Thankful Thursday: An Eventful Journey

Eventful day or what?  9.30 Wednesday morning UK time (and over an hour from landing at Heathrow)  we had finished breakfast - fresh fruit and yoghurt was my choice (as airline catering goes in my experience Air New Zealand does it well).  Shortly afterwards I felt decidedly odd.  In fact I felt nauseous and decidedly ill.  I decided to retire to the rear of the cabin out of public gaze and near to the cabin crew and toilets and more space and air.  Apparently I looked even worse than I felt and the cabin crew were exceedingly concerned.  By this time I was too unwell to care.  Tash (presumably Natasha) was assigned to take care of me and I was given oxygen.  A potential heart incident was suspected.

When we landed I realised the full extent of their concern when everyone was told to stay seated and a team of para-medics, firemen and police arrived and came up to the rear of the plane.

By this time I was relatively compos mantis and wondered why firemen and police.  Firemen to lift me out above everyone’s heads had it been needed because getting the ambulift in place takes time.  Police because I was travelling alone and next of kin needed to be notified in the event I wasn’t fit to give consent to any procedures and, presumably, in case I was travelling on a non-UK passport or perhaps even a forged one and knew that I'd be bypassing Border Control.  The paramedics were brilliant and within minutes I was hooked up to all the monitoring devices.

I must have been really popular with everyone who thought they were delayed.  In fact the plane had been given priority landing and taxing onto it’s stand so everyone was, in fact, earlier.

Let me say at this stage that how I felt had absolutely nothing to do with food or food poisoning!

I spent the next 4 hours at London's Hillingdon Hospital A & E.  Contrary to what one hears so often about the National Health Service my observations of that particular A & E is that it was run exceptionally well indeed with constant prioritising and re-prioritising taking place.  In my case whilst nothing initially appeared to be happening in any organised way it soon became obvious to me that all the tests were being carried out in a very organised and logically scheduled and efficient manner.  By the end of the 4 hours before I was discharged I had had numerous tests and even the results of the blood tests were available when the doctor paid his final visit.  I won't go into the details of what had happened and caused me to feel so ill but the Doc assured me that there was no medical evidence of any underlying problem (ie that my heart was fine).  What it came down to was that the medical issue was caused by exhaustion and lack of sleep.  That'll teach me!

So today I am exceptionally thankful for:

• The cabin staff's diagnosis, treatment and attention which undoubtedly prevented a potentially far worse outcome;
• All that Tash did for me when I was unable to think properly and couldn't have cared less what had happened;
• The kindness and efficiency of the para-medics, the police officers, the air-crew and the Air New Zealand station manager at LHR;
• The ambulance crew who looked after me and ensured that all the non-medical things like instructions from the ANZ station manager on what to do when I was discharged and my cabin luggage and things were kept with me;
• The staff at Hillingdon Hospital's A & E (the biggest I've ever seen) who impressed me greatly.
• The fact that I'm alive and well.
• And finally the fact that I didn't have to think about what to write for a Thankful Thursday post this week!

For all of the above this was just one tiny incident in their professional lives.  By now it will have been forgotten.  For me it was slightly more than that.  What has made me feel very humble is that not one of those people with whom I came into contact made me feel anything other than I was their most important concern at that moment.  I will always remember that.