IN HOSPITAL WITH MY SON •
SIR,---Although I agree with Mrs. Quigly, she is nevertheless only putting one side of the question. My eight-year-old son -was, some while ago, in hospital for several months. This was an enlightened hospital and I was not only allowed, but firmly instructed that I must visit him daily. This meant abandoning my other son, then aged four, to various neighbours while I went to the hospital. When .1 got there I often found him fully occupied with doctors and treatments and occupational therapy and this made me wonder where my presence was most needed. Meanwhile, it was the younger child
who suffered. He showed all the signs Mrs. Quigly describes, plus sleepwalking and crying at night, things he had never done before. He was in fact the last to recover, and it was some months after the sick child was completely well the younger one seemed about back to normal.
Perhaps in this matter, as in so many others, the truth lies somewhere in between and the rules that work well for most do not suit all. Mrs. Jay may have been right this once, but I am not sure that we arc best helping the doctors and nurses by taking the law into our own hands. I prefer Janet Mac- pherson's sweet reasonableness.—Yours faithfully,
LAURA MCDONALD
23 Fir Tree Avenue, Maidstone, Kent
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