6 April 2025
I first noticed Joey when I was being shown around the hospital as part of my induction. He was a patient with Downs Syndrome and was on the locked ward, Box. I estimated he was aged between 35-45, a small, but stocky chap with a shock of blond hair. He was wearing an ill-fitting suit – the trousers were too long and the jacket, buttoned across his chest, too tight. I noticed that his slippers didn’t match.
I noticed him because the charge nurse called him up to the office (situated close to the door of the ward), and, in front of several prospective students, held up a “polo” sweet and then rolled it across the floor, down the ward. Joey then scampered off to retrieve and eat the confection which he picked up off the floor. The charge nurse repeated this a couple of times, and, with a smirk, explained that Joey was“simple” and would perform for a sweet.
One of the students then asked why he was on the ward, in reply he was told that Joey could be “stubborn”. However stubborn Joey might be, I later found out, and observed, him to be the recipient of much verbal and physical abuse by both staff and patients. His“stubbornness” appeared more akin to failure to understand or grasp situations, leading to frustration (and blows) from some of the more aggressive patients. He might stand still in front of the TV unaware that those watching might be becoming angry and agitated. He had to be instructed to sit at mealtimes and aided to the toilet.
He had a chronic ear infection that was largely untreated, so it is quite possible that he was hard of hearing. This, in turn, would often earn him a clip round the very same infected ear by the SEN or charge nurse. So his life would unwind, punctuated by “rewards” or punishments of which he would appear to have little comprehension in a seemingly random and chaotic world.
6 April 2025