June 21st was the longest day. That’s what yesterday was where I live. Actually the last 36 hours were unbelievably long for members of my family.The first official day of summer in the Northern Hemisphere is marked by the summer solstice. In addition, the first day of summer, the summer solstice, also marks the longest day of the year. At the summer solstice, the days are longest and the nights are shortest. The word Solstice derives from two Latin words, sol (sun) and sistere (stand still) and refers to the Sun's most extreme southernmost or northernmost position in the sky as viewed from Earth. The southern extreme is the summer solstice.
I didn’t really care about any of that when on Monday night, the eve of Solstice, my married daughter, aged forty-two, mother of three children, beautiful blonde-haired, blue-eyed woman, Master’s in Music from Western Washington U, drove herself to the Hospital Emergency doors and told them she had chest pains. Hours later following testing we learned that she had suffered a heart attack.
That was the start of our shortest night and longest day. By yesterday morning her condition was more serious and she was transported to Royal Columbia Hospital where she immediately underwent the Cardiac catheterization and angiography procedure whereby catheters are inserted into the arteries on each side of the groin and up into the heart to evaluate the anatomy and function of the heart and surrounding blood vessels. One artery was found to be torn and the walls collapsed and this was repaired by the insertion of stents. By supper time she was back at Langley to be monitored there. Speedy, efficient, first-class and highly professional, confidence-exuding, comfort-emanating medical care is what Royal Columbia’s cardiac department delivered. Tonight our girl was resting and so were her husband and children and me.
One day in the life. That’s what this was. It felt like a very long time. How many of these have Paul and Zabeth Bayne and their parents endured since the Bayne children were taken from Paul’s and Zabeth’s care on October 22, 2007? The total number of days between Monday, October 22nd, 2007 and Tuesday, June 21st, 2011 is 1,338 days. This is equal to exactly 3 years, 7 months, and 30 days. The total time span from 2007-10-22 to 2011-06-21 is 32,112 hours. This is equivalent to 1,926,720 minutes.
I wish today that I could be as impressed and as grateful for the full array of services of the Ministry of Children and Family Development in B.C. as I am with the medical staff we have experienced recently. I wish that I was as thankful for the services of MCFD as I am for Langley Hospital Emerg and Royal Columbian Hospital’s Cardiac Unit. I am however saddened at the volume of families who are subjected to aggressive, forcible, unnecessarily long separations of parents and children, and the bureaucratic, insensitive, complicated and costly process to recover parental reputation, respect, custody, and happiness.
Honourable Christy Clark, Honourable Mary McNeil, you must for the sake of the citizens of this province, look more seriously than has ever been done before, into the policy, administration, service delivery, personnel training and qualifications and management operations of this crucial Ministry.
Ron, what a horrible day that must have been. I'm so glad that she is "ok" now. I will be praying for your family and for a speedy recovery for your daughter. Amazing how precious and fragile our lives really are.
ReplyDeleteYou really put into perspective how terribly LONG the Baynes have been waiting and working so very hard to be re-united as a whole family unit. All the "This could be the day the kids come home" kind of feelings only to be dashed time and time again. This has been one long Cruel Journey for the Baynes! A nightmare that needs to be over. My prayer is and always has been that their precious family will be whole again! (SOON) I can't even imagine...
Many prayers for your family today as you move through this unexpected time of stress. I understand and appreciate how something such as this can turn ones world seemingly upside down. At the risk of sounding glib, as believers who put our faith in Christ we are confident that He is in control - words so easy to say but so hard to practice. I pray for a speedy recovery for your daughter and continued strength for the family.
ReplyDeleteJim
Ron; a great many people rejoice with you today. We have excellent and affordable medical services in Canada. I met many older, affluent (and usually obese) US citizens on the cruise and they usually asked us about our medical services.They had heard a lot of bad things about it from republican anti-medicare propagandists. They found it hard to believe that we were more than satisfied with our experiences of our medical care. They had been so brain washed that they simply rejected what they did not want to believe. They also denied that thirty million Americans have no medical coverage. Denial penetrates deep and nowhere is denial more evident than in the administration of the children's ministry.
ReplyDeleteYou are quite right. If the medical services operated on the same level of competence as the protection services, doctors would still be using leeches and people would be dying young. Fortunately the practice of medicine is evidence based and empirically reliable. Evidence is an alien concept to social workers,their supervisors and the directors on the children's ministry. It is also apparently and alien concept to some judges. If fact-based evidence were the rule in family court, then the Bayne kids would only have been in care for a few weeks.
I had really planned on writing about the illusory concepts of caseload size today, but there is not enough room, so it will have to wait. Your topic is much more relevant to the issues of the day. Thank heavans for the competence that is there, even if it shows the incompetence elsewhere. Best wishes to you and your loved ones.
Your daughter and your family will be in our prayers.
ReplyDeleteWell friend, prayers are in abundance for your daughter and your whole family, just reading the few comments confirms this. My experience has been that for each one who leaves a comment, at least 10 don't, but they read and pray. Praise God for His divine covering and leading of doctors and medical support people who have such incredible knowledge and abilities. And in Canada, most of it is covered by our medical.
ReplyDeleteAnd for the Bayne's, we still pray, we will not stop, it has become part of our day. It will be fantastic when we come to the point of giving thanks that the children have all been returned to Paul and Zabeth for good. Hallelujah and we would like that day now. Thank you Jesus for restoration immediately.
And again,Thanks Ron . You are a conduit for information we would not otherwise have such easy access to. I thank God for your commitment to this. Blessings upon you and your family.
I absolutely second Rebecca's comment.
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