04 Jun Day 4: Home

Lauren and I are off to Jeff’s work to let them know he won’t be in for some time, we won’t go into any details but of course they need to know – we’ll just tell them he’s in hospital and had an accident. 

We’ve spent the day with Jeff, he’s doing really well, talking a lot but his short term is pretty much non-existent. I’ve been tasked with the lovely job of telling him what happened and why he’s in hospital. I tell him what he did, go into as much detail as possible, I get the same reply every time, “What?! I’d never do that!” 

Something I’ve learnt from today, from speaking to all of the medical professionals, suicide is almost always irrational. Whatever happened on Friday to make him think that suicide was the only way out, clearly isn’t going through his mind now. 

1pm: The doctors have told Jeff that he can be discharged today. Shock or Happiness? 3 days ago he was GCS 3 (a term used for being pretty much dead) and today he’s being discharged home. 10 minutes later they’re telling him that he may be going into a Mental Health Unit, now – this stigma for Mental Health Units is terrible, and I’m guilty of that right now, I think that’s the worst decision anyone could ever make to go into somewhere like that, straight jackets and chair rockers, right? 

Jeff is being discharged, he’s coming home with us and we’re now responsible for his care. The family meet us at home and we have dinner together. All seems good.