EMMA MACEY
ARTIST | TEACHER

MA Project Work in Progress

Hospital Series

 

In March, I took my youngest son Max to the GP because he wailed when I tried to change his nappy. Every day for a week it got worse until he could no longer sit and would only lie flat. Each day I went to the GP and was sent home again. Finally, I demanded to see the paediatrician and within two hours of seeing her we were in an ambulance on the way to Southampton  Childrens’ Hospital. For two days Max underwent a series of tests: x-rays, MRIs, echoes, blood tests. Max was diagnosed with a very rare infection and was referred to the infectious diseases team who, whilst immensely supportive, were uncomfortably excited to have such an ‘interesting case’ on the ward.

 

The ward was loud and foreign and there were a lot of stressed and upset children which unsettled Max as before that time he had never really cried. He would only sleep with his head on my chest where he could hear my heartbeat and smell my skin. And so for over a week, Max and I slept in a cot in the Childrens’ Ward. We bathed together, we paced the hallways together and we were wheeled in and out of theatre on a gurney together. When we were finally released into the care of the community nursing team and Max was carefully removed from my grasp, I felt a very real absence.