Mistletoe, Wine and Miracles

Christmas time in the Hospitals 1970s and 80s.

The Christmas Nativity scenes.

The Christmas " tours" of the wards by the Student Nurses and the encouragement of alcohol intake!

The Christmas party / disco!!!

Mistletoe and its magical properties for a good snog.

2 Medical Miracles of God in answer to prayer.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

In this episode, I want to um go talk a little bit about um Christmas time and how things used to be in the Christmas festivities, etc., and compare them to what it was like in the late 70s and early 80s, to what we we have to suffer now, really, which at Christmas, which is um, you know, a kind of a debased version of what Christmas used to be like, but I know our times change and everything, and society has changed, uh, etc. And the whole um atmosphere at Christmas has changed. It's not as as you know, it's not as Christian as it used to be, and that's the the brutal reality. But um, I just want to go back and and talk about Christmases as I remember them as a student nurse in hospitals, because they were very special um occasions, and uh Christmas was a very special time I remember as a student nurse. Like I as a student nurse, I can remember being sent around the wards, and the tradition was the ward sister or the staff nurse in charge, if you were on an early or late on Christmas Day, she would send you off on what they called the the tour, you know, around other wards. And it was expected that every ward would have a table laid out with food and with alcohol, and the student nurses, and now the staff nurses did it as well, but not as much as the student nurses. Student nurses went from ward to ward to ward, and on every ward you'd be plied with drink, and they'd have their punch, and they'd insist that you had a drink of their punch, which was laced with vodka. And to cut a long story short, I can remember as a student nurse we were at all half cut when we got back to our original ward. And this was acceptable. It was completely acceptable to be drunk on Christmas Day. Now the hospitals were not as busy as as they are now, and certainly not as acute, but it was kind of an accepted thing. The porters I can remember seeming porters drunk on juicy, etc. They would be absolutely stochus, some of the porters. And it was just uh an accepted part of society. I'm talking about the late 70s, early 80s. It's just amazing how things have changed. Now alcohol is absolutely forbidden in the hospitals, but back in the 70s and 80s, it was actually encouraged, and it was kind of a way of letting your hair down. And the student nurses were were kind of pushed to go around these wards and to have as much to drink as possible. It's absolutely hilarious when you think about it. Other things that used to go on at Christmas. I can remember the consultants dressing up as Father Christmas, and they would come in. Now, every ward had turkeys and things delivered to them by the kitchens, the hospital kitchens. There'd be two or three roast turkeys um provided to the ward. And the consultant would come in dressed as Father Christmas and you'd go around all the patients and ho ho ho and all this kind of thing and give the nurses a kiss and a cuddle and all this kind of thing. And then you would um he would carve the turkey and all this. It was all fun, but it was kind of flirtatious kind of a fun. But it was kind of accepted. This is what he did at Christmas, and the consultant would be there with the registrar and everything. They would carve the turkeys, and patients would all get a turkey dinner, because all the trimmings would be delivered as well, you know, roast potatoes and parsnips and all this kind of thing, and sprouts and Christmas puddings and all this kind of thing. It was absolutely brilliant. I can remember Christmases in in hospitals when I when I was a young student nurse. Every ward as well had a Christmas trio, and as well as a Christmas tree which was festooned with tinsel and lights and baubles, etc. Every ward had a nativity scene. I can remember that. And some of these nativity scenes were unbelievable. Like they had just always went over the top, as in the ward sister had with monies donated by families, did actually have a huge nativity scene with big statues and all this of you know the Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph and the Christ Child in the manger. And different wards would be vying with each other to see who who could produce the best uh nativity scene. I can remember some some wards now went completely over the top, and I can remember this ward had one with um like a water wheel in it, and uh what water going around and birds and all kinds of things in the nativity scene, which is unbelievable. Some of these nativity scenes were actually bigger than what you would see in in churches, etc. But anyway, I can remember all that. It's unbelievable. Now, the other thing that used to go on at Christmas, which was a big thing in the hospital, was the Christmas party. The hospital Christmas party used to be back in the 70s and 80s a huge thing and absolutely wild. And some of the thing I can't even talk about some of the things on this podcast that used to go on at some of these Christmas parties, except to say they were absolutely outrageous what used to go on. It's like people were so prim and proper at work, and then once they got into these Christmas parties, the Christmas disco it used to be called, your hair would be let down, and you'd just go for it. And anybody that you fancied during the course of the year at work, you'd have a go at them, you