Like all good stories, this is a long story. I will try to keep it short.

Julius Caesar managed to invade Britain, mainly because the British soldiers under Cassivelaunos stop fighting every day to drink hot water (with a drop of milk). They also  don’t fight on weekends. After all, there are more important things in life than the Romans. Caesar, being the observing and ingenious Feldherr that he was, quickly took advantage of this weak point of the English natives and regularly ordered invasions of England at 5 o’clock in the afternoon, on weekends, and during bank holidays. He occupied the island in the north of Europe, with the exception of a single village that remained independent, defying the Romans. According to the history of the Roman invasion of Engelland by Goscinnin and Uderzo, One member of the village, Anticlimax, is dispatched to Gaul to enlist the help of Getafix, the druid, in providing magic potion for the British rebels. It is decided that Asterix (Anticlimax’s second cousin twice removed) and Obelix should accompany him back to his village to help transport a barrel of the potion. Which is where we leave the story for the time being, because it gets very complicated when Asterix and Obelix beat up a Roman galley on the British Channel…

Whatever is attacking Pádraig must be of Roman origin. Because these attacks regularly happen around teatime and at weekends: his oxygenation goes down and secretions increase. The “potion” he then gets from the doctors and nurses who want to help him fight these attacks are antibiotics and a ventilator. This is what happened over the past weekend. We thought the Romans were winning the war, but remained, like Gaul, unbeaten. Thankfully, today, on Monday, the warriors were back and precautionary measures were toned down again. The Thekla is back, the precautionary antibiotic will be given over only four days. The respirator again kept for absolute emergencies.

Again – and do not forget: one of the most amazing concerts of the year is coming up. It will take place this coming Wednesday:

Ceolchoirm ar son Phádraig i gColáiste Eoin

Wednesday, 7 February at 8:00 p.m (doors 7.30)
Among these musicians are:
– Liam Ó Maonlaí
– Na Casadaigh
– The Bonnymen,
– Skipper’s Alley
– UCD Choral Scholars
– Grúpa Siansa Choláiste Eoin & Íosagáin and the young musicians of Coláiste Eoin.

Thank you to the organizers for all their hard work, to the musicians for their enthusiastic support, and to all who will attend!

Today’s German Music Tip
Karat, Der blaue Planet (1982). A band with a mission. Like the Puhdys, Karat is an East German band.
“Tanzt unsere Welt mit sich selbst schon im Fieber?
Liegt unser Glück nur im Spiel der Neutronen?”
What’s hot
Gauls and the little village in England
What’s cold
Romans
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
Draufgänger

Twitter: @forPadraig
#caringforPadraig
http://www.caringforPadraig.org
Upcoming events: http://www.caringforPadraig.org/events

Things take on a different meaning when you experience them in a different context. Has it ever happened to you that you tell a story a couple of times to different people, and it provokes the same predictable reaction? It has the same effect, and the effect you want to achieve. And then, something changes. All of a sudden, this story that you have told so many times, provoking the same reaction, the reaction you wanted to achieve, this story that you know so well and you know how to tell, is taking over. It acquires a life of its own. It’s like as if it decided to leave you and acquire a personality. To interact with the world and to influence the course of life, time and history. This has happened to me.

I used the story of Skyfall, probably the best James Bond movie of all times, and Adele’s song, probably the best James Bond score of all times, to tell people about changes in the localization industry (that’s where I have worked most of my adult life). Now, the day of Pádraig’s accident, I gave a talk entitled ‘Skyfall’. In Sanya. Exactly 12 hours time difference with Cape Cod. – Listen to the song, and the lyrics. They are a bit apocalyptic. But they also stress solidarity and are full of hope for a new beginning.

Let the sky fall
When it crumbles
We will stand tall
Face it all together

For the past seven months and a bit, I could not listen to this song and its opening lines. again. Tonight, I listen to them in a different way: no matter what happens to you in life. No matter what happens to Pádraig. No matter – even if the sky falls. We will stand tall  (and if you know Pádraig, you know what ‘tall’ is). We will face it all together.

I did not know, and I mean this, what “Face it all together” meant, until hundreds of people got together to help Pádraig (and us) facing what has felt like sky fall.

