A BIRKDALE mother has praised staff at Beaudesert Hospital for providing blood tests and a strategically timed haircut to her 32-year-old son, Adam D’Arcy, who lives at Rural Lifestyle Options Australia in Beaudesert.
His mother Janis D’Arcy said because her son had Down syndrome and some autistic traits even minor medical interventions terrified him.
“Adam doesn’t and cannot understand what’s going on and because he’s non-verbal and has only 32 per cent hearing in one ear, he has difficulty communicating,” Ms D’Arcy said.
“Adam usually has to be anaesthetised even for a check up at the dentist, so when he recently became unwell his GP agreed that the best course of action was for Adam to have his blood tests at the hospital,” Ms D’Arcy said.
She said she and her husband Mike had travelled to Beaudesert to accompany Adam to hospital.
“Once Adam was anaesthetised, the staff, headed by Dr Wayne Shipley, went into action and got on with the job of taking care of their patient,” she said.
“It may have been ‘just another day at the office’ but as Adam’s mother, what I saw was an extremely professional team of doctors and nurses who went above and beyond the call of duty to look after my precious son.
“Adam was in need of a haircut and I mentioned to Mike that we should have brought the clippers, so Dr Shipley asked one of the nurses if she could cut hair.
“She kindly agreed and she did a great job. You’d think she was a hairdresser.”
Ms D’Arcy said the family was at the hospital for six hours.
“We took him home to RLOA at 7pm and I stayed with him until 9pm,” she said.
“One of his carers slept all night in the lounge area just outside his room to make sure he was all right.
“The world is a wonderful place when people care so much about others.”
