DAY 14 - 21st August, Wednesday
Due to the lack of updates I'm sure you're all aware it really wasn't a good day. Everything was suspiciously calm the day before.
Keri was going to go down to the gym. She's still not allowed unescorted leave however one of the nurses made a big mistake, thinking she was allowed unescorted leave on the grounds. He signed her out and she said she'd be back by 12 as that was when the gym session ends, starts at 10am. Later in the evening we found out that this member of staff had been told off very badly for letting Keri out as she's a sectioned patient with no permission for unescorted leave.
She'd barely got through the door to the other unit before she had a blackout. Sally decided to jump at the opportunity to get out of the hospital and an hour later Keri found herself in the middle of a field. In her bag was a new packet of cigarettes, new razor blades and a bus ticket.
It was only about 11.15am so she still had time to get back to the ward by 12pm, but did she? Obviously not! If Sally hadn't taken the chance to escape then Keri would've done it herself anyway. The first thing she did was sit down, take out a blade and start trying to get the bug out of her head. She was doing this for ages before giving up and bursting into tears as she could still feel it clawing at her skull. Unfortunately she was very close to some train tracks so, after unsuccessfully trying to remove this bug, she climbed the fence and got onto the train line.
The voices she was hearing were overpowering her and she kept clawing at her head to get everything out, which didn't work. Trains drove past as she aimlessly wandered across them and reports were being sent in to the network rail workers that a young blonde was on the tracks. She was very lucky at one point not to get hit.
By this point it was about 3pm and a network rail worker found her on the tracks sitting a few feet away from the rails. Keri was too involved in her psychosis to even respond to what the woman was trying to say and refused to move from the tracks. The woman stayed on the tracks with her to slow down any oncoming trains and also phoned for a paramedic (Keri had blood all over her hands and her head) and the British Transport Police.
The paramedic arrived on his motorbike and managed to persuade Keri to go with him to get off the tracks after spending a bit of time trying to build a bit of trust. She followed him across the train line and down some steps before sitting at the bottom of them while the paramedic got his medical kit out. The police had arrived and were lingering around and Keri started to panic.
"Keri, listen," said the paramedic. "You're not in any trouble okay? The police are just here to make sure you're kept safe."
While the paramedic was cleaning Keri's head, the police went through her bag. Her passport gave them all the necessary information and also her DID Crisis Card. They were all very understanding. By this point Keri had been crying and told them she didn't want to go back to the psychiatric hospital as she'd been sectioned there for 2 weeks. Even though she's on a full section the police still put her on a section 136 so that they had the legal power to keep her safe until getting her back to the ward as her head injury needed to be treated in a medical hospital first so it could be closed.
Two more paramedics arrived in their van and they took her the nearest hospital to have her head all sorted out. She was rushed straight through because of her agitation and the police escorts. There were a lot of phone calls being made to the psych hospital to clarify that Keri was on a full section and needed to be taken straight back to the ward.
As soon as Keri got near the van to leave after being treated she panicked again. She didn't want to go back to the hospital and started trying to resist the police officers.
"I can't go back there! I don't need to be there!" she shouted.
"Keri, you need to come with us," one of the officers said while keeping hold of Keri so she couldn't try running off again. "I don't want to take you back by force. I want to be able to get you in the backseat. I don't want you handcuffed or put in the cage. You can trust me. I'm not going to let anybody hurt you, okay? Hospital is the only place you can go right now, we have to take you there. Come on, slow your breathing down. Relax for me. That's better. Do you think you can come and get in the van now? I'll be sat next to you all the way so there's nothing to be afraid of."
Keri eventually got into the back of the van after being persuaded. She didn't have a choice. It was either hospital by force or hospital without handcuffs. By the time she'd got back to the ward it was gone 5pm. She'd been missing from the ward for over 7 hours. The police chatted to Keri's key nurse before they left and she went out into the garden afterwards where Keri was smoking and had a good chat with her. She wasn't being belittling or telling her off for what had happened, all she wanted to do was to help Keri. Her key nurse has a very good heart. She gave Keri some Lorazepam with her Diazepam for her 6pm medication to see if it would calm Keri down a bit. It didn't.
One of the highlights of the evening was that at about 8.15pm a nurse came into Keri's room and said, "Your foster mum is going to be here to visit you soon." Keri was gobsmacked! So soon after they're holiday? She didn't think she'd be seeing them until at least Friday.
Her foster mum gave her a handmade bracelet with Keri's name on it. It's lovely! Clarissa likes the pink bag it came in! Keri's foster mum and Keri chatted a lot about the holiday and about what had been happening on the ward. It turns out the police had actually turned up at Keri's foster parents' house and had to search it from top to bottom to make sure she wasn't hiding anywhere! The fact that her foster mum visited really pleased Keri. She was feeling quite depressed and is desperate to get back home with her family. She was really eager to listen to her foster mum while she was talking about what they did while on holiday.
Unfortunately Clarissa has also found the time to have fun. She's a very good impersonator of Keri and has managed to acquire some weed from another patient. Keri realised this when she found money missing from her purse and weed in her room! Keri isn't really a drugs kind of person but she's currently not in the state of mind to realise that. Keri, herself and partly Clarissa, decided to have a joint before bed in the evening combined with her cocktail of night medication. She's trying to self-medicate so she doesn't feel so horrible. At first she got even more paranoid but she did feel physically more relaxed. She slept through the whole night! That's a first. Maybe that's the silver lining for what Clarissa did!
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