Encountering kind hearts and old souls in the Emergency Department... For Sunday Miscellany on RTÉ Radio 1, listen to A & E Vigil, by Aidan Mathews above.
"What would you say I am?" The nice nurse in the green scrubs was kneeling down in front of the stroke-victim. They had wheeled him into the A&E while I was there, expectorating.
"I would say you are a very nice young girl," he told her, after a good while.
I don't think I’ve ever written the word 'expectorate’ before, and I doubt I’ll do again, but spitting sputum into a bucket through the small hours in a hospital ED was, at the time, something of a habit. This visit was circa Number 9 or 10, and I was almost proud of reaching double digits. I felt like a professional veteran amongst conscript recruits.
"And who," said the nurse to the stroke-victim, "is the President of Ireland?"
"I’m not an eejit," he said. "We have the President we deserve..."
Listen to more from Sunday Miscellany here.
