I never felt after my various other medical catastrophes including breast cancer and a broken hip that I wanted to join a support group. As far as I was concerned, I knew how I needed to come to terms with my extra disability and I just got on with it.
However, St Thomas’s Hospital Critical Care consultants arranged first a follow up clinic for patients who had been in Intensive Care and then scheduled Evening Support (Discussion) groups for survivors and close relations.
I was surprised and delighted with how helpful and reassuring it was to talk to people who had been in a similar situation and with whom I could swap war stories.
I had a particular lurid crop of hallucinations after my heart attack last August – up to 80% of patients in critical care experience some delusions that seem very real to us. Mine will be going into the Final Chapter of my nearly finished memoir.
I loved hearing about those that other patients had. One man was convinced burglars came in the night and stole all the hospital’s bandages. The nurses’ denials didn’t convince him one bit. One of my delusions was that Damien Hurst and Jeff Koons had presented the High Dependence Unit with priceless artefacts. My response was that they made the ward look untidy!!

The Library Manager of Pimlico Library has kindly offered us a meeting room for our proposed Westminster Cardiac Support Group for one evening a month , There is a pleasant -looking coffee bar upstairs for anyone who comes early and we would provide water and soft drinks during the meeting. It also has a toy library!!

Buses #C10, 24 and 360 stop outside, for the good walkers both Victoria and Pimlico Undergrounds are in walking distance and there is a lift down to the library level.
It’s a very generous offer and I hope plenty local post-cardiac catastrophe patients and their near-ones will come.
Pimlico Library
This is a large library with a huge range of facilities serving the general public and Pimlico Academy.
Locations and contact details
Address | Lupus Street, London, SW1V 3AT |
Phone | 020 7641 6200 |
pimlicolibrary@westminster.gov.uk |
Opening hours
Day | Main library |
---|---|
Monday to Friday | 9.30am to 8pm |
Saturday | 9.30am to 5pm |
Sunday | 1.30pm to 5pm |
Facilities and services
- computers – book a PC
- business information point
- free wi-fi
- health events
- large number of books
- photocopying, printing and scanning
- reading group
- study area – 40 spaces in the quiet room and 22 spaces in the main library but might be fewer during special events