Love Is The Drug

When she discovers her son’s addiction, a mother is forced to make impossible choices

“DO US A favour, Max,” asked the A&E nurse before vaguely waving a patient’s notes in front of me. I hesitated but then nodded in agreement. It’s much better to volunteer for jobs than to have them formally given to you as that way everyone is grateful and the gratitude of the nurses, especially, is invaluable if any doctor is going to survive a night shift working in A&E. It’s a fine line, though, between trying to help and being taken advantage of. “It’s a bloke who’s taken too much heroin” she explained, as though there was an acceptable amount of heroin for someone to take. She pointed over to a bed in the far corner of the department where a man was lying, his head lolling to one side, with a drip in his arm. Next to him sat a woman with her head bowed low.

“Who’s that?” I asked, pointing to the woman.