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And it wasn't your fault ?

I have always been the same; the phone rings and I have I answer it.

Although rapid over six yards, the result is rarely pretty. A grown man wearing just one sock and his boxer shorts around his ankles, now breathing heavily and spitting out the word, ‘’hello’’.

There usually follows a pause lasting five seconds as the caller ponders the possibility of my being in the middle of doing something he would rather not know about.

He takes a breath and drives in at the deep end.
I don’t quite catch all of the conversation, but it centres around medical negligence, and/or any accidents in the last six years.

I had just broken the world record over six yards, and for what ?
I looked down at my ankles and in trying to pull at my boxer shorts I can’t help thinking about my other sock.
How do they always manage to place themselves in a position that’s almost impossible.
How does a sock manage to wrap itself around a kitchen light.
Note to self ( edit that last bit later )

He tells me that I don’t sound very well, which I find mildly amusing. Here is a man called Abdul, calling from an Indian call centre in Mumbai, and within thirty seconds he has correctly diagnosed me as being unwell.
In contrast, twelve British doctors, six nurses, two psychiatrists, and an overzealous lollypop lady living only a few miles from my house, still can’t decide.

He thanks me for not telling him there is ''someone at the door.'' How did he know I was going to say that next.......

‘’Are you sure you’ve never had an accident Sir, never been injured and it wasn’t your fault, medical treatment that wasn’t what it should have been ?’’

There was a pause, one that usually lasts five seconds.

Actually, yes Abdul, I have been a victim, I am still a victim, and it would seem I am to be a victim for the foreseeable future.
I was given antidepressants in very high dosages for thirteen years, when I didn’t need them; told I was suffering from hysteria when I wasn't;sent to see a psychiatrist who told to get out more;abandoned by the medical profession;told that the illness I had was because I refused to let myself get better.

I lost my job, my home, my self respect, my family, and most of all, the life I once had and the life I had yet to lead.

‘’We will send them a letter, informing them of our intention to instigate legal proceedings on the grounds of medical negligence. Could you give me the names and addresses of those involved ?’’


Professor Simon Wessely, Kings College, London, and Peter Denton White of Queen Mary, University of London.

Comments

Brilliant. I'm now reading your backlog of excellent expositions. Makes me wish for a bigger vocab just to praise you. :)
 
I am always soooo glad today's phones are NOT the ones predicted in the 70s, with the camera view of the speaker. I would be in so much trouble with scenarios like this one!

Hey, you answered... right? I don't bother half the time, catch the caller later. Too much effort to get to the cell phone, wherever it is.

Amazing how the person gets blamed for illness, isn't it. Your losses are poignant and mirror others' loss.
 
Thanks Quilp, always get a lot out of your posts and blogs. Sp much pathos in everything you write...
 
Lol, the thing with the phone, almost a carbon copy of me. Either I am right on the phone (its next to my computer) or it takes more than six rings to reach it. I always say to people to stay on for at least six rings. Quite often I get to the phone at about the point they hang up. Or I answer instantly, and get hit with "that was quick".

Though I have never had a sock wrapped around a kitchen light. ;-)
 

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Quilp
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