Germany surprises.

There is the weather – today it’s 31 degrees celsius in Pforzheim and my weather app is telling me that it will get even hotter tomorrow.

Then there is the way they look after people with a severe acquired brain injury. One family who is here with their son told me that this is the level of therapy their son receives per week when they are at home (note that a ‘unit’ is 45 minutes) – I know every injury and every person is different, but their son and Pádraig are not that far apart. The way it works is that their GP prescribes the therapy and their public health insurance pays, with them selecting the therapists. It’s similar to what Pádraig received in Hamburg and what I had passed on to the NRH when they asked me what treatment Pádraig required.

• Physiotherapy: 3 units
• Physio ATG (Atemgymnastik – Breathing): 4 units
• Speech and Language Therapy: 2 units
• Occupational Therapy: 3 units
• TOTAL: 12 units

In Dublin, we couldn’t get the specialists in the NRH’s National Brain Injury Programme to tell us how many hours of therapy Pádraig requires.

I know, we won’t be able to change the weather. But there are things we can change.