Pádraig today was fine, until the nurse turned him and his oxygen levels dropped to a point where they decided to get the respirator back into action. It felt like sky fall. How often can you move ahead, stop, move back, move ahead, stop, ….? But I know, no matter what happens, even if the sky fall, we will stand tall, together.

My thanks, and that of my family, to Eileen and her friends, our friends, Pádraig’s friends for a fabulous night at Na Fianna. It certainly was a very different table quiz. With a humbling generosity demonstrated by people from all walks of life: old friends, new friends, young ones and those almost as old as us! – Eileen wrote a report about this extraordinary night and it’s up now here.

Finally, one of the most amazing concerts of the year is coming up. It will take place this coming Wednesday:

Ceolchoirm ar son Phádraig i gColáiste Eoin

Wednesday, 7 February at 8:00 p.m (doors 7.30)
Among these musicians are:
– Liam Ó Maonlaí
– Na Casadaigh
– The Bonnymen,
– Skipper’s Alley
– UCD Choral Scholars
– Grúpa Siansa Choláiste Eoin & Íosagáin and the young musicians of Coláiste Eoin.

Thank you to the organizers for all their hard work, to the musicians for their enthusiastic support, and to all who will attend!

Today’s German Music Tip
Konstantin Wecker, Empört Euch (2011). Beschwert Euch, Wehrt Euch, Liebt Euch, und widersteht. Es ist nie zu spät. (“Wir brauchen Spinner und Verrückte, wir sehen doch, was passiert, wenn die Normalen regieren.”)
What’s hot
Standing tall
What’s cold
Sky fall
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
Widersteht!

Twitter: @forPadraig
#caringforPadraig
http://www.caringforPadraig.org
Upcoming events: http://www.caringforPadraig.org/events

43 Tables. Around 200 people. Some sitting in the corridor because the hall was full. I am waiting for eye witness reports, but from what we have heard so far, it must have been an amazing table quiz night yesterday! Thank you for those who organized it and to those who attended it.

DON’T forget the upcoming concert in Pádraig’s secondary school, Colaiste Eoin with some of the coolest Irish Music bands around.

Everything was ideal. Though we should know by now that ‘ideal’ doesn’t exist.

We went for coffee, and when we came back Pádraig was on a ventilator. His oxygen level had gone down from nearly 100% to 88, for no apparent reason. What followed was the routine procedure to make sure he had neither another pneumothorax, nor an embolism: ECG and x-ray. On his left leg, there is not a plaster showing where they are measuring the circumference of his leg with the thrombosis.

Two of Pádraig’s friends were there today and spent time with him remembering what it all was like. It’s great to hear young voices, the sound of things to come.

No German music, no German words, no hot/cold stuff tonight. I am giving in an go to sleep. Tomorrow will be a better day.

Twitter: @forPadraig
#caringforPadraig
http://www.caringforPadraig.org
Upcoming events: http://www.caringforPadraig.org/events

Everybody needs one: a “Notebook-Kissen” – I still don’t know what this thing is, but Germans seem to think they really need them.

Heard a song by Konstantin Wecker and watched him and Hannes Wader on youtube, schon so lang. Will nach Süden ans Meer, bin auf meinem Weg ohne Wiederkehr. They go on singing about wars, desperation, death that has been going on schon so lang. They express what I used to feel years and years ago, this revolt, the fury I felt about the injustice, the lies of the Herren der Welt. And then turn around and say that they haven’t just seen cruelty, but they’ve seen love too, hope, that the people are helping each other out, support each other in times of need, share their friendship and love.

“Níl tú leat féin ar an saol- beidh cairde i gcónaí ann duit is tú i sáinn” teachtaireacht iontach. maith sibh Trinitones – tweeted a friend today about a song that he sent along and is now available on youtube too.

I was going to get one of these for the shower, when I realized Lidl was selling them to painters and decorators who use them to give ‘Struktur’ to the paint. Where will it all end?

There are friends in Spain following Pádraig’s story. They have sent on link to music they like, not that different from the Irish music we like to much. But there is a song, a poem rather made into a song, that turns your guts, it makes you cry and shout, it’s soft and violent in a good way, all at the same time. By a poet killed by fascists during the Civil War. Antonio Machado. The song based on the poem, La Saeta, is by Joan Manuel Serrat:

¡Oh, no eres tú mi cantar!
¡No puedo cantar, ni quiero
a ese Jesús del madero,
sino al que anduvo en el mar!

