Fourteen years ago today, my family and I had to make the decision to turn off my father's life support.
The decision was not a difficult one, because all of his organs had shut down, after his brown snake bite had been incorrectly treated, at the Gladstone Hospital.
My father had applied the correct first-aid to his snake bite wound, which was confirmed by the ambulance paramedics who met him halfway to the hospital.
When he arrived at the hospital, it was like a comedy of errors, from the second he was wheeled through their door.
He knew, after the staff's first mistake, that he was going to die. He told my mother as much. Such was the enormity of that first mistake.
The hospital staff told my mother not to worry because they had never lost a snake bite victim.
He was, after more mistakes, put into an induced coma and flown to Royal Brisbane Hospital.
He never woke from that coma and two weeks after he was bitten, we made the decision to let him go.
He was 57 years of age.
After a lengthy court case, my mother was paid a large compensation payment, after it was proved that he had died as a result of the hospital staff incorrectly treating him.
It didn't bring him back and it didn't take away her anger, but it did allow her to have a comfortable lifestyle during the eight years that she lived after his death.
One of the conditions of that compensation settlement was that Mum wasn't allowed to discuss the case with the media or speak publicly about it.
However, 'I' can tell you ... don't go to the Gladstone Base Hospital if you are bitten by a brown snake!
I think we will always feel a little bit angry about the unnecessary loss of our Dad.
There has been too much sadness in my blog over the last month, so I would like to end this post on a more happy note.
I went to visit the original three baby owls, whose photos I posted here a few weeks ago and they are almost all grown up!
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| The third baby was further along the branch pretending to be just that .. a branch! They are growing so fast! |
There were Heron, Spoonbills, Cormorants, Ducks, Water Fowl and Ibis. They were the birds that I could see. There were smaller birds but I couldn't determine what they were from that distance.
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| Cheelii Lagoon and a little hidden pocket of birdlife. |
I'm ok in the air conditioned comfort of the house, but tomorrow is the big trip to Maryborough and it's always hotter there by a couple of degrees.
We have survived the fourteenth anniversary and I can't believe it's been that long. I wonder how he would have felt about being a great grandfather?
Wish me luck for tomorrow!
Nite all.
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