With so many posting about injuries here is my current situation. There is so much more to it than this but this is the short story.
Saturday June 15th 2008 at 3.00am in the morning i was a sleep in the back of a car coming back from a show when it was involved in a Motorway smash. The car got put in to spin and with the trailer that it was towing control was lost and it smashed into the central barrier at speed and came to a direct stop. Even though the vehicle dead stopped the trailer did not, it had flipped on to its side.
Due to the fact the trailer was much higher than it was longer, on its side it now was longer and had shape to reach around the vehicle. It whip lashed on the towbar, staying connected and now increasing its leverage and speed, the trailer smashed into and through the side of the vehicle where i was sleeping before the bar snapped and sent it back out and down the carrageway.
As i was sleeping against the offside door my head and upper body took the full impact of the smash with just the door and the glass of the window between me and the impact. In the fight to control the vehicle i was pinned against the door, almost backed against it and the window with the force of the spin when when the impact stopped it dead, followed by the trailer impact.
First on the scene was a paramedic who when taking to me found out i could not support the weight of my head, and my right hand side was shutting down with the feeling of i was being crushed. Nothing was done only water offered with the option to sit in the vehicle till an ambulance arrived. i was stopped from lying down on the tarmac by the paramedic so i leant over the bonnet of the paramedics car and rest my head on the bonnet to take the weight off my neck.
When the ambulance arrived they offered me a seat in the back of the Ambulance which i refused and lay down on there stretcher in the back. After a high speed journey to the hospital, with no restraints or braces to support my injuries i arrived at the hospital. I was taken in, left a gurney to be examined. The doctor did a quick examination asked some questions and was told i cannot support my head as it is to heavy for me, i have crushing pains in my right side, and my arm does not work.
I was sent for x-rays and then diagnosed as having hurt my shoulder. So after 3 attempts to put my arm in a sling, which i protested was to painful because it hurts my neck, i was told that if i took the pain killers it would be OK. So i was doped up with nerve suppressants and the sling on my paralysed arm was used to immobilise it from my neck. I was then dis-charged by the doctor.
All through this ordeal was a friend who was a front seat passenger in the car who escaped with no injuries. As he helped me up he noticed that the right side of my head was covered in broken shardes of glass and debris from the impact, and also my ear canal was full of it as well. The doctors was called back and because i had being dis-charged from A&E i was taken to a different dept. and after an examination it was confirmed that i did indeed have glass and debris in my ear canal and deep in it as well. The doctor then told me that when i get home to make a solution of warm water and olive oil and float the debris and glass out......he then left and i never saw him again.
So doped up to the eyeballs, and with all the problems i had not addressed by the hospital, a friend of a friend came and picked us both up where i was taken to another friends house over an hr. away. A friend of theirs who is a nurse attended to the glass in the ear as i lay un-concious in a bed at there house.
So here now is the time table of what happened next.
I was collected from the friends house and taken home, again about an hr. away on the Saturaday evening.
Monday morning, a paramedic attended to me because of abdominal pains, and when told of what happened informed me i had severe whiplash injuries to the neck, severe enough to cause the paralysis i was shown and it was the nerve suppressants that were causing the abdominal pains due to de-hydration or being un-concious due to deep sleep since the day of the accident.
On the Friday my prescription was changed to anti-inflammatories to deal with the swelling that was now crushing my neck almost a week after the accident.
The following week i saw my doctor who agreed it is a severe neck injury and removed the sling and set up an appointment for me to see a trauma specialist. Up till this point i have been lying immobile on the floor with ice packs around my neck in an attempt to keep the swelling down and my paralysed side immobile.
That is the pattern i keep till i see the trauma specialist.
Two months later i see a specialist who tells me i need an MRI scan.
Two and a half months later i get the MRI scan and it shows a problem so a CT scan is needed.
Six weeks later i get the CT scan.
On that visit an porter tells me he has to take me for more x-rays. When i ask the radiographer why more x-rays he tells me that it to help get a better idea of the neck fracture.
Neck fracture, the first time i have heard this phrase. I tell him he is mistaken, and he confirms that all the scans and notes are to investigate the condition of a neck fracture at C7 in my neck. I ask him to elaborate and he tells me in the car smash i did indeed break my neck, and on the right hand side o C& next to my spinal cord and the pressure and damage is impacting on my spinal cord. Impacting on the branch at C7 where the main nerve to the right upper body leaves the spinal cord. That damage is why my right side was paralysed and why i has so many problems including the fact i could not support my head was because my neck was snapped.
Two months after this visit i go to another hospital for a series of scans to see how the neck has healed and if it is stable.
On now to May of 2009 almost 11 months after the accident and it is confirmed that i did indeed break my neck, all the problems i have is because of the nerve damage at C7.
So 11 months later with no treatment at all in any way to address these injuries i am told that the neck would have repaired itself within 8-10 weeks, and as i sit there 11 months after the accident, i would be no better off if i just got in to a taxi and went home.