(Once you have listened to the original version, check out what time does to you here.)

If you ever were in Spain for Easter Week, maybe in Sevilla, you’ve heard the drums, the Saeta. This one is different – it’s not about being tortured, nailed to the cross. It’s about the ‘Nazareno’ that walked on the sea. It’s about hope.

The Thekla – post Pádraig.

Pádraig was sitting in his chair, the Viva-la-Thekla, again. For close to four hours. There is no doubt that he is, again, reacting, moving purposefully, responding to us and the friends visiting from Ireland. You wouldn’t believe the sensation of normality young people bring to this ward that has few visitors in the first place, and the few that are there are well over 40, or 50, or 60. It’s like a breath of fresh air that the doctors admire, we appreciate, and Pádraig must really love – because it brings him a sense of life and hope, the knowledge that people keep thinking of him, have him in his heart, and believe that he is going to come out on the other end.

I had a long conversation with his consultant today who is convinced that he has left this space of complete isolation. She is convinced that he is trying really hard to connect, to show that he really does understand when people are talking to him, to react to what is going on around him. She said that once patients start doing this, especially young patients like Pádraig, they can progress and make a good recovery even if it takes a long time. We might have to become a bit more modest in our expectations, become very patient, but have to stay very very positive – and communicate this to Pádraig. Life changes, it takes twists and turns. But life goes on. And friends stay friends.

So here is where Hannes Wader, Konstantin Wecker, Antonion Machado, Joan Manual Serrat, the consultant – and all of us have something very strong in common: hope and an incredible believe ourselves, and especially in Pádraig. We need to keep let him know. You and I know how stubborn he is. How he doesn’t let go. How he persists. ‘Real life’ is just a myth. ‘Impossible’ is for losers. He won’t have anything stand in his way to recovery and a meaningful life.

Today’s German Music Tip
Konstantin Wecker / Hannes Wader, Schon so lang  (2010?). Two singer-song writers about stuff that has been going on for too long… so lang – but haven’t lost hope.
What’s hot
Hope
What’s cold
Drills at 7am (nothing new hear since yesterday)
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
Wintergrillparty (more about this tomorrow or some other day:)

Twitter: @forPadraig
#caringforPadraig
http://www.caringforPadraig.org
Upcoming events: http://www.caringforPadraig.org/events

Not sure whether you listened to the 9 o’clock news on Irish Television tonight, or if you have joined the increasing number of people who have decided they don’t want to get depressed more than they are already. Tonight was appalling: the Taoiseach, or Prime Minister, apologizing to Louise O’Keefe after the European Court of Justice confirmed what his government had fought to the end: that the State had to take responsibility for her abuse in a school.; her abuse and that of potentially 200 more victims. Then the case of Portlaoise Hospital where the HSE apologized for the death of several babies that could have been prevented had staff their followed best practice and the recommendations from internal investigations that had not been communicated to the parents of the dead babies until recently – and in one case not yet at all. When the news got to the point where between 12 and 13 million euro of cuts for four Dublin hospitals were announced, I was angry, my stomach was turning, and I had tears in my eyes. – When will they ever learn? When will they ever learn?

What happens if you don’t do Durchlüften! At least three times a day!

07h30. Pünktlich. They are about to break through the wall. About to attack. through us out of the apartment. Into the cold of Hamburg’s freezing and snow-covered streets. There must be half a dozen of them trying to get through. There must be at least three drills, two sledge hammers, and one man shouting – not instructions, but commands. Those you have heard in the films about a time they now don’t want anybody to mention anymore. DON’T mention the war. But this is like guerilla war fare, house to house fighting. I am pinching myself until I almost scream. I cannot wake up, because I have been awake for hours. Finally, I realize what is going on. The there-is-condensation-on-your-window controller from the Genossenschaft must have come back. He must have thought that we didn’t do the at-least-three-times-a-day Durchlüften and decided to safe the house from getting completely destroyed by just pulling down a few walls to throw us out on the street. I decide to confess: I did remember that you have to do the Durchlüften three times a day for the number of minutes that correspond to the outside temperature – 10oC = 10 minutes, 5oC = 5 minutes and so on. But nobody told us what to do when it’s -8oC outside! What im Himmel did they want us to do?

