‘You have to promise me something… you’ll make sure you won’t catch it. You, the nurses, all of you here.’ Photo: Book cover for Breathtaking: Inside the NHS in a time of pandemic, by Rachel Clark
Breathtaking: Inside the NHS in a time of pandemic, by Rachel Clark
Author: Rachel Clark. Review by Nick Wilde
This book is about faith. Not faith in God, but faith in medicine, and faith in one’s fellow professionals.
‘You have to promise me something… you’ll make sure you won’t catch it. You, the nurses, all of you here.’ This is from one of two sons watching their father die. It is a poignant start to this story of the coronavirus by Rachel Clarke, who writes in the night when she can’t sleep. She chronicles the development of the pandemic from its start in China, where the alarm was raised and suppressed, to its rapid spread across the world, fuelled by international travel and connectivity. Her husband is an airline pilot, and the link is not lost; indeed Rachel succumbs to the virus and is very ill.
Those who have read Dear Life will know that Rachel believes in a good death. One patient, Steve, was able to watch one last Chelsea match on television, with his son, on New Year’s Day. Then there’s the man assiduous about handwashing and mask-wearing, unwittingly shaking hands with an old friend who reveals after the visit that he hasn’t felt well. Within days Ken is in intensive care. As the virus progresses across Europe to the UK the government response is ‘breathtakingly’ too little and too late. The NHS responds to the changing circumstances despite the austerity-imposed reductions in beds and staff.
The inability to accompany relatives on what may be their last journey is tragic. There are many sitting in their cars watching the hospital they cannot enter. For the very best of reasons the very worst is happening. To read about the medical procedures brings it all home. When Rachel gets home she does not greet the children but rushes up stairs to ‘scrub every speck of infection away’. Her daughter is upset. “‘Work-life balance” doesn’t come close to capturing the forcefulness with which medicine clashes with parenthood.’
When the first doctor dies we learn about the staggering number of deaths among the medical profession, and the equally-staggering lack of proper PPE.
A daughter sits at the kitchen table writing a diary of her father’s treatment so he can read it when he comes home – as she has to believe he will. It is an act of faith. He, a man of deep faith, has the church community supporting his family.
Rachel notices the spontaneous willingness to help of so many people who give their time to helping others; the innate ability with which a young student nurse communicates with the daughter of a patient critical on a ventilator. A few weeks later Rachel is sitting with father and daughter in the garden. A marvellous outcome compared with what nearly was.
Her honesty is in contrast to the politicians who bamboozle us with pseudoscientific statistics and what has been called ‘number theatre’.
A lot of this makes grim reading but the quality of the writing carries you along. Rachel Clarke is an excellent writer and communicator.
