I want to take this time to digress briefly from the Madeleine story to tell of a happening just over 4 years ago.
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A couple were staying at the Vila Gale Cerro Alagoa Hotel in Albufeira and were almost at the end of their 2 week holiday. In the middle of one night the lady needed to visit the bathroom in the process of which she had an unfortunate accident. Somehow she slipped on the bathroom floor and hit her head on the marble floor. However, she returned to bed and slept until the morning.
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In the morning the husband found it difficult to wake her up and when she did awake her speech was garbled and it became obvious that something was wrong. She was able to explain that she had fallen but little else. There was no sign of blood or any wound to the head but nevertheless a Doctor was called. The Doctor was unable to give any firm diagnosis and a Scan of the wife's head was arranged at the Albufeira Radiological unit which was only 5 minutes away.
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Immediately on completion of the scan the Radiologist urgently summoned an Ambulance and the lady was rushed at Faro Hospital 30 miles away where a Specialist in head trauma was waiting to meet her. Shortly afterwards an emergency operation was performed to drain a massive haemotoma on the left side of the head and also to repair a fracture in the skull. This was followed by 12 days in the hospital for recovery and observation to ensure that no brain damage had occured.
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Fortunately no blood had leaked into the brain and there was no brain damage, and the lady made a normal recovery.
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The point of this tale, which is totally true, is to point out that invariably all the floors in Algarvian property are either tiled, marble or some other very hard substance and are generally without carpets.
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Now if the person falling from, say the back of a setee or a windowsill, had been a small child, could the consequences have been more serious? We leave you to ponder.
The lady involved is my wife!
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