And then, silence. Not a peep. You could hear a pin drop. Something or somebody must have saved us. When I thought it was safe enough, I sneaked outside and had a look. My heart was pumping like mad, and then – I saw what had happened: they must have thrown out our neighbours and were pulling down his walls. We were safe! When I rang the Genossenschaft a little later to congratulate them on their strong-mindedness, and asked them for how long they thought this building work would be going on, they said that our neighbour had done incredible damage to the apartment and it would take them at least another four weeks to get through all the rebuilding. You can’t imagine my relief! What’s another week, in fact: what’s another year? Just another four weeks of drilling, pulling down walls, shouting, and general noise! That’s nothing! In fact, I said to the Genossenschaft not to hurry but to make sure to take their time. Gut Ding will Weile haben! Nicht?

Herr Schäler’s cup!

The day after the big gig. This morning we got some pictures from the Workman’s Club together with a short video. They are up on caringforpadraig.org/events if you want to have a look. We showed them to Padraig and watched another few videos of the incredible Seo Linn, the magic Kila, and the enchanting Trinitones with him. We made it very clear to him that next time, he had to be there himself. No ifs or buts. It’s easy to make this sound dramatic, and I don’t want to. But he moved, his arm up almost to his chin and his hands and head.

No more news about the thrombosis in his left leg, just more medication. He was sitting in the Viva-la-Thekla chair and was holding his head – something we had not seen before. Again, nothing dramatic. But another few encouraging signs. We are happy to run the marathon. And we know we’ll finish, no matter how long it’ll take!

Make sure not to forget the amazing table quiz TOMORROW – and, of course, next Wednesday’s incredible line-up of first-class Irish music at the huge concert in Colaiste Eoin! Invite your family, friends, people you know! Tweet, Facebook, Text about it!

Today’s German Music Tip
Husumer Shanty-Chor, Eine Seefahrt, die ist lustig (2010). Husum is probably the nicest town close to Tating. And this is their Shanty choir singing one of Germany’s best know seafarer songs. A bit different.
What’s hot
Lifting your arm
What’s cold
Drills at 7am
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
Wasissenhierlos????

Twitter: @forPadraig
#caringforPadraig
http://www.caringforPadraig.org
Upcoming events: http://www.caringforPadraig.org/events

It’s dark, cold, and a bit like Silent Night Christmas Eve here tonight. Eiskalt, -6oC. But there is something in the air, and a tweet from a friend Ag gig ar son na cúise dochreidte, @ForPadraig Ceol álainn ó Cholm Ó Snodaigh. We were watching Seo Linn, Kila, and Trinitones with Pádraig all night ’till they threw us out. Closing time. At 8pm. The gig in Dublin hadn’t even started. But it was magic already. Pádraig’s room filled up with music, our eyes full of tears, his hands trying to hold on to ours, the expression on his face saying: I know all this! I recognize and remember this! I am right there, in the middle, kind’o hard to miss. Having the time of my life. Next time, next time, next time, not only will I be there again, right in the middle, in front of the stage, I’ll sell the tickets, get the t-shirts, and get really mad at the people who just don’t get it! (Of course, in a nice way:).

He was listening. Listen.

We had to honor today to be called to the door by the Chefarzt. He didn’t want to enter the danger zone, I suppose. It’s a bit like being called by the principle. When it happens, and even though you know you haven’t done any wrong, you get nervous. He told us that Pádraig had a thrombosis in his groin. Instead of instantly treating it with powerful anticoagulants he asked if it was ok to wait until tomorrow, to give them time to assess the situation better, and to allow them to talk with the surgeons and thorax experts in the UKE. The good news is (there is a bit of good news, as strange as it might sound) that the thrombosis does not seem to be very new (which would have been a bit more dangerous), it looks very safely deposited and not particularly loose, and it will not stop therapists from moving him or sitting him up in the Thekla. – I am going to do a few Google searches tomorrow morning to see if there is anything, anything at all, that Pádraig hasn’t got yet.

The Oberärztin said, trying to make a joke, that they like him so much on this ward, they don’t want to let him go. Before Pádraig could intervene telling her not to try, ever, to tell a ‘joke’ ever again, because German jokes do not work, as he told me frequently too, she corrected herself and aplogolized – of course, they want to get rid of him asap, and send him over to Haus 3 for early neuro rehab, the German-intensive kind of stuff. – That made it two failed jokes within a matter of minutes.