I am told i should consider myself lucky that the fracture has repaired itself so clean without any medical intervention.This is because of the fact that months after month i lay immobile on the floor of my house with ice packs because i could not move about without pain. I knew this was not right so i made sure i did not move. In that time on the floor i started to get the use of my arm and then my hand back.
Even though the nerve damage had withered the muscles, i use my own knowledge of such things to start to retrain my body. It is strange because the nerve damage is still there, so in many cases i had to watch my hands and fingers to see what they were doing so i could learn to control then. I could not for example move a finger, because i could not feel it, so i would look at the finger i wanted to move and work on that finger only. I did this with each one over time. Problem is there is no real muscle and neural paths to sent and control the messages, i have to re-learn that, also the muscles as no real movement so i have to develop that.
Within 7 months of the accident i have enough movement to play. In the following months i change everything from basses to rig to make playing easier. I sought out private medical help to supplement what i was doing as the NHS and my insurers could not or would not help.
I play with quite high profile players in the UK and European Blues scene, and have done so for over 20 years. One of the new bands i play for,just before the accident we had recorded an album and had just been signed to a Dutch record label, so i had to get playing or hand over the reins to someone else.
So where am i now well almost 2 years have passed and still no treatment from the insurance companies or NHS to address the problems, quite the opposite. Insurers are trying to not pay me any money for loss of earnings or pay for any of the private treatment i got involved in to help relieve my injuries. The NHS will not talk to me unless through lawyers as they believe a medical law suit is pending due to the way they treated me.
I am now at the stage where i can do no more to help myself and medical treatment is being denied to me by the insurers in an effort to make me settle and full and final claim so that i have no recourse to them if i suffer complications in later life with my injuries. I have little or no money to continue with private treatment,
The fact is i have about 20% of my abilities back, but cannot sustain that for long periods of time, say two shows back to back causes problems, as does sleeping, air travel, road travel etc. Playing sees me play the minimal to get by, just enough so i do not overdo it, just enough to get the job done. I do not play with touring artists any more and that new band is the only thing i do. Because of the nature of the band and its situation i know it will have to tour extensively at some point, so i will cross that bridge when i come to it.
I take each day as a new day with new challenges and exercise and train with patience to meet these new challenges and that is what i have say to others in similar situations.
Deal with what you have, deal with what you can do, not what you did have or could do. The reality is where you are now and how to improve on what is going on now. Trying to be the way you were or trying to or comparing back to then is a state of mind that will lead to frustration and impatience, not good for recovery. Accept the situation you are in and deal with that situation, do not create new problems of "but" or "if" or "maybe" deal with what you have now. If you can improve on that each time then things will improve. It maybe slow but they will improve little by little, day after day week after week. Patience is the name of the game and your friend, frustration is the enemy.
Saturday June 15th 2008 at 3.00am in the morning i was a sleep in the back of a car coming back from a show when it was involved in a Motorway smash. The car got put in to spin and with the trailer that it was towing control was lost and it smashed into the central barrier at speed and came to a direct stop. Even though the vehicle dead stopped the trailer did not, it had flipped on to its side.
Due to the fact the trailer was much higher than it was longer, on its side it now was longer and had shape to reach around the vehicle. It whip lashed on the towbar, staying connected and now increasing its leverage and speed, the trailer smashed into and through the side of the vehicle where i was sleeping before the bar snapped and sent it back out and down the carrageway.
As i was sleeping against the offside door my head and upper body took the full impact of the smash with just the door and the glass of the window between me and the impact. In the fight to control the vehicle i was pinned against the door, almost backed against it and the window with the force of the spin when when the impact stopped it dead, followed by the trailer impact.
First on the scene was a paramedic who when taking to me found out i could not support the weight of my head, and my right hand side was shutting down with the feeling of i was being crushed. Nothing was done only water offered with the option to sit in the vehicle till an ambulance arrived. i was stopped from lying down on the tarmac by the paramedic so i leant over the bonnet of the paramedics car and rest my head on the bonnet to take the weight off my neck.
When the ambulance arrived they offered me a seat in the back of the Ambulance which i refused and lay down on there stretcher in the back. After a high speed journey to the hospital, with no restraints or braces to support my injuries i arrived at the hospital. I was taken in, left a gurney to be examined. The doctor did a quick examination asked some questions and was told i cannot support my head as it is to heavy for me, i have crushing pains in my right side, and my arm does not work.
I was sent for x-rays and then diagnosed as having hurt my shoulder. So after 3 attempts to put my arm in a sling, which i protested was to painful because it hurts my neck, i was told that if i took the pain killers it would be OK. So i was doped up with nerve suppressants and the sling on my paralysed arm was used to immobilise it from my neck. I was then dis-charged by the doctor.
All through this ordeal was a friend who was a front seat passenger in the car who escaped with no injuries. As he helped me up he noticed that the right side of my head was covered in broken shardes of glass and debris from the impact, and also my ear canal was full of it as well. The doctors was called back and because i had being dis-charged from A&E i was taken to a different dept. and after an examination it was confirmed that i did indeed have glass and debris in my ear canal and deep in it as well. The doctor then told me that when i get home to make a solution of warm water and olive oil and float the debris and glass out......he then left and i never saw him again.
