I'm pleased to be telling you all that Frank was much better today. He is no longer on a ventilator and is able to breathe by himself.
We were able to spend around 45 minutes with him and although he's not quite ready to run the London marathon he was looking good. He's still wired in to all kinds of machinery although the important ones (i.e. the mechanical ventilator and inter aortic balloon pump) have been removed so his heart and lungs are working completely on their own.
He is still weak but was fully conscious and coherent. He was very chatty and even cracking the odd joke - he was hungry and tried to explain to the Italians that he wanted a 'Full English'. Needless to say they didn't agree that double egg, sausage, bacon and beans (with a side of fried bread) was the best course of action. But they did give him something out of a jar which looked suspiciously like baby food. Apparently this is standard practice as he's not allowed any solid food for 24 hours after he's been taken off a ventilator...much to his dismay.
He had no recollection of our visit yesterday although both Mum and I had great delight in telling him about his reaction when we mentioned Elizabeth's name!
The medical team seemed happy with his progress and all being well he should be moved onto a standard ward sometime tomorrow (just in time to reap the rewards of this year's bumper spaghetti harvest! :-)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
We were sorry to hear about Frank on our return from holiday. Please assure him of our prayers and good wishes for a full and speedy recovery.
ReplyDeleteVery sorry to hear about Rev Beech. I knew him when he was chaplain at Welbeck. Pass on my regards and well wishes to him. I very much miss his sermons he did in chapel. Always informative and frequently very amusing!
ReplyDeleteAlan JM Armstrong (Faculty of Physics at Welbeck DSFC; Loughborough)