September 2005

A couple of weeks ago, on September 1st, Ladan moved from the Newcastle General Hospital to the rehabilitation unit of The Hawthorns in Peterlee, a small town near the North Sea coast and about 25 miles south of Newcastle. This was move was sprung on us quite suddenly and is intended to be temporary while waiting for a bed at another rehabilitation centre in Newcastle to become available. Ladan has a nice room in Peterlee, pictures of which can be seen here on webshots, and the staff are all very friendly. Ladan herself has been quite cold and very sleepy since we moved there, physically she is showing some minor signs of improvement but as for even the most basic appearances of obeying commands or communicating she is not staying awake long enough for any seemingly successful interactions to be repeated, and without repetition there is no way of distinguishing between coincidental reflexes and deliberate responses. Unfortunately this change cannot be fuuly appreciated by the rehab staff in Peterlee.

From a rehabilitation perspective I have been sadly unimpressed with the slowness of any action besides physiotherapy. Recently we were informed that once they have established even a basic awareness of the outside world, such as some response to sound, they can work with that. It has taken the Primary Care Trust a ridiculous number of months to approve sending Ladan somewhere that can begin a scientific assessment to see how much awareness she already has and even now, after more than two and a half weeks in a rehabilitation centre, such assessment has not begun. The Hawthorns are aware of our concerns and are trying to speed things up.