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Welcome to the world of the Vincent D'Onofrio obsessed - and a bit of real life thrown in.


Wednesday, October 07, 2009

GOSH

No, not an exclamation of amazement, but the abbreviation of Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children. It's where I've been the last three Wednesdays to teach my student who has ALD. He just had rods inserted in his back to help him sit up straighter, taking pressure off his ribcage and lungs.
This is the oldest part of the hospital, it has been added to repeatedly and extensively over the years. It's a centre of excellence for children's medicine and has an international reputation. For example, children come from all over the world for things like conjoined twin separation.

It never ceases to amaze me how busy parts of London manage to cram so much into a relatively tiny site. This building is just a few hundred yards from where the London bus was blown up in the 7/7/05 London bombings. It's in a really central location, a short walk away from the British Museum. So there are lots of cafes and restaurants around, as well as a couple of supermarkets, which is just as well, since in the hospital there is just a Costa Coffee inside a small cafe with a pretty limited food selection. When you consider that there are parents who spend days, weeks or months at the hospital with their children, I find that slightly scandalous.

6 comments:

SnarkAngel said...

Most of the hospitals here in Chicago have cafeterias open to the public. But the food is always "so-so" at best. Often it is the same food served to the patients. And U.S. hospitals do NOT have the best rep when it comes to their food. LOL

SnarkAngel said...

P.S. So sorry to hear about your student, Val. By ALD, do you mean Adrenoleukodystrophy?

val said...

I do, Snarkangel. Are you familiar with the condition? Sadly, he was not diagnosed early enough for Lorenzo's Oil to be given before he was severely disabled. His brother has been luckier.

Eliza said...

The childrens hospital here has a couple of newsagents in the lobby, but they charge way over the odds for the most basic food. Makes me almost as cross as the car-parking charges!

jazzy said...

Teaching in that hospital is wonderful of you. Patients who have visitors (teachers, family, friends etc) recover faster than others. Or at least their stay in a hospital is less painful.

JoJo said...

I had to look up ALD too.

Snarkangel is right about US hospital food. It's disgusting.

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