This morning I woke early to go to Hydrotherapy. The water is lovely and warm, and I enjoy the exercises. While we waited by the door to leave, Jenni suddenly rocketed past and shoved an older lady into the stairwell.

Suddenly there was chaos. An alarm rang. “code black! Code black!” an automated voice sounded. nurses rushed, the older lady cried. “Call Security!” someone shouted.

We all stood around awkwardly in the middle of everything…the older lady blocking our exit…until a nurse herded us out through the staff passage (two security guards raced towards us). Once we were off the ward the conversation started. We were told Jenni had been refusing her medications and was “very very unwell”.

“what is the difference between code blue and code black?” asked one of the younger girls. Being a hospital, we hear many code blues being called, but this was the first code black.

“It means something has happened and assistance is required…don’t worry your head about the codes love” the nurse replied.

The mood on the ward was somewhat muted for the rest of the morning. There was lots of whispering and Jenni truly did become person non grata.

It was right about then that we remembered we weren’t at home.