A picture can tell a thousand words. Look at this picture, closely. See you the distance between the windows and the footpath gets smaller and smaller, the hill seems to grow into the houses. We were laughing today, thinking about how people react to snow in Dublin: you’re out with your water bottles, trying to get rid of the snow. Creating dozens of local ice-rinks in the process. People slipping and falling being shown on RTE TV. Offices closing down, schools off for the week, and electric fires nowhere to be had. Instead look at the straight line of clean, snow-cleared German footpath: it was created by a machine with strong brushes in the front to brush the snow out of the way, and grit being thrown out at the back – all operated by a really bored looking driver.

Don’t forget Friday’s ‘other’ Table Quiz – a night most definitely not to be missed!!! And next Wednesday in his old secondary school Coláiste Eoin: Ceolchoirm ar son Phádraig i gColáiste Eoin.

Send us a few pictures, short videos, brief reports, interviews with the bands, and I’ll post it on the website!

There it was again – a burst of energy, drums, richtig gute Laune eh, and the good vibes! Keep all of this coming!!!

Today’s German Music Tip
Die Toten Hosen, Liebeslied (2007). Doesn’t sound like and the video doesn’t look like this was a ‘love song’…
What’s hot
Reha
What’s cold
Thromosis
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
Liebeskummer (gibt es nicht, My Darling – it’ll be tomorrow’s German Music Tip)

Twitter: @forPadraig
#caringforPadraig
http://www.caringforPadraig.org
Upcoming events: http://www.caringforPadraig.org/events

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven. (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, King James Version (1611) of the Bible).

We had to wait. The famous five minutes that streeeeee-eeeee-eeee-tsch into eternity and turn into a galactic timeline lost in space and time. Well, they usually feel much longer, hours rather than minutes. Then the automatic door opened on the other side of the Besucherwarteraumabgrenzung and our hearts fell straight out onto the floor and down to the bottom of the building, several stories deep. The Oberärztin appeared and bent down to where we were sitting, among a large group of other visitors (no – this was not a ‘normal’ day; there were visitors).  Then she told us how Pádraig had lifted up a few fingers when she asked him to wave. He did it again, when she asked him again. Then she called a sister as a witness, asked him again to wave, and he did it a third time. When she was doing the round, he did not do it for the Assistenzärzte – but there was just too much going on for Pádraig to have space to concentrate, she felt. She was so excited with a huge smile around her face. She said the whole ward celebrated. Nobody knows, of course, what this move means. Whether it’s going to be a once-off, or just a first sign of things to come…

When time was over, we knew they had completely forgotten about us, we decided to take life into our own hands and ventured into the ward. When the nurse saw us, she waved and said to come in. When we looked into his room, the bed was empty. No Pádraig in the bed. Then we saw the Thekla, and Pádraig sitting in it. This is how the Thekla works: you flatten it; you move it beside the bed the patient is in; then you shift the patient from the bed into the Thekla; finally, you press a few buttons and the patient is sitting in a very comfortable chair. It saves nurses lifting patients up in a hoist, and saves the patients being lifted up and moved in a hoist which is not the most comfortable experience. Today, he staid in this chair for three hours! A new record.

The Oberärztin came in again, with another huge smile around her face saying that ‘Pádraig is doing it all by himself’, no need for more medication, all the markers that were hinting at pneumonia were coming down to normal.

To Everything * Turn, Turn, Turn * There is a season * Turn, Turn, Turn * And a time to every purpose, under Heaven: A time for peace, I swear it’s not too late. Pete Seeger, the man who was looking for the plug with an axe backstage at the Newport Folk Festival on 25 July 1965 to shut up 24-year old Bob ‘going-electric’ Like a Rolling Stone on Maggie’s Farm Dylan, and who adapted Ecclesiastes just very slightly for one of the most famous and charismatic folk songs for peace ever, died today at 94. He was a man of integrity and conviction. He’ll be sadly missed.

Don’t forget tomorrow night’s concert in The Workman’s Club!

