Devotion

The dispatch was for a sick person, but the issue was not a sick person at all. An elderly man, mid-eighties, had called because his wife's feeding tube had come out. I know, not an emergency in the classic sense, but this was a feeding tube that went through her side, not her nose. Stomach acid is not a pleasant thing to having leaking in all the wrong places.

She was mostly paralyzed from a previous stroke and her husband refused to put her in a nursing home again. He said he had done it once but the look in his eyes spoke volumes about the care, or perhaps the lack their of, she had received. He could take care of her daily needs, but this he could not no matter how much he tried.

So we bundled her up and moved her carefully to the cot, with her husband answering all my questions along the way. You could see his devotion to her as he sat in the back with me and his wife, holding her hand for the ride. She couldn't respond much but you could see there was still life in her eyes, still understanding trapped in a body that now refused to move.

I wish it was easier for sir, to take care of your wife, to not worry about her, but let me tell you that you are doing a wonderful job for her. She could not have a better care taker than you.