Although it had been nine days since the first ambulance ride through Salerno followed by another three days later which led to hospitalization and a double bypass operation, Lady Helen still found it hard to accept that her husband was really ill.   The Earl seemed so well those few days before surgery but now he was weak and reliant upon her. She knew he w0uld get better and that he was receiving excellent care but it was just so hard to see the strong man that she always relied upon for so much being so vulnerable.

On the third morning he rang his wife and was almost in tears. “Why aren’t you here?  They’re killing me!” L.H. marched over to the hospital with her boxing gloves on. She walked across the cleaner’s freshly mopped floors.  He yelled some profanities at her but she didn’t care,  “Bastardo i pavimenti ! Mio Marito ha male!”   In other words – bugger the floors my husband’s in pain.

The nurses had “rukked”him into a sitting position which caused the pipes to pull and hurt his chest. He’d asked them to let him get up slowly on his own but clearly they had not had the patience to try to understood his words and followed their lifting training to get him into the position they wanted him to be.

L.H.  told the nurses to please be gentle and to do things slowly.  “Gentile e lentemente per favore!”   (Gently and slowly please) The Earl was in a great deal of pain and said he wanted the doctor so she insisted they call him.  They glared at  her and told her in Italian that it was normal to have pain after surgery but she insisted, so one of them complied.  The duty doctor was there within minutes! She didn’t think that would have happened in South Africa.

He spoke excellent English. She explained to him that The Earl wanted to get up on his own, at his own pace and would he please tell the staff to comply with his wishes.  He, of course, tried to be diplomatic and said it was because they didn’t understand English and thought they were doing the right thing.  “Yes, I know,”said L.H. “And we really appreciate everything. We probably wouldn’t have had better treatment in our own country,  but he is very upset and if the nurses just let him do things at his own pace he would be more cooperative.”   He examined The Earl and gave him more pain meds then spoke to the staff.  They glared at L.H. unhappily and pussy footed around her for the rest of the morning.  She in turn did not want to alienate them so thanked them for all they were doing for her husband.  It was a while before they smiled at her again.
She left for half an hour and when she returned a nurse was busy taking the tubes out of The Earl’s chest.  The nurse indicated that she stay out.  She asked The Earl if he was okay and he gave the thumbs up. “It’s okay,” he said, “He is not hurting me.”   Then a whole team arrived and had a party in the ward. They kissed each other in the continental way and greeted each other like long lost friends. This included the duty doctor.   They shut the ‘grande porta rossa’ (big red door) and L.H. was not even allowed to peep in.

La grande porta rossa – Chiusa!

She was feeling a bit miffed when one of the operating doctors arrived. He was politeness personified and asked her how things were. “Mostly good,” she replied “But they won’t let me in and I don’t know what’s going on.  The language is a problem.”  She also told him about the earlier rough treatment.   He chatted to her for a long time and was very reassuring.  He said that  The Earl would not be able to travel for at least a month.  This meant they would not be able to go to Diamante to join their friends after he was discharged.  They would have to spend the rest of their holiday close to the hospital in Salerno.
The surgeon then went into the ward and after a while L.H. was called in to answer some questions about medication, allergies and past illnesses etc.
After this The Earl settled down a bit and the nurses left them alone until lunch time.  L.H. fed him a few spoons of soup – his first food since the operation.   He then decided that he would sit up and with her help and not a bully nurse in sight, he got himself to sit with his legs over the side of the bed and he finished his soup on his own.

L.H. then went to have her own lunch and brought him back a gelato al limonate which he managed to eat half of.  A sure sign that he was on the mend.

Feeling a little better

L.H. was only going to spend a day or two at the hospital hotel but it became clear that The Earl was not going to cope without her so she booked in for longer and in fact ended up staying for the duration of his time in the hospital. She would arrive after breakfast, stay till lunchtime, take a break for an hour or two and then return till after evening visiting time. The Captain and his Admiral visited at the allowed times and moved on to Diamante when their time in the Salerno accommodtion was up.  The Earl would be in hospital for almost three weeks and then he and L.H. would stay in a hotel until Dr P gave the okay for him to fly.