Two Visitors Per Patient

It is the lunch time visiting hour at a major city hospital.An elderly woman lies in a drug induced sleep on a hospital bed and her relatives have come to see how she is doing.The notice for two visitors per patient is ignored as her anxious relatives  crowd around her bed and try to see for themselves what they have from phone calls or chats that they relative is very ill.

Two Visitors Per Bed

Whilst all this is well intentioned but the patient just needs to be left alone to rest,for her body to heal itself.It is quite a contradiction because those who prophesy to love and care for her are the ones who disturb her by waking up and try to talk to her.Wanting to know how she is feeling and whether she recognizes  them.The lady is very ill, the notes on her bed indicate that she has breast cancer and she is unresponsive to treatment.She is no longer eating neither can she talk.

Some sane minds among the visitors suggest that just a few visitors at a time should be by her bed to no avail.Waking up and finding a lot of strangers around ones bed does not exactly augur well for a very sick patient.Eventually after the initial flurry of rubber-necking is over,the visitors realize the gravity of the situation and sit in the chairs provided and talk among themselves.It is taboo for anyone to mention how ill a patient is traditionally but all and sundry can see that the patient is struggling.

For the immediate family,the children,watching their mother being turned into a spectacle is heartbreaking,no matter how well intentioned the action might be.They can only stand by and watch. Should they tell the visitors to keep their distance,it will be misconstrued as arrogance.It is a catch 22 situation.