Heartstopping

 

We have followed the Van Tulleken twins for quite a while now. Highly recommended. They are often on the BBC offering wise health advice. Being both Doctors they seem to know what they are talking about. Chris and Xand are identical twins, and their repartee  – and the fact that it is virtually impossible to discern any difference there may be between them, apart from the depth of a beard perhaps – makes their programmes on i-player very watchable.

Drs Chris and Xand often conduct health experiments, sometimes with others but frequently on themselves, all to check that their fitness and lifestyle advice is accurate. Painful experiments are not easy watching, but they have always come up smiling. Perhaps their fortitude results from their wide-ranging involvement in humanitarian medical projects across the world.

The latest programme (available now) is something else. They go deeply into the effects of Covid -19 in our country, with Chris going into a London hospital and Xand into an elderly care home. Both situations are harrowing, and Chris’ experience is only lightened by an elderly man coming through intensive care for covid after reaching a point where the situation looked hopeless. The medical staff make it clear that this is an exception. Meanwhile Xand enters a care home where seven residents have died. There is sorrow and a will to overcome the virus. But Xand contracts the virus and it becomes so serious that he is brought into the London hospital where his brother is reporting on Intensive Care, able to be there because he is a medical doctor.

However, Xand’s heart is racing much too fast and will not slow. The medical team decides that they must stop his heart and allow it to start again. You watch the heartrate and it is deeply concerning – both that Xand is going through this and that Chris is allowed to be present. Yes he is a doctor, but here only an observer with no clinical input, and he sees his brother, his identical twin, go through this life or death procedure. It feels somewhat unethical to allow this, as relatives would not normally be allowed to be present during operations. Happily Xand comes through as expected, and we - and Chris - can breathe again. 

The programme is sobering if we think that the consequences for most of us are minimal. These guys are only in their early forties, and used to taking precautions. Xand remains unwell as the virus seems to have affected other organs such as his kidneys, and since then it has caused atrial fibrillation. The two brothers’ are very close and the whole episode has naturally affected them powerfully. Personally I hope and pray that Xand will recover more fully, but I know and feel shocked that so many people in hospitals and care homes have died because of the spread of the virus.

I could make a point here about identifying with and mixing with those who are in need, about the helplessness of those around a gravely ill or dying person like those at the foot of the cross, but I will leave those hints there. But the pain and anguish caused in real life by this virus is widespread, and we must do all we can to prevent its spread.

 

Heavenly Father, we pray for the worldwide response to the pandemic, that people will work together to care for others and take all possible precautions against spreading it to loved ones or to strangers. Please guide us to find a vaccine and to use it wisely and caringly, for the good of all. But in the meantime, give us strength to support one another and wisdom to avoid the infection. We make our prayer in the name of our Saviour, Friend and Brother, Jesus Christ. Amen.