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Week 20 - We send our warmest wishes and big hugs to Sally during a very difficult week

 Edited BY


G P Kennedy

Sally - London, UK 

 So this week is going to be a short and not so sweet one from me but on Tuesday I got a phone call from my mum saying that my dad had felt ill after playing a round of golf, so much so that a friend had to drive him home and he doesn’t let anyone drive his car.


 When he got home my mum rang 111 which is the NHS helpline, not as urgent as 999, but because my dad has had two heart attacks in the past they sent an ambulance out. 

 

 

The paramedics checked my dad over and said he hadn’t had a heart attack but they would like to take him in to hospital to do some tests. My dad being a typical man refused, but my mum made him go.  She couldn’t go with him, as hospitals are still not allowing visitors due to COVID.  Thankfully my mum persuaded him to go as he had a heart attack and arrested in the ambulance and then a further two times in hospital, all three times having to be resuscitated by CPR.

 

 When someone in my family has been seriously ill in the past I have driven from London to Liverpool, which is about a 4-hour journey but this time I knew I couldn’t go home.  I couldn’t visit my dad in hospital and also I didn’t want to expose my mum to anything so couldn’t go and be with her. I was so torn in two as what to do as obviously I wanted and needed to be there with my family.

 

 My dad was strapped to lots of beeping machines and being pumped with lots of medicine for 3 days.  But after having loads of tests done and being given lots of medication to take home, dad was allowed home on Friday. I think the doctors probably think he’s safer at home with just my mum than potentially being exposed to COVID in a busy hospital ward.

 


 I have been FaceTiming them every day, like I had done since lockdown began, just to see how they are coping.  Fingers crossed they seem to be ok!

 

 One other bit of news is that students are getting their A levels and GCSE results this week and next. (I’m not sure what the equivalent is for other countries but its the exams you take at 16 and 18, the latter being the one that allows you into university).  Anyway due to COVID no schools were open for the kids to sit these exams so an algorithm was set up to predict grades. 

 

As usual with our very incompetent government the algorithm didn’t work so many people got grades lower than their mock exams they took at the beginning of the year, which in turn meant a lot of students didn’t get their university places.  My niece was one of the lucky ones and came out with an A* and 2 A’s which means she got offered a place at Newcastle University to study to become a doctor!  All the other students now have to go and appeal their results.

 

Students in Liverpool protesting their grades

 

Apart from that I haven’t really done or seen anything to do with COVID-19 figures in my area or the rest of the UK as I don’t think I can take stress this week.

 

Stay safe people and look after your loved ones.

 

Sally x

 

 

 

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