Hospital Gifts - Balloons

Back in the day, when balloons were still permitted as hospital gifts to be stored in the room with the recipient this story played out.

This is how it was told to me . . . A Canadian gymnast was practicing before a competition but in a domed gymnasium; for the first time. So when he went to do a release move on the high bar, he caught a glimpse of the uneven surface above him and got disoriented, missed the bar, and fell all the way to the floor below. This injury landed him in a shared hospital room with a broken back in the orthopedics ward. Thankfully, the break occurred past the cervical vertebrae that would otherwise have meant paralysis and he was 'merely' in very bad shape. One day, his roommate received a ton of visitors and one left balloons. Not unexpectedly, as this was the orthopedics ward, this roommate was completely incapacitated in a full-body cast. Lucky for him, the poor guy with the broken back (our gymnast) was lying awake and bored after listening in on this visit. (You can't really watch tv while someone else is having a visit in the next bed.) He heard some awkward breathing coming from the neighbouring bed. He moved the curtain and found that the balloons, instead of being bouyed up by their helium centres, were instead lilting over the man's face impeding his breath. A fast trigger finger (for the call button) and some very prompt healthcare workers prevented a serious catastrophe. They rushed into the room and got the bad balloon free of the man's face before any permanent damage could occur.

Everyone wants to be thoughtful and bring some joy to a loved one in an unfortunate situation but no one wants to cause additional suffering. Stay tuned for our follow up piece on hospital gifts with a look at flowers.

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