Last time I am interviewed by Caroline and Zara in the lunchtime show. Stayed for a few hours to cover the Studio Manager shift and, while doing so, M* calls from hospital because her son has had an asthma attack.
She doesn’t know how long they will be there. I get there well past the visits hour but no one tells me anything, mainly because there is no one around. I could have entered with a bomb or a machine gun, or could have poisoned any of those lonely children, and no one would have noticed.
When I find the room where they are staying, M* is starving because she has not been able to get anything to eat yet. Her son has been crying almost continuously, and she says she can not leave his bed side while he is crying – and he does cry more if he sees her leaving. She also complains that whenever she has left her son sleeping and come back to find him crying, the nurses just ignore him and leave him to cry. So, because meals for the parents are “not included”, nor is the service of getting her a sandwich from the overpriced shop downstairs, she has had to do with no food for most of the day.
So if it wasn’t for visits, the option is either leave a suffering little baby crying on his own, or starve.
