Before I forget it, here are some interesting statistics I came across recently: the first is about the median age in the countries of the world, the second is about life expectancy at birth.

The median age is the age that “divides a population into two numerically equal groups; that is, half the people are younger than this age and half are older. It is a single index that summarizes the age distribution of a population.” According to a reliable source, none other than the CIA, the median age ranges from “a low of about 15 in Uganda and Gaza Strip to 40 or more in several European countries and Japan”. Ireland’s median age is 35.7

Life expectancy at birth (2012)

Another interesting figure which I took from Index Mundi (also quoting the CIA), is that of life expectancy at birth. In other words, how many years can a baby born today expect to live? Here again: an incredible range. From 49 years in South Africa, 60 in Senegal, 70 in Iran, to 80 in Ireland, and 90 in Monaco. There are a few interesting differences I didn’t expect: you can expect to live longer in Syria (75) than in The Bahamas (71), and longer in Tonga (75) than in than in Russia (66).

Both of these figures proof, if proof was needed, that, in general, people live longer in richer parts of the world than in poorer parts of the world; and the population of a poor country is generally younger than that of a rich country. Health systems cost money. If you are poor, you die younger.

Pádraig today ‘lost’ his tracheostomy tube. We were with him this evening when he had a big cough, he moved his head and neck to the side, and all of a sudden, the tube was not stuck in his neck but beside it. I went out to call his nurse who came in with two of her colleagues, one of whom stuck his finger into Pádraig’s neck to keep the hole open. Within a few minutes they had fitted a new tube.

It sounds all a bit more dramatic than it was, but demonstrated what can happen – although, coughing out your tube doesn’t happen that frequently. Because Pádraig has had this tube for more than a year now, there was no danger of the hole closing up immediately. There was also no danger of him suffocating because he can breath ok, even when the tube gets closed completely so that he has to breath in and out through his mouth and nose (unless his head is bent back into his neck). Nonetheless, there was a bit of drama this evening – before we left the doctor on call came in and checked him out. When we left, all seemed to be back to ‘normal’, and Pádraig seemed to be ok again.

Earlier on, his senior doctor came in to see us and to explain in a bit more detail what had happened last Friday. Pádraig’s cramps had gone on for an hour and a half, and only after they had given him the third drug trying to control what was going on, did he respond. Had he not responded they would have put him ‘to sleep’ and on a respirator. – On Sunday, they will try out a different drug, kind of a ‘cousin’ of the one that apparently caused the cramps, not as ‘potent’, hoping he will respond better.

We’ll wait and see. – Not in a kinda relaxed way, though. There are things in life I never knew about. Imagine. After so many years. And there are things in life, I’ll never get used to. No matter how long I’ll live.