A WILD RIDE IN AN AMBULANCE - FIVE YEARS AGO

SIMILAR TO THE AMBULANCE THAT TOOK ME TO HOSPITAL

FIVE YEARS AGO TODAY

It was a Thursday. Only three days earlier, I had been released from Hospital after very successful Triple Bypass Heart Surgery a week before that. 

The previous night had been an ordeal, as I felt increasing pain in my shoulder and neck, rising temperature and a severe headache and I could not get comfortable lying down, sitting or standing - let alone get to sleep. Upon waking, my Wife found me draped across the lounge to which I had crept early in the evening, continually moving, seeking relief. Alarmed she got me some clothing and helped dress me and rushed me in our car to the Doctor's Surgery. We arrived as they opened for the day. I must have looked pretty awful because, as my Wife helped me out of our car, I caught sight of some people in the crowd waiting on the Railway Station. They were looking at me with faces registering shock and even horror. Less than encouraging.

My Wife was heroic, managing to get me stumbling and more or less powerless across the road and into the Surgery.

In no time flat, our marvellous G.P. had me out the back of the Surgery in the treatment room and the Registered Nurse assisted him. He gave me an Electro Cardiogram and was pretty certain that it was NOT a Heart Attack. He gave me a moderate pain killer by injection , but told me that he would not give me a severe painkiller(Morphine) because he had called an Ambulance to get me back to Royal North Shore Hospital, and the stronger injection might mask symptoms of a Heart Attack if that was what it turned out to be.

As the painkilling injection took effect, I became more at ease.

Then He arrived!  "Captain" Ambulance: tall strongly-built decked out in Hi-Viz uniform and bringing all his paraphernalia with him So far so good. 

But he began to talk: "Stand aside!" this to the delightful Nurse "I AM A QUALIFIED HEALTH PROFESSIONAL!" - I did not feel much like laughing, but this got me near to it! The Doctor in a very professional manner, related my recent history, the present situation, the treatment given and his estimate of the likely situation. "I will make my OWN judgement. He should have been given Morphine to relieve the pain!"  Clearly, the Doctor saw the problem and that it was pointless to argue with "Captain" Ambulance.-all the Doctor wanted was for me to get to the Hospital ASAP!

Needless to say, my Wife got even less attention than anyone else. It became obvious that for "Captain" Ambulance I was only the means to assert his dominance over all and sundry. I suspect he was a leader in the Ambulance crews' ongoing industrial campaigns.

His Gurney or Trolley was set up and I was piled onto it and out to the Ambulance with scarcely a chance to farewell my Wife. The driver of the Ambulance was a younger fellow, obviously in absolute awe of "Captain" Ambulance. The latter set about "Doing my own Electro Cardiogram" then calling another Ambulance to meet us on the way because his Ambulance had no capacity to fax/email the ECG printout to the Hospital. In due course, we made the rendezvous and in no time at all the ECG was sent off ahead of us to the Hospital. Back on the road, I had just thought to myself that we were making good time ( I am very familiar with that stretch of the Highway) when Junior the driver asked "Captain" Ambulance:"Should I put the Siren On?"

"YES CERTAINLY" came the theatrical response and off we went WHINING AND SCREAMING to complete the journey.

"What are you doing?" I asked Captain Ambulance as he hovered over me with a Syringe - "I am giving you an injection of Morphine because I care about relieving your pain EVEN IF YOU DOCTOR DOESN'T!"    "But I don't want......" BAM it was done. So much for me and the highly- qualified General Practitioner.

ROYAL NORTH SHORE HOSPITAL

Shortly afterward we arrived at the EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT of Royal North Shore Hospital. A horde of Doctors came out and as Captain Ambulance began to recount his Triumph I heard a Doctor say to him - forget it -IT IS NOT A HEART ATTACK AS THE ECG SHOWS! I never saw "Captain" Ambulance again, nor do I care to!

For the next month, I was bound to Royal North Shore Hospital which I had left only days before.  The problem was diagnosed as GOLDEN STAPH infection, which had attached itself it seems, to the metal clips holding my chest together after the Triple Bypass (CABG) Surgery of 20th January. The next month was a blur of multiple bouts of surgery, X Rays, Blood Tests, Ultrasounds, onto trollies, off trollies and untold discomforts. After a while, I came to live inside my head the rest was being wrecked by the infection and the powerful antibiotics that finally killed it.

My slender grasp on reality was maintained through the regular visits of those who love me, notably my Wife and my two daughters ( my poor Son was bound to far distant Queensland and the care of his children). My dear Wife's carefully prepared food was all that I survived on because I could not abide the Hospital food. Her daily journeys to and fro and lonely wonderings how it all might end must have been dreadful. And whenever I was conscious, I was able to pray. Thanks be to God for life. On three occasions the Priest Chaplain came and gave me Holy Communion which was truly marvellous. The difficulties people surmounted to visit me I cannot forget. How I loved singing silently to myself the German Hymn "Behute Mich Gott"("Protect me God" ) so much loved by one who is in dire trouble.