Today’s German Music Tip
Pete Seeger, Die Moorsoldaten (04 Jan 1967). One of the most horrific, chilling, and at the same time hopeful songs about the German past – he sings it in German, and then the English version. – Heimat, Du bist wieder mein.
What’s hot
Thekla
What’s cold
Germs
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
TV Simulator (it’s a €5 gadget that produces a light flicker imitating a TV so that a burglar looking at your window will think you’re at home watching the Late Late Show when you are actually somewhere else enjoying the Friday evening).

Twitter: @forPadraig
#caringforPadraig
http://www.caringforPadraig.org
Upcoming events: http://www.caringforPadraig.org/events

Seven can mean many things. Seven days of the week. Or the title of a film. And if you have seen the film (or are an old-time christian) you’ll know the number also refers to the seven deadly sins. You’ll know that they’re also called capital vices or cardinal sins. They are part of Christian ethics (remember ethics?) and have been used to educate and instruct Christians (the guys killed by the Romans). They are the kind of sin that gets you into deep trouble, they destroy the life of grace and charity. As those amongst you who are good in ethics (!) will know, Thomas Aquinas defined charity as the friendship of man for God, but also to the love of your neighbour, and as the most excellent of virtues. – I have been thinking a lot about charity, in its original sense, lately, of love of your neighbor, and of all this ‘stuff’ that has had a hard time in recent times where time is money, education has to produce jobs, and research license fees. – Anyways…

Seven is also 7 months, or: 30.5 weeks, or: 214 days, or: 5,136 hours, or: 308,160 minutes, or: 18,489,600 seconds – the time since Pádraig’s accident. Can you believe it? I have a hard time understanding what happened, if one can understand the impact of something like this at all, ever. It’s like as if somebody that day decided to flick a switch and see what happened. There are still times when I cannot grasp the enormity of what happened; times when I want to pinch myself to wake up and get back to ‘real life’; times when I feel like as if someone just pulled a string and flushed my body empty; times when I think about the future and know nothing will ever be the same. (Of course, the last ‘truth’ is a given and known since forever.)

When we arrived to visit Pádraig, he had moved again. Now he is in the last room before the exit from the ward. It’s more symbolic than anything else, I guess, but, hopefully, the symbolism will eventually translate into action (as it often does) and he’ll move out of this place, and move into more focused rehab. Which is the plan. Once he’ll have recovered from the operations. It is sometimes hard to see improvements in Pádraig’s condition: he is still in a coma, still on a trache, still with a PEG, still has problems with his lungs – but, and it’s a big but, he is much more ‘present’ than he ever has been since the accident. While this is hard to explain and even harder to measure (in a world where absolutely everything seems to be measured, this is important), it can be: he opens his eyes when you talk to him (most times), he reacts with mouth movements, he squeezes your hand, and (occasionally) moves his head and arms. Stuff he (usually) does not do if no-one is in the room. Compare that with how he was seven months ago, or even three months ago, and you’ll agree that he is getting better. Which is what we can’t wait for! (I keep telling him.)

Finally, a reminder to tell ALL your family and friends about the events coming up this and next week, the 10+ bands playing at 2 super gigs, and the not-to-be-missed table quiz. Check out the details here.

There are more than 270 people on Facebook saying they are going to the Workman’s Club this coming Wednesday. Some are coming back home to Ireland especially for the concert. Unbelievable!

Today’s German Music Tip
Udo Lindenberg (with Eric Burden), Wir müssen raus aus den Dreck (We gotta get out of this place), 1979 and 2004 – waaahnsin! how the two of them changed in those 25 years! – And if you really want to see something great, watch Eric Burden and the Animals sing their first hit on TV in 1965.
What’s hot
Whistleblowers
What’s cold
Red Herings
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
Waaahnsin!

Twitter: @forPadraig
#caringforPadraig
http://www.caringforPadraig.org
Upcoming events: http://www.caringforPadraig.org/events

After yesterday’s call for revolution, I thought it’d be nice to talk about peace. So I did a few searches, but, to be honest, I couldn’t find much, or at least not anything that was catching my attention. But then, as we were reading out news stories for Pádraig – there was a story about peace. Although, it was extraordinary, and very different from what one would have expected…

There were a few comments on yesterday’s blog, and the update on the caringforpadraig website: Rehabilitation Services in Ireland – Time for Change. With the help and some pointers from a friend, I put together some information on the outrageous lack of rehab services in Ireland. It turned out that what we experienced was something hundreds of people have experienced for many, many years. Specialist consultants are well aware of the situation, politicians are making declarations, the HSE and the Government are publishing a National Policy – but people suffering brain injuries continue to suffer a highly inadequate level of care in Ireland. As they have for decades.

