Wednesday, April 07, 2004
Crawling to Offaly
From the Offaly Independent:
Body of US actor who slated Tullamore Hospital recovered
"The body of a US actor who was treated in Tullamore Hospital after a car crash two years ago, has been recovered from the East River in New York.
Spalding Gray was last seen on January 10 on the Staten Island ferry, and after he failed to return home, friends feared he might have committed suicide. The 62 year old actor’s body was identified last week through dental records and x-rays.
The claim was that Mr Gray had been depressed since a car accident, which happened somewhere in Westmeath in June 2001. He had previously attempted suicide in 2002.
Appearances in films such as The Paper, Beaches, and The Killing Fields, brought him esteem in his field, but he was best-known for his monologue, Swimming in Cambodia.
After the crash, and during the monologue, Mr. Gray told audiences around the US, as well as RTE’s Joe Duffy, that he had not been satisfied with conditions, nor the way he was treated, at Tullamore Hospital.
But locals were outraged at the comments, which described a scenario which sounded unlikely.
The crash happened on June 22, the day after Mr. Spalding’s 60th birthday. He and four others were in a car which was in collision with a vehicle driven by a veterinary surgeon. He claimed later that at that stage he was screaming in agony, and was asked by one of the ambulance crew if he was “excitable”.
According to the Harvard University Gazette, Gray’s stay was at a Irish hospital “that fell not a few marks short of state of the art”.
“Eccentric nurses regularly came around with silly surveys, a transvestite served tea, patients' relatives arrived daily with blenders for daiquiri sessions, and morphine was self-administered,” was how the Gazette summarised the actor’s account of his time in hospital.
Mr. Gray said the hospital was “one of those horrible Irish country hospitals”.
“The hospital was a madhouse run by Pakistani doctors that wanted to leave me there in traction for six weeks. It was bizarre. I had never seen anything like the carry on.” he said.
Pressed, he admitted he would be very nervous going back to Ireland.
“It would bring back memories. I was in three different hospitals there.”
A spokesperson for the Midland Health Board confirmed that Mr Gray had been a patient at the hospital for two days, after being admitted late on June 23 of 2001.
He left the hospital on June 26, but it was not known whether he was discharged or transferred to another hospital."
I particularly like the contemptuous tone of this article, especially the way they get the name of his book wrong: Swimming IN Cambodia. Talk about adding insult to injury!
Body of US actor who slated Tullamore Hospital recovered
"The body of a US actor who was treated in Tullamore Hospital after a car crash two years ago, has been recovered from the East River in New York.
Spalding Gray was last seen on January 10 on the Staten Island ferry, and after he failed to return home, friends feared he might have committed suicide. The 62 year old actor’s body was identified last week through dental records and x-rays.
The claim was that Mr Gray had been depressed since a car accident, which happened somewhere in Westmeath in June 2001. He had previously attempted suicide in 2002.
Appearances in films such as The Paper, Beaches, and The Killing Fields, brought him esteem in his field, but he was best-known for his monologue, Swimming in Cambodia.
After the crash, and during the monologue, Mr. Gray told audiences around the US, as well as RTE’s Joe Duffy, that he had not been satisfied with conditions, nor the way he was treated, at Tullamore Hospital.
But locals were outraged at the comments, which described a scenario which sounded unlikely.
The crash happened on June 22, the day after Mr. Spalding’s 60th birthday. He and four others were in a car which was in collision with a vehicle driven by a veterinary surgeon. He claimed later that at that stage he was screaming in agony, and was asked by one of the ambulance crew if he was “excitable”.
According to the Harvard University Gazette, Gray’s stay was at a Irish hospital “that fell not a few marks short of state of the art”.
“Eccentric nurses regularly came around with silly surveys, a transvestite served tea, patients' relatives arrived daily with blenders for daiquiri sessions, and morphine was self-administered,” was how the Gazette summarised the actor’s account of his time in hospital.
Mr. Gray said the hospital was “one of those horrible Irish country hospitals”.
“The hospital was a madhouse run by Pakistani doctors that wanted to leave me there in traction for six weeks. It was bizarre. I had never seen anything like the carry on.” he said.
Pressed, he admitted he would be very nervous going back to Ireland.
“It would bring back memories. I was in three different hospitals there.”
A spokesperson for the Midland Health Board confirmed that Mr Gray had been a patient at the hospital for two days, after being admitted late on June 23 of 2001.
He left the hospital on June 26, but it was not known whether he was discharged or transferred to another hospital."
I particularly like the contemptuous tone of this article, especially the way they get the name of his book wrong: Swimming IN Cambodia. Talk about adding insult to injury!