know. It was absolutely hilarious, some of the stuff that used to go on. Plus, the other thing um which is different nowadays, which uh uh has changed dramatically. See, we when I was a young nurse, a young staff nurse, uh as a student and a young staff nurse, we used to socialise with the doctors. The doctors and the nurses would all socialise together, like we would go to the pub on a regular basis, etc., and have a drink, maybe once a week, once every couple of weeks. That was normal, and there wasn't the big social distinction between doctors and nurses, certainly not in England. And you would know them quite well, you'd be showing flats for them and all this kind of thing. It was quite normal, but in Ireland there's a big social um divide between medical and nursing staff, and I noticed that when I first came over here, uh it's it's absolutely discernible, and I think it's due to the educational system. You see, a lot of the doctors come from certain parts of Dublin, etc., D4, and all this kind of stuff, and went to different schools, and it's just a different social outlook. But in England, you know, there wasn't the demarcation as there is over here. Well, there certainly wasn't in the 80s, and we used to socialise with them and different things, so the parties were quite wild and quite um enjoyable, and all kinds of things used to go on at the Christmas party, but what went on at the Christmas party, shall we say, stayed at the Christmas party, was never discussed at work. The other thing to say about Christmas parties was an unwritten rule. Um Christmas parties were for you and your colleagues and the doctors and the nurses and the porters, etc. There were no partners. Like even married couples did not bring the partner to the Christmas party. So everybody was fair game. The other thing to talk about, um, which has gone completely out of fashion, and certainly was never in fashion in Ireland where I am now, but I can remember from being a student nurse and a young staff nurse in England, a big thing at Christmas was uh mistletoe. Now, mistletoe is a magical thing. Mistletoe, every ward would have a bunch of mistletoe, and it was kind of a social norm. This is true. You would hang up the mistletoe above the door of the ward, and any unsuspecting person that came in that you fancied, you would get them under the mistletoe, and they were it was just a social norm. You did not you were not allowed to say no. Like if somebody got you under the mistletoe and you pointed up to the mistletoe to for the kiss, you know, you had to kiss somebody under the mistletoe, and they couldn't say no. It was virtually kind of um what should we say, it was kind of uh um legalized sexual assault going on in the hospital, but this was just accepted. I never saw anybody, it's like if you got them under the mistletoe, it was just expected, they had to say yes, they couldn't resist, and I saw you know people would have a good L snog under the mistletoe lasting two to three seconds, it wouldn't be a peck on the cheek. Now, sometimes it would be a peck in the cheek, but some people would go for it and it would be a good a snog, and I'm talking in front of everybody, and especially if they had like their eye on a certain doctor or something like that, they would get him under the mistletoe, and he was powerless to say no. Once she pointed, or he pointed to the mistletoe, that was the end of the subject. I can only describe it to be honest, it's like a spell was cast over people once the mistletoe was pointed to, and everybody complied with that. It was just an unwritten rule, it's social norm in the hospital. Once the mistletoe was pointed to, all resistance was futile. Now the spell of the mistletoe only lasted for the 12 days of Christmas. So the mistletoe would go up, say on Christmas Eve, and then would be taken down January the 6th to the Feast of the Epiphany, the same as the Nativity scene. So it only lasted for the 12 days of Christmas. But in those twelve days, it was truly magical. You see, there was a lot more, I would say, without being um uh what's the word about it, you know, uh it was a lot more fun and it was very flirtatious. There was all kinds of flirtatious stuff going on at work in those days, and it was just accepted because it was the social norm. And um uh you see some hospitals as well. Now, the hospital I trained in didn't have one, but I remember when I worked down in London, they some of those hospitals as what they call the social club, and nurses and doctors would be socializing together after shift, you know, in this in the hospital social club, and a lot of alcohol consumed and everything. And um I'm sure the mistletoe came the mistletoe came into great use there at the social club as well. Like people think, um, especially young nurses now, think people were very uh prudish and very strict and all this kind of thing in the in the 70s and eighties. But I think we were much more liberal, we were much more um there was much more stuff going on that you know that can't be talked about um amongst staff and things like that. But now I think nowadays it's very kind of puritanical and pu prudish, to be honest, now. Now I want to change the um subject a little bit, and I want to move on to another subject that is um quite dear to my heart, and that is medical miracles. Now, I'm at it what 47, 48 years now nursing, and I I've seen two medical miracles in my career, and I just want to talk about them now. Now, if we're talking about medical miracles, we have to talk about the medical profession, and I don't want to be derogatory about it because I've worked with