I was taken through to the intensive care unit, wow well named. There are machines all around me. I’m connected up to them all, wow. I have various drips going into my arm and neck, there's even one going into the top of my head. I feel and look like a pin cushion.

My mind is all mixed up the last thing I remember is eating my diner and talking to my friend Ronnie.

What time is it, I wonder, looking around me, I can see a clock on the wall I see the clock but can’t tell the present time must be the drugs .

Tony comes over and adjusts some of the controls of the drips. I asked him what time is it, what's going on why is this happening to me? Walter these drugs are keeping you alive, the vessel in your head that burst does not like being interfered with. It closed up no blood was going into the left side of your brain. That’s why you lost conciseness. You were taken into the theatre where they tried to open up the artery, but it was not successful. We had to get the artery open, or you would have died, the only way left was this drug therapy, which they injected directly into the artery in your brain.

Now the drugs are very powerful we can only use them for a limited time, however you have made it this far. Your doing great just take it easy you have nothing to worry about.

I had been in a coma for seven hours I was told later, and that I was a four on the Glasgow Coma Scale not good and in that time I felt no pain just blackness.

He asked about the pain which was still the same no let up wow it’s a week today I believe, how long did Ruth say it would take to recover? Three weeks oh well not long to go, I hope.

The next few days are very hazy. I am getting a lot of attention from the staff there always appears that there is someone by my side I know that’s impossible however that's what it felt like. My family faces were drifting into my mind why are they looking so sad I must be dreaming.

I open my eyes there a lot of faces round my bed its Mr Barlow and colleagues, a woman introduces herself for the life of me I cant remember her name sorry. She told me that it was her that carried out the most of the surgery pertaining to the clipping of the aneurysms and she would be in close contact during my stay in I.C. U.
My bed was in a corner and I could see four other beds, they were all occupied and the patients were all unconscious.

A lot of activity was taking place but there was a sense of calm and assurance these people who work here know what they’re doing very professional to say the least.

The staff worked a twelve hour shift must be a long day for them, however they never looked tired.

My brain was not working the way it used to. This may sound like a strange thing to say but something was not there my thinking had completely changed I could take things in ….However, something’s did not make sense, this was the strangest time in my whole life.

 

As I said faces were coming and going, I saw my friends and family crying why were they crying? They all believed I was dying. I could see it in their faces.

It never even crossed my mind it was a very difficult time for them. This was a different world, a world where nothing made sense.

I opened my eyes across from me there was a man in bed all connected to various machines. The nurse closed the screens all around his bed which was in the opposite corner to mine the only difference being a door on his right hand side.

I could see a lot of feet coming in to the ward, I could see them at the tail end of the screens around his bed. Singing I could hear singing why were they singing? Crying why were they crying.

Wow what’s going on here, am I going crazy is this really happening ?

A prayer well it sounded like a minister reciting a prayer. What was going on over there . The feet started to leave, a child crying, no sobbing. Next thing quietness, not a sound.

Am I dreaming? I believed no, I don’t think so.

A nurse appeared and opened the screens. I looked over, and I could see that it was a man about thirty years of age, as I said he was connected to a lot of machines and a ventilator was doing his breathing for him.

The nurse was crying (yes crying) at the side of his bed, that just shows you the caring nature of people in the medical world.

She left the ward, and I could not stop looking at the man in the bed, he looked very peaceful just like he was asleep. Five minuets had passed and a man dressed in surgical gear arrived, he adjusted some of the machines connected, then pushed the whole bed out of the ward. I latterly learned that his wife had consented that his organs be used for transplant procedures. The problems I was having palled into perspective.

Glasgow Southern Hospital is the main intake neurosurgical unit for central Scotland the ICU is very busy and has a wide scope there were children adults all suffering major head injuries. I seamed to be the only one conscious.

To be continued