Breaking the Mould

Once my cast was off in several pieces, after the nurse had shown a little ‘strong arm’ technique to separate and split the cast apart (Perhaps it would have been better if she had made two cuts to it. Then it wouldn’t have hurt quite as much as she pulled it open). We waited for the return of the doctor. And waited. The nurse cleared away all the pieces of broken cast. The various messages and ‘John Hancocks’ (If you know who that is, then you know your trivia, or history, if you don’t check the footnote), scrawled across the outside surfaces. Various amusing drawings, diagrams, wishes and etchings.  After all, I came from a family who all considered themselves artistic, and still are. Once again masterpieces of artwork discard to the bin (Did this happen to Michelangelo? Just to his small plaster works I suppose) The nurse then got the fresh basin of water and plaster of Paris (Gypsum Plaster) bandages and we waited a little longer. The nurse then left to deal with someone else. I sat there cradling my un-cast and ‘poorly healing’ arm (apparently). 
The nurses moved about the Accident and Emergency department and appeared to be steadily processing and dealing with cases. People sat about, or lay on the beds, patiently. There was the odd shuffle of curtains as they were drawn across a bed space to conceal whatever was to occur. Occasionally muted voices whispered instructions and nurses came and went from some of the secluded areas, often returning with other equipment, nurses and young adults, who were probably the trainee doctors. I sat patiently wondering where mine had gone. Sometimes there was a differently dressed hospital employee who would be responsible for moving the beds, or patients in the beds, or in wheelchairs around.
Compared to today there seemed to be a lot less people and they were all busy. I seem to recall back then that the nurses were very seldom ever sitting behind the ‘nurses’ stations. And yet when you go in to a hospital Accident and Emergency today (that’s if you can actually get into one and are not parked in an ambulance outside in the arrival bay), it often seems there’s about two or three administration people, for every nurse (who is actually working), and about a dozen other hospital employees who don’t seem to be doctors, trainees or sometimes even medical staff hanging around? And then there’s the various construction workers (as all hospitals seem to be ‘expanding’ or ‘renovating’), cleaners (who don’t do windows, or cupboard/bench tops, either apparently) and nowadays, security (probably for all the people who get cranky because it’s taking ages to even get seen by one of the too few nurses, not to mention a doctor).
(Continued tomorrow)
John Hancock was an American statesman from Massachusetts and President of the International Congress 1775-1777. He was the first to sign the American Declaration of Independence and wrote so flamboyantly and large that he took up more room than he should have, as he had a blank space to write in. Allegedly he made the comment (unfounded) “The British ministry can read that name without spectacles; let them double their reward.” Hence the term “Put your John Hancock on that” has come to mean; to sign a document.