, one had often heard about Dr Dane Bowe at Doctor’s Hospital who has always enjoyed a stellar reputation for his expertise in orthopaedics. When I was admitted to casualty, he was said to be away. But Dr Minnis came to see me on the first evening, followed later by the consultant anaesthetist, Dr Mark Weech; and Dr Bowe was present for the operation and visited me later. One does not have to be a medical expert oneself to be able to appreciate that with these three men one was in the hands of consummate medical professionals. Listening to them inspired enormous confidence that I was going to receive first-class treatment – and so it turned out to be.

Dr Weech explained in detail the workings of general anaesthesia and Dr Minnis went out of his way to describe exactly what the surgery would entail, including a hip replacement but complicated by the fracture – indeed, we had so many interesting talks later about a variety of subjects that it felt we had known each other for years. Not only did his professionalism shine through but he also has a most pleasant bedside manner and even bothered to telephone my wife several times to tell her how I was doing.

I much appreciated all this as well as the attention he has given me during the follow-up recovery period. Doctor’s Hospital have also provided physiotherapy care to speed up the rehabilitation process by forcing me to do the required exercises, and I am finding this to be most helpful.

The other aspect of my eight-day stay at Doctor’s Hospital that I should like to mention was the wonderful nursing care I received – and it made me realise that good nursing as a profession is truly a calling.

There seemed to be a well-oiled rotation system so that faces came and went all too frequently. But, without exception, all the nurses I encountered were unfailingly kind and courteous. They displayed a quiet composure with an air of calm proficiency which was so reassuring when, in advance of the operation, one was lying helplessly on one’s back barely able to move a muscle without an all-enveloping pain taking over. I realise it might be invidious to name names. But I am indebted to one nurse, in particular, who was so kind in offering words of encouragement when I was at a low point during one notably long night. She will, of course, know who she is when I now offer her my eternal thanks and every good wish for the future as she balances her commitment to nursing duties with looking after her new husband and nine-month-old baby.

Now in rehabilitation mode and recovering well, I am fortunate to have a wonderful day carer who comes to the house early in the morning to get me up and in the evening to help me to bed. I am also lucky to have an understanding wife who, as a retired nurse herself, orchestrates things and knows all too well the realities of the human body.

Meanwhile, I have much appreciated numerous telephone calls from friends and their various visits at home as well as the support some have given in fulfilling a number of tasks that arose while I was in hospital. At such a time, all this has been so helpful and a real morale-booster!

I am so glad to have been able to write in positive terms about my experience at Doctor’s Hospital. It is, of course, not intended to be a general assessment of it as Nassau’s leading hospital but simply a brief account of my own impressions over the last few weeks. The care and treatment I received was excellent – and I should like to offer my heartfelt thanks and appreciation to all concerned.