The last time I attended the emergency department of Wollongong Hospital was back in September 2012. I had taken my mate Bob there to get looked at. Unfortunately, his time was soon to be up and he left us 10 weeks later. So when my mum rang me at 3pm on Friday afternoon to tell me that she had called an ambulance for my father and that he was on his way to Wollongong I thought to myself here we go again. This thought lingered, whilst I waited to be permitted to see him. … Never a good sign. They told me they were getting him settled… Yeah Right

Thirty minutes passed and I was permitted to go through. This time I was greeted by a doctor at the entrance to a room separate from the rest of the emergency department. Another ominous sign. He told me that he was in a bad way and that they were just trying to get him settled. He had a bad infection somewhere and they had just pumped him with everything they had. He allowed me to enter. My father looked like he was possessed by some demon. His temperature and blood pressure were through the roof he clearly had no idea what was happening. The Fever had him.

It wasn’t long after first entering that the Doctor looking after him, Denson introduced himself and proceeded to ask me “THE QUESTION”. For those who haven’t been in this situation before. “THE QUESTION” is….If something further where to happen or go wrong with your loved one, how far would you like the medical staff to go? It’s quite standard practise these days. For me, there was no hesitation. You do whatever it takes. Break ribs stick tubes in whatever… you do it. He’s been in hospital before but never in this type of situation. I felt it would have to be first time lucky for him.

Over the next four hours, some 6 doctors came to asses my dad. They concluded that there was a stone lodged in one of the ducts that runs between his Bladder and Liver. They felt that this was the most likely cause of the infection that was terrorising his 75 year old body and that it had most likely been festering for about a week.

Approximately 7 hours after arriving steps where being taken to have him go into surgery. The on-call surgeon was on his way along with the anaesthetist and two theatre nurses. It was around this time that a nurse stepped into the room. Up until this stage it had just been myself,my dad,Jenny the Gem(Champion Nurse) and the doctors who were treating my father.

She cast a gaze over the room which had room for another two patients. Turned to Jenny and said.

Its about to get very crowded in here.