Falling into friendship

Two Stawell ladies have formed an inseparable friendship after sharing a room at Grampians Health’s Stawell campus.

Olive Karam and Gwen Dunn were leading almost parallel lives in the historic gold mining town but were oblivious to each other’s existence until Olive was wheeled into the Simpson ward room where Gwen had been convalescing.

For Gwen, the chance meeting had been invaluable.

Gwen was born in Stawell and has always lived there. In between raising a family, she worked at a dry-cleaning business and after retiring, she volunteered for many years at the Salvation Army.

In August, 2023, Gwen had a fall at home in her loungeroom.

“It was at night and I was plugging my phone into my chair to charge it when I stood up and got my leg caught and I went straight over,” Gwen said.

“I rang my son and his wife, and they came around. I was in too much pain for them to touch me so they rang an ambulance and I was taken directly to Wimmera Base Hospital in Horsham. 

“The next morning I was transferred to Ballarat where I had a partial hip preplacement. I didn’t know anything about it until afterwards because they operated straight away.

“After a while I was transferred back to Stawell for my recovery.”

Olive’s story was similar to Gwen. She grew up in Great Western and spent much of her life in Melbourne before returning to Stawell 14 years ago. Since returning she has regularly volunteered at Grampians Health’s Bennett Day Centre.

In exactly the same month of Gwen’s accident, Olive fell while helping with bingo at the day centre.

“Someone yelled ‘bingo’ and I turned around to get a prize. The next thing I’m on the ground and I don’t remember what happened,” Olive said.

“I recovered enough to walk to the car and drive home but the next morning I didn’t feel right so I went back to bed and about 3am the following morning I was climbing the walls in pain,” she said. 

“I rang my sister at about 11am and asked her to take me to the doctor. She came in and looked at me and said ‘no you’re going to the hospital in an ambulance’.

“It turned out I had cracked five ribs and my patella.”

Olive was transferred from Stawell campus to Ballarat Base Hospital.

“I was there 10 days before they could drain my lung because I was on blood thinning medication and had to wean off that first,” she said.

“They brought me back to Stawell in mid-September and they wheeled me into this room. I remember being peeved off because Gwen was already in the room and she had the bed by the window. 

“I was thinking oh my goodness I’m going to be stuck with this old bird, we don’t know each other and I’m going to be talking to a curtain … but it didn’t happen that way at all.”

Gwen and Olive proved to be both well practiced in the art of conversation and struck up an immediate friendship that amused the nursing staff greatly.

“We’re both pretty good talkers and we don’t know what we talk about but we just talk,” Olive said.

Gwen said she and Olive were both impressed with the Grampians Health team. 

“I couldn’t knock the staff at all. They were really good,” Gwen said. 

“They would come in to do the ‘obs’ and they would just laugh at us because we would be yacking non-stop.” 

Since returning home from their hospital stay, the friendship has continued as strong as ever. Her fall prevented Gwen from returning to her volunteer work at the Salvation Army and she was very upset about it at the time.

“I was sitting at home looking out the window each day and going off my head then Olive suggested I join her at the Bennett Day Centre and I’ve been going there ever since,” Gwen said.

“I absolutely love it and having a chat with everyone.”

Gwen doesn’t drive so Olive takes her anywhere she has to go including the supermarket and other shopping trips or entertainment.

“Gwen is 10 years older than me but we pretty much do everything together. We don’t get tired of one another,” Olive said. 

“We have plenty of laughs and we keep finding ways to entertain each other.”

Grampians Health Rural Workforce Development lead and occupational therapist at Stawell campus Kirby Egan said it was great to see how 12 months on from their meeting, Gwen and Olive continued to support each other with their healthcare needs.

“I was working with Gwen to help get her a personal alarm so that she could get help quickly if a fall happened again,” Ms Egan said. 

“Gwen knew that Olive was also interested in an alarm so when I turned up to Gwen’s house one day, Olive was there too, and I helped them both at the same time.

“It’s been inspiring to hear how they have both turned a terrible situation of being in hospital with significant injuries into a beautiful friendship which has improved both their social and emotional wellbeing.

“It shows there can always be a silver lining from a bad situation.”