doctors since I was 18 and I'm now 66, so I know doctors very, very well. But doctors are from a different universe, really, when it comes to belief in miracles. They don't believe in them, they only believe in medical science, and um see a lot of it, a lot of that. I mean, I'll just be honest about it, a lot of that comes from medical arrogance. There's a there's a huge amount of medical arrogance about it. They can't believe that there is a god, they can't believe, you know, that um miracles do happen. But I have seen and witnessed two miracles. Um and as the psalm says, I'll just get all religious on you now. As the psalm says, Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth and created the sun, moon, and stars? And that says it all, really. Now the first miracle I witnessed was when I worked I was charging us in the cardiothoracic ICU in Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, and it was about 1993, 1994, and um a woman had gone into the cardiac cardiac surgery in the cardiac theatres, and they were next door to the ICU, and they were operating on her there. Now that then I was aware there was a huge emergency in the theatres. She was on the bypass machine, etc., and they were operating on her, and it had all gone horribly wrong. Um, and to cut the long story short, she died on the table. They were resuscitated for a long, long time on the theatre table, and she died. Um, she had no cardiac output, no pulses, no responses. They they her chest was open, obviously, while they were operating her cardiac surgery-wise. They de-gowned, they did the swab count, the anesthesia disconnected the ventilator. She was still the tube was still ET tube was still in her. They basically left her there more or less naked on the theatre table with her chest open. All the doctors left, etc., while the nurses finished the swab count, etc. And they that was it, really, and and she was dead on the table. This was going on for a long, long time. Like she was gone 20 minutes on that table, and they were waiting for for some junior doctor to come to close the chest so that the nurses then could wash her and prepare her for the mortuary, etc. And this doctor hadn't arrived yet, so they were still waiting, so they were finishing off the swab count, etc., and tidying up the operating theatre, etc. Now, this woman had been dead on the theatre table for over 20 minutes, and all the doctors and and other staff had gone, left, gone to the staff room, etc. And what was told to me, I wasn't in the operating theatre, but what was told to me is that they allowed the priest in to anoint her on the theatre table because she was Roman Catholic. And the priest came in, he anointed that woman on the theatre table, and immediately as he anointed her, one of the nurses noticed there were signs of life in, she moved on the theatre table. They called a cardiac arrest, etc. The doctors came back in, they had to re-scrub up the cardiac surgeon, all these people, they had to restart the um bypass machine, reconnect her to the ventilator, etc. Carry on. They completed the cardiac surgery, whatever they were doing. She had a cardiac output, blood pressure, etc. Obviously, she was on ionotrobes. She ended up in the ICU where I was a charge ness in the ICU. She was brought into the ICU. I was aware of all this story and stuff that they were talking about. We all thought she'd be brain dead when she came into the ICU. That woman was extubated the next morning with a GCS of 15 out of 15. She went to the cardiac surgery ward the next day and she went home a few days later. And that was a miracle. Now you had doctors saying, Oh, well, maybe this had happened, maybe that happened, maybe the other happened. We all the nurses knew that was a miracle. That woman was dead on the theatre table, and she was brought back to life. And you can either believe that or not, but I'm saying that I witnessed that, I saw it, she was extramated the next morning, 15 out of 15, and she was telling some of the nurses that she had this you know dream that she was gone to heaven and that she was sent back, that it was not her time. All that kind of stuff going on. You could write a book about it, really, but I saw that with my own eyes, and nobody will tell me that that was not a medical uh medical miracle, a miracle of God. And the second miracle I witnessed in my career was in the Matter Hospital in Dublin. I was seeing him too in the ICU there. It's 2002, and the story there was this young guy, in about 24, I think he was at that time. We call him Sean Murphy, but anyway, from a very rough family in Dublin, drugs involved, all that kind of thing, really dog rough, to be honest. Yeah, real dog rough family. And um anyway, he was in a pub one night with his brother. His brother was a drug dealer in Dublin. They came in, this rival gang came into the pub with guns. They came to shoot his brother. He stepped in front of his brother and they shot him through the chest, right? So he had a bullet through his chest, through his heart. Anthrlop resuscitated. Well, he was brought to the matter hospital then. He was asystolic on arrival to the matter. They kept on resuscitating him, they got him up to the cardiac surgery theatre, they opened him up, full blown, you know, to try and um save him. This went on for hours, they continued, they got the bullet out, they saved him, but obviously he was brain damaged because he'd been down for such a long time, a huge amount of time. He'd been down for about an hour, like with no cardiac output or anything. Anyway, he was in the ICU in the matter on multiple uh, you know, ventilated