It seems like half an eternity since we landed here just last Monday, exactly one week ago. So much has happened. Yet, we are still in awe almost every day about the care, the enthusiasm, the professionalism, and the kindness Pádraig is being treated with in the Schön-Klinik in Hamburg-Eilbek. They are working in a system that gives them the time to care, that allows them access to the resources they need to do so, and that really fires up their enthusiasm for what they do to really help their patients.

Pat went in a bit earlier, outside the official visiting hours, to say good-bye to Pádraig for a few days as she is returning to Dublin (back soon). When Maria and I went in, we met the Oberärztin (senior doctor) in the corridor for the first time since we had our

introductory chat last week. I asked her whether she and her team had found the opportunity to form a more grounded opinion about his condition. With a broad happy smile on her face she told Maria and myself, that yes – they had examined the amount of cerebrospinal fluid, had done an EEG, and carried out a new CT. She felt the results were quite promising and she described a number of actions they were going to perform over the next week or so to try and wake Pádraig up. She also said that Pádraig had reacted to her asking him to open his eyes and squeeze her hand, and he had done so over two consecutive days, and on two different occasions on one of these days. The nursing staff had made the same experience, and she was going to check with the therapists later on. This senior doctor seems to have a plan and is not prepared to waste any time – she is determined to take small but decisive steps in the one direction to support Pádraig’s recovery.

Later, she joined us in Pádraig’s iso-roome when the physios were there (they come in twice a day most days) and she chatted away to Maria, asking how she was getting on. She then came back to me whispering so that Pádraig couldn’t hear her and said that as he was grinding his teeth quite a bit she had been talking to a dentist who was organizing a teeth protector for Pádraig as the wanted to avoid him doing damage to his teeth. – Imagine!

Maria will be going back to Dublin tomorrow. She is great company and Pádraig will be missing her, no doubt. ‘Frau Dr Schäler’, his newly registered older sister, will come for a visit this coming week-end.

We told the physicians here that there are three beds in the whole of Ireland for patients like Pádraig. We said that, in Ireland, he would have had to wait until July of next year for one of these beds, waiting in a 6-bed acute neuro surgical high dependency unit. We watched the disbelieve in their faces when they heard this. And I am wondering why there is not an uproar rising in the country, shattering the walls of the Department of Health, a Department headed by a minister who is himself a doctor, a minister who publicly states that all necessary services are being provided. I am wondering how rehab consultants in the NRH are tolerating this intolerable situation.

A week is a long time in politics, but it is an even longer time in healthcare, especially when you are in desperate and urgent need of help – a year’s waiting time is intolerable and effectively a denial of treatment to those who most need it.

What’s hot
German music tip: Ina Deter, Neue Männer braucht das Land (1982) [The girls in my Wohngemeinschaft didn’t stop singing this for months! Love the pink guitar!]
The water – and you don’t even have to leave on the immersion!
Kilometres we have driven to-date (since Wed., 13 Nov): 1,342
What’s cold
The weather
Sitting in a small car in the cold trying to find a good internet signal.
Forms from various German administrative offices.