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“I’ve really come to hate hospitals.” — Francesca BoyleA visit to the emergency department is not, unless one is obviously at death’s door, a hurried experience. Arriving by ambulance did give Isaac the benefit of an immediate brief triage assessment, but when it became clear that his injuries were not life threatening the pace of events slowed markedly. He waited for an hour before being assessed and sent for an x-ray, another hour for the x-ray to be performed, and then over two hours for the radiologist to deliver the verdict that there were no bones broken. At the end of which a harried looking doctor who had played no prior role in the proceedings had declared to Isaac that, as a precaution, she was going to “keep you in overnight for observation”.
This announcement conjured u