critical inotropes, went on for weeks. This dialysis, critical, critical, critical. You know the story, the usual type of patient. But anyway, it went on and on and on. Anyway, they got the dialysis off, they got the inotropes off. Fine, you know, he ended up being tracheost uh tracheostomy. GCS was never greater than three or four out of fifteen. The CT scans showed gross hypoxic brain damage. He was a vegetable basically. Anyway, tracheostomy, then the weaned him off the tracheostomy, about nasal prong oxygen in the matters ICO where I worked. And he was there in the bed, and I can remember it well. He was a GCS of 4 out of 15, 3 or 4 out of 15. He had the occasional seizure, and that was it. And going nowhere, had peg feeding, we were waiting for him to go to a ward, we're just waiting for a medical bed. And I can remember this Sunday. Uh we were very quiet in the matters with the part of the matters I see where I was, sitting at a desk, the staff nurse next to me there, she's reading the Sunday papers, I'm reading the Sunday papers, there's nothing to do. He was over in the corner, with very few patients, were very, very quiet, and the family were in and out visiting him and all this kind of, but he was like a vegetable in the bed, and we were just waiting for a met a bed on the medical wall. There was absolutely nothing to do to with him, like apart from nursing care, he was being uh peg fed and he was on his prong oxygen. And um the mother came in with this bottle of Louis water shaped like a statue. You know, I'm sure you've all seen them, a plastic bottle shaped like uh the Blessed Virgin with a crown on her head, and the crown on her head is is the top of the bottle, if you know what I mean. They're very, very common. But anyway, she came up to us at the desk with this bottle, and she said to the staffness that was looking after um Sean Murphy, we'll call him, that was looking after Sean, who's sitting next to me, she said to me, Can you put this water? I've got this water from Lewis, it's just arrived. My sister's brought it, blah blah blah. Can you He put it down his tube into a stomach for him, and the staff said, Oh no, sorry, we're not allowed to do that, you know, infection control and kiss any bugs in it and all this kind of thing. She said, But you can sprinkle it on him if you want. There's no it'd be no problem. So the mother went over to Sean Murphy there in the bed, who was a GCS of three at 15. She sprinkled him with this Lewis water, and he sat bolt upright in the bed and started crying. And the next thing, everyone was cheering saying it's a miracle. He tries, starts trying to get out of the bed then, like me and this other staff staff. We could not believe our eyes. So we had to run over to the bed trying to restrain him from stop him getting out of the bed. I ran to the phone, she was holding, I ran to the phone to phone the registrar and said to her, Come quickly, Sean Murphy's woken up. And she said an expletive to me down the phone, and I said, No, I'm not joking, please come. So she came then running the registrar. We had to state him, she had to state him with IV sedation to keep him in the bed because otherwise he would have been on the floor. Um it's unbelievable. And he went from a GCS of three out of 15 to I'd say 14 out of 15 within seconds of that water being sprinkled on him. That was no coincidence. Don't care what anybody says. Anyway, I've not finished the story yet. The family were all saying it was a miracle. We all thought it was a miracle, but anyway, the doctors obviously were the usual doubting Thomas's. Oh, well, maybe the CT scan was wrong, maybe the hypoxic brain damage wasn't as bad as oh, maybe it's improved and all, you know, the usual bullshit. They wouldn't just accept that a miracle had happened, you know. But anyway, that was it. He continued on at GCS about 14 out of 15. He was still confused, but he was he was there and he was attempting to talk and all this kind of stuff. And eventually we got him to a medical ward, you know, a few days later and all this kind of thing, or a surgical ward, a few days later, and um thought no more of it, and we were all talking about it for a little while, but then forgot all about him, really. And I was coming on a late shift, about two, three weeks later, and a girl, I was going along the corridor there in the matter, and the girl stepped in front of me in my path, right? I said, You don't know who I am, do you? I said, No, I don't. I thought she was gonna hit me, you know, and a real rough, you know, anyway, cinema, but a real rough dope, dope as we call them, and uh she said, I'm and I'm Sean's girlfriend, and he is Sean, right? And with that, this guy in jeans, white t-shirt on him, leather jacket, steps forward and shook my hand and said, Thank you. And this was Sean Murphy, who three weeks earlier had been GCS315, and she said, Oh yeah, Sean's coming home. Now he was simple, he wasn't talking much, you know, he was uh simple in the head, but um he was going home, he was being discharged from the hospital, and I just thought his mother got her son back, she got her son back, her prayers were answered, and it was just so uh uh moving and emotional to witness that, and that was the second miracle I witnessed, and that was a miracle of God, definitely. Now, he has died since, but he only died, apparently. Shawma, he only I looked him up, he only died in in uh 2022. So that he his mother got 20 years. So you you would wonder, but he was at a hypoxic brain damage, there was no way he was coming back from that. And he went home. I'll leave you with that. Good night and God bless.