I finally got out at the end of February and began, with my Wife's patient and steady help, the months of rehabilitation. But I will never forget that Ambulance ride and my experience of "Captain" Ambulance!

GRANDCHILDREN - GRAND TOUR - GRAND FAITH

As I write this, three of our grandchildren with their dear Mum and Dad are midway through a vacation tour that has led them back to Canterbury in England, from Euro Disneyland(!) Paris is no longer safe for the time being.From there they will soon travel to Rome - the children's first visit to the Eternal City.

For days thoughts have been swirling in my head about all the things I would love to tell them , in order to try to give them the fullest impression of what they will be seeing and the connections that exist between those places.

To begin with, I would have to tell them that by beginning at Canterbury, they are starting at what was the end of an epic story.

It was in Canterbury Cathedral , originally named the Cathedral of the Holy Saviour in A.D. 597 by the First Archbishop of Canterbury Saint Augustine (not to be confused with Saint Augustine of Hippo in North Africa the Great theologian and Philosopher( A.D. 354 - 430). Augustine was sent to convert the Angles by Pope Saint Gregory the Great of whom we will hear more in due course.

SAINT AUGUSTINE OF CANTERBURY

Canterbury Cathedral we can plainly see, was from its very beginning a Catholic Cathedral indeed , the Mother Church of all England just as saint Mary's Cathedral Basilica is the Mother Church of Australia. Sadly  for Canterbury, the Deformation of the Church by King Henry VIII resulted in this great Cathedral , like al the others in England, being stolen from the Catholic Church. The same thing happened to the Parish Churches and Monasteries and Chapels and Schools and University Colleges.

But, stepping back in time from that tragic event, we come to Archbishop Thomas A'Beckett, the great Saint and Martyr who was murdered in his Cathedral at Canterbury by several Knights trying to please the King of the time King Henry II . The King was striving to overthrow the legal rights of the Church as they had existed for centuries, and had nominated Thomas A'Beckett as Archbishop, because he was he very close friend. When the Pope confirmed the appointment , Thomas , who was a layman , was ordained Priest and then Bishop with the Title of Archbishop of Canterbury and Primacy over all the Bishops of England.

Martyrdom of Saint Thomas A'Beckett

Archbishop A'Beckett took his sacred office seriously and would not be the King's puppet. Their disagreements became intense as the King pressed harder to get his way and the Archbishop strongly defended the Church's legal rights. A crisis point was reached when one of the King's nobles murdered a Priest who was defending  a cleric according to the Law.  He did not repent and for this offence Archbishop A'Beckett excommunicated him. The  Rite of Excommunication in the Cathedral is well shown in this now famous Clip from the movie "BECKETT" Starring the late Richard Burton as the Archbishop https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRt2cKvJLlE

The King was furious and attempted to have the Archbishop arrested on false charges- without success as this further Clip shows:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7p9CiBJfbik

But, in his raging the King utters the fatal words "Who will rid me of this meddlesome Priest?". Only too willing to curry favour with the King , several Knights set out for Canterbury Cathedral and the murder of the Archbishop in the Sanctuary of the Cathedral as he celebrated the Liturgy of  Vespers with the Monks of the Abbey attached to the Cathedral. The tragic scene is recreated faithfully in this further Clip from the movie:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHCiziDnrS8

In the aftermath the King submits to physical Penance - he has lost the contest in the end. 

That was more than demonstrated by the fact that the Shrine of Saint Thomas A'Beckett at Canterbury Cathedral became one of the two most popular and sacred in England, along with that of Our Lady of Walsingham. So beloved was the memory of Saint Thomas A'Beckett that when King Henry VIII's Deformation arrived at Canterbury Cathedral, the Kings's Commissioners destroyed the Shrine of Saint Thomas A'Beckett and removed "the gold and silver and precious stones and sacred vestments taken away from the shrine filled six and twenty carts". The sacred relics of Saint Thomas were publicly burnt after being treated with every indignity.

Protestantism had arrived.

When the Catholic Religion became legal again in England ( The Roman Catholic Relief Act of 1829), there began a steady process which led to the re-establishment of the Catholic Hierarchy in England but the Brits were ultra sensitive about titles. As a result, the ancient Catholic titles of Archbishop of Canterbury,or York, or Lincoln or Bishop of London, were denied to us. So the senior Catholic Prelate in England is now the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster (in London of course).

In a bizarre twist, once a year a Catholic Priest or Prelate is allowed to celebrate Mass in the Cathedral at Canterbury. His Eminence Cardinal George Pell has done so on one occasion. How remarkable to have the privilege of bringing the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ back  - if only for an hour -to the great Church dedicated to Him.

His Eminence Cardinal George Pell