Sensing Spaces of Healthcare

I remember… I went to hospital recently. While I was waiting I read my book & had some vending machine chocolate. I felt very comfortable there and the doctors were very kind.

I remember… I had my tonsils removed. When I woke up from the anaesthetic, I couldn’t eat very much. I don’t actually remember very much even though I have a good memory, I just don’t think I was very interested in the hospital as an early teen

I remember… Being in the infirmary with a perforated ulcer, I couldn’t eat after the operation … A Spanish nurse used to make fortified drinks for me which helped a lot. It later transpired I was nauseated from the pain-killers I was being given but I always remembered the nurse & the drinks!

I remember… My mum was a nurse (dual heritage – white & Nigerian) & worked in the NHS. She worked in Liverpool & often was a bridge between communities. For example, one patient (geriatric ward) called out ‘gari’ and the other nurses dismissed him because they thought he was calling out ‘Gary’ and he had no family. She pointed out he was asking for Nigerian food.

I remember… Going to hospital as a 9 year old to visit my dad, in a hospital I ended up working in. Whenever I passed the window where he would wave to us from the ward, and would always think of him, which would make me sad as an adult as I was older than him then (he died of cancer). As part of his treatment he got transferred to a hospital (1971) in a different area … We went to visit him on the respiratory ward – the other hospital was a workhouse but this one was modern – it seemed very airy. The windows seemed bigger with lots of sunlight, the workhouse one seemed to me as a child to be dark. I didn’t like leaving him there. If you go to 5 hospitals in a 10 mile radius, they all have a different atmosphere and their own way of doing things.

I remember… I was studying in London, I was a student & was asked to be an interpreter for someone from the Middle East with leukaemia. The doctor, in the corridor as people walked past, said “can you tell this person they are going to die?” I did not tell him in the corridor, I took him to the medical attache to tell him, I didn’t have the courage!

I remember… When I was in hospital in the 1980s, people would come around with crafts to do. Making cards, I remember cutting things out. I don’t know if health & safety would allow it now!