Accident and Emergency at 3am

Please note, I'm too exhausted to proof read before posting. Sorry xx

I spent the best half of this morning in the A&E (accident and emergency), arriving at 3am, just in time to witness the horrors. It's not often that I go to the hospital and rarely ever to A&E and never during the early hours of the morning.

Adam was assulted at around 2am this morning, he was on his way to the store (why he was out at that time, whilst I was sleeping with the rest of civilisation, I don't know. We discussed that already), when a group of teens confronted him and one of them hit him. He was knocked to the ground which caused some bruising, but the punch itself broke his jaw in two places.
He came home and woke me up with the news, which is NOT the best way he's ever woken me up before. Threw on some clothes, called a taxi and went to the hospital.

I know that America is currently working on a national healthcare system, similar to Europe and Canada. And whilst I honestly think that it is a disgrace that there are some Americans living below the poverty line, who have no healthcare at all, our NHS is not the dream some imagine it to be. Whist it means seeing a doctor when you need one and eventually getting any surgery you might need, the treatment you receive it not nearly as good as it should be. And you'll find that most people who can afford it, have some form of private insurance.

The scene in A&E was like nothing I'd ever seen before, lot's of drunk bleeding people. There was a few junkards girlies walking around in the short skirts, making lot's of noise. No bleeding there, not sure what was wrong with them. There was a guy with a swollen black eye which had a cut along the top which needed gluing, story there; he went to stop a fight and some guys walked up to him and punched him in the face. They had a "drunk area" where they had a few down and outs, sitting in wheelchairs sleeping off their booze, one of them apparently fell into the road to sleep there and the police brought him in. There were two guys who were walking home from a night out, eating their kebabs, when a car pulled up. Four Polish guys jumped out and started wailing on them with poles and screwdrivers, didn't know them from anywhere. According to the police, the same man had randomly attacked someone else earlier that night. Then of course, there were people with broken legs, broken fingers, temperatures, head injuries, digusting coughs. There was a somewhat drunk man in a Danger Mouse costume...not sure what he was about, he ended up leaving before being seen by the Dr. Anyway, then there was Adam and I and his broken jaw.

Now, I don't want to appear snobbish, but I didn't feel like I belonged in that waiting room. Not because I think I'm better than any of those people, but to be sitting there because my husband had a broken jaw is insane. I don't really go out in the evenings and if I do, I'm usually home by midnight at the latest. In London, it is true to say that after a certain time, nothing good can come from being out on the streets. There are little punk gangs of kids who go around causing trouble, mugging and assulting people. Adam and I have talked about it constantly, he has a tendancy to roam which I do not like.

We sat and waited for hours, saw one nurse and two doctors, only to be told that we had to wait for a phone call and return on Monday. His jaw is broken, but it is up to the senior facial doctors at the hospital to decide how to proceed. It is broken in two places, so it is in three part and whilst he's not keen on the idea, it will most likely be wired shut. We got to see the x-rays, which was rather cool and the breaks were very clear.

Emotionally, this has been one of the worst experiences we've had together. Knife crime is rife in this city and so I'm just so glad that nothing worse happened to him. The fear of knowing that I could be sleeping in bed and he could be bleeding out somewhere is too distressing to allow myself to fully imagine. Since he's been here, we've just been trying to make a life here with no success. Adam hasn't been able to find a decent job and money is tight. This incident today, really is the final straw. I told Adam that we're leaving, we're going to sort out my visa application so that we can move to America. I'm hoping that nothing will happen to deny my visa, because then we really will be screwed. No clue where we'll live if that happens!

We went to the police today and he gave a statement. They said they'll review the CCTV footage in the area and contact him. It's just all so insane, I know there is a word I'm thinking of to describe how unreal this all feels, but I can't recall it at the moment. It just is so unexpected and the emotional rollercoaster is intense.

So, my halloween...my husband got his draw broken, spent the day in A&E, missed work, decided to move to America. The only down side is that I'll have to drop out of school and I'll miss my niece and nephew, but I don't want anything to happen to my husband and I'm tired of feeling like our life together hasn't started because we're constantly struggling to get by.