Taken from PFA2 written by a member of PFA2

My friends, this was taken from PFA2, written by a PFA2 member:

We are what you might call I suppose a “Medical Family” I am a qualified nurse , my sister is too , my brother is a Consultant and my daughter works in Care. When I see my sisters’ family., I always think of the Mc Canns not least because they have three beautiful children but also because my brother-in-law is Scottish. I read on a forum that Mr Mc Cann was unemployed before he became a Consultant and the thread unwound based on this spurious supposition..

Mr Mc Cann will have had to work incredibly hard to attain the position of Consultant. He is still quite young for such a role, as is my brother-in-law. First, he will have had to pass the hurdle of working as a Junior Doctor: torturously long hours with very little sleep, moving from one hospital to another to gain experience, living in, living out, studying, taking on more and more responsibilty. Eventually, after having worked for many years under the tuition of Senior Staff he would have taken on the role of Consultant. From thereafter he would have known, that should anything go wrong , the buck would lie with him alone: the ultimate decisions would be his, he would teach the new Doctors all they need to learn, and he would have overall responsibility for the patients in his care. He would be aware that one lapse of concentration could mean disaster for a patient and his family and he would work with the constant stress of this knowledge. In cardiology. Life is quite literally measured in heartbeats… His family would have borne a lot of the strain, snatching time together, compromising, accepting the tiredness, knowing that other humans were depending upon him for their very lives. And then we find when he himself needs help, what do some heartless fools do ? They turn away( or denigrate him and his family like common criminal..in the name of “Justice“)

And then there is Mrs Mc Cann working equally as hard. Ensuring the accuracy of her diagnoses, welcoming everyone who passes through her door with the same warmth and understanding.( It’s a way of life for medics. A hard life but ultimately a satisfying one, ) And then and probably above all else there is their own growing family. Not a family that was easily conceived, a family that was yearned for and worked for and well provided for. A family that came - as a gift. Doctors don’t enter the Profession for money - if they wanted money, they’ d become lawyers or bankers, jobs where a nine to five means a nine to five, when a day is done it’s done and the money’s better. But no, the Mc Canns became Doctors and although they worked in teams , stressed and stretched , or even led those teams , ultimately responsible for very sick people, not one colleague has stepped forth to disclose sociopathic tendencies or tendencies to arrogance or aggression nor one patient to disclose a cold- hearted manner, or uncaring attitude. It was heartbreaking to read of Mr Mc Cann falling to his knees and begging the Portugese Police for help, a man out of control, out of his mind,.. I think of my grandmother: when my mother heard she had died, she made a sound that seemed to come from the very depths of her - yet there were no tears, no tears….


The person who wrote a reply to Mr Mc Cann's Christmas message on another forum is not a Medical Doctor I don‘t think? For there is no compassion within, just proof that the writer is a player with words .The grandiloquent style is patronising I find, the obsession with semantics puerile .The piece is little more than a thoughtless diatribe peppered with meaningless allegory and anecdote. This is not a response to anything , it is a call to arms for those who would shatter the fragile peace of a perpetually suffering family. The writer even says he knows what Mr Mc Cann has and ought in the future to be thinking:

“You thought so then, why not think so now?”

What arrogance! Putting words into people’s mouths and at this poignant time of year… Clearly the writer cannot relate to authentic language spoken out of emotion., for him language seems to be merely markings on a page. to be arranged and rearranged like children’s wooden blocks and bearing no relation to life as we know it.

I feel Kate and Gerry have said everything that matters. They are hurting but it’s Madeleine who suffers the most because of the inertia of those who should have helped//will not help to find her. . I wish them both well.and will continue to support them and hope 2011 finds Madeleine back in their arms-where she belongs..