I will start putting some information together on the services available in Germany. One of our ‘regulars’ has offered to do the same for Spain. Maybe we get friends from other countries contributing too? – Would it be a good idea to make friends, politicians, and the public more aware of how some of the most vulnerable patients are suffering and are, effectively, emigrated because of the shocking lack of resources afforded to them in their own country?

Pádraig was moving his head and legs today quite a bit. He had done this before, but I don’t remember having seen such movements so ‘concentrated’, so many all in one day, or rather afternoon. He still has a congested chest and a touch of pneumonia but seems to take it in his stride. Most of it has to do with the operations, it happens, the doctors say, but we hope, of course, that he will get over this ‘aftermath’ soon.

There was a story in the news today about the Pope releasing two ‘peace doves’ – and, as it happens in real life, they were immediately attacked by a seagull and crow. Pat was reading this story out loud to Pádraig and there was a clear reaction by him. I had to laugh out loud (politically incorrectly, I know, but I found it so funny at so many different levels that I just had to), and it felt almost like as if he was joining in. It would have been great if he really had. One day he will.

Today’s German Music Tip
Puhdys, Wenn ein Mensch lebt (1973). Probably the most famous band of the former German Democratic Republic – and their first appearance on West German TV. I had completely forgotten about the Puhdys (which should probably be called ‘Puhdies’?), but came across them again when look (desperately) for German music on youtube…
What’s hot
Peace doves
What’s cold
Hamburg: -11oC
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
Crash-Kurs (a note posted on a driving school advertising intensive 7-day driving courses)

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“It is time for change. It is time for a revolution in rehabilitation.” Not our words but those of the person appointed by the Government of Ireland and the HSE as the National Director of Clinical Strategy and Programmes, Dr Áine Carroll. (Irish Examiner, 03.02.2011)

The National Rehabilitation Hospital (NRH), the only facility of its kind in the whole of Ireland,  has just 119 in-patient beds. “Ireland should have a minimum of 372 in-patient rehabilitation beds,” said Dr Carroll. The doctor stressed that rehabilitation following injury or disease was a basic human right. It was not a privilege and was supported by international legislation.

Dr Carroll states, “There are insufficient numbers of rehabilitation medicine consultants, insufficient access to specialist rehabilitation at a local level, lack of support for primary care teams in managing very challenging cases and lack of support for the patient and their families. Even if a patient has been through the services of the NRH, once they get discharged they’re very often left in a kind of limbo.” – Dr Carroll admits that the number of rehabilitation medicine consultants – six full-time and one temporary – is grossly inadequate for a country like Ireland, which has the lowest number of rehabilitation specialists in Europe per head of population.

“I do not enjoy the frustration of being embarrassed when we tell our European colleagues how little rehabilitation resources we have in our country,” Dr Mark Delargy, Medical Director of the Acquired Brain Injury Programme at the National Rehabilitation Hospital (NRH) remarked. “The challenge is getting patients without having to wait months and months and our challenge is to accept people with the most severe disability quicker than we are doing. “People with the most severe disability require the most intensive resources, but our capacity to admit patients with the most severe disability is limited so we have a bed quota for people in a vegetative state and with locked-in syndrome.”

All this is a bit long and maybe complex – if you feel like it: the full text and sources are here. Compare the above with the recent reports published in the context of Pádraig’s case. The situation is ’embarrassing’ (M. Delargy) and ‘grossly inadequate’ (A. Carroll).

Today, Pádraig had a bit of a lung congestion. Nothing serious, but he could do without it. We are discovering how nice it is to be able to close the door and to just be with him. No need to talk. No need to do things. Just be there. In between, we are telling him about what is going on back home: the concerts, the table quiz, the swim, preparations for a ‘mini’ marathon. He would probably be very embarrassed if he did grasp and understand what people are doing to help him. There are literally hundreds of people preparing concerts with more than 10 bands and musicians, quizzes, running and swimming events. I can only imagine how much he would like to be right in the middle of it all. – One day he will be!

Twitter: @forPadraig
#caringforPadraig
http://www.caringforPadraig.org
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