So doped up to the eyeballs, and with all the problems i had not addressed by the hospital, a friend of a friend came and picked us both up where i was taken to another friends house over an hr. away. A friend of theirs who is a nurse attended to the glass in the ear as i lay un-concious in a bed at there house.
So here now is the time table of what happened next.
I was collected from the friends house and taken home, again about an hr. away on the Saturaday evening.
Monday morning, a paramedic attended to me because of abdominal pains, and when told of what happened informed me i had severe whiplash injuries to the neck, severe enough to cause the paralysis i was shown and it was the nerve suppressants that were causing the abdominal pains due to de-hydration or being un-concious due to deep sleep since the day of the accident.
On the Friday my prescription was changed to anti-inflammatories to deal with the swelling that was now crushing my neck almost a week after the accident.
The following week i saw my doctor who agreed it is a severe neck injury and removed the sling and set up an appointment for me to see a trauma specialist. Up till this point i have been lying immobile on the floor with ice packs around my neck in an attempt to keep the swelling down and my paralysed side immobile.
That is the pattern i keep till i see the trauma specialist.
Two months later i see a specialist who tells me i need an MRI scan.
Two and a half months later i get the MRI scan and it shows a problem so a CT scan is needed.
Six weeks later i get the CT scan.
On that visit an porter tells me he has to take me for more x-rays. When i ask the radiographer why more x-rays he tells me that it to help get a better idea of the neck fracture.
Neck fracture, the first time i have heard this phrase. I tell him he is mistaken, and he confirms that all the scans and notes are to investigate the condition of a neck fracture at C7 in my neck. I ask him to elaborate and he tells me in the car smash i did indeed break my neck, and on the right hand side o C& next to my spinal cord and the pressure and damage is impacting on my spinal cord. Impacting on the branch at C7 where the main nerve to the right upper body leaves the spinal cord. That damage is why my right side was paralysed and why i has so many problems including the fact i could not support my head was because my neck was snapped.
Two months after this visit i go to another hospital for a series of scans to see how the neck has healed and if it is stable.
On now to May of 2009 almost 11 months after the accident and it is confirmed that i did indeed break my neck, all the problems i have is because of the nerve damage at C7.
So 11 months later with no treatment at all in any way to address these injuries i am told that the neck would have repaired itself within 8-10 weeks, and as i sit there 11 months after the accident, i would be no better off if i just got in to a taxi and went home.
I am told i should consider myself lucky that the fracture has repaired itself so clean without any medical intervention.This is because of the fact that months after month i lay immobile on the floor of my house with ice packs because i could not move about without pain. I knew this was not right so i made sure i did not move. In that time on the floor i started to get the use of my arm and then my hand back.
Even though the nerve damage had withered the muscles, i use my own knowledge of such things to start to retrain my body. It is strange because the nerve damage is still there, so in many cases i had to watch my hands and fingers to see what they were doing so i could learn to control then. I could not for example move a finger, because i could not feel it, so i would look at the finger i wanted to move and work on that finger only. I did this with each one over time. Problem is there is no real muscle and neural paths to sent and control the messages, i have to re-learn that, also the muscles as no real movement so i have to develop that.
Within 7 months of the accident i have enough movement to play. In the following months i change everything from basses to rig to make playing easier. I sought out private medical help to supplement what i was doing as the NHS and my insurers could not or would not help.
I play with quite high profile players in the UK and European Blues scene, and have done so for over 20 years. One of the new bands i play for,just before the accident we had recorded an album and had just been signed to a Dutch record label, so i had to get playing or hand over the reins to someone else.
So where am i now well almost 2 years have passed and still no treatment from the insurance companies or NHS to address the problems, quite the opposite. Insurers are trying to not pay me any money for loss of earnings or pay for any of the private treatment i got involved in to help relieve my injuries. The NHS will not talk to me unless through lawyers as they believe a medical law suit is pending due to the way they treated me.
I am now at the stage where i can do no more to help myself and medical treatment is being denied to me by the insurers in an effort to make me settle and full and final claim so that i have no recourse to them if i suffer complications in later life with my injuries. I have little or no money to continue with private treatment,
The fact is i have about 20% of my abilities back, but cannot sustain that for long periods of time, say two shows back to back causes problems, as does sleeping, air travel, road travel etc. Playing sees me play the minimal to get by, just enough so i do not overdo it, just enough to get the job done. I do not play with touring artists any more and that new band is the only thing i do. Because of the nature of the band and its situation i know it will have to tour extensively at some point, so i will cross that bridge when i come to it.
I take each day as a new day with new challenges and exercise and train with patience to meet these new challenges and that is what i have say to others in similar situations.
Deal with what you have, deal with what you can do, not what you did have or could do. The reality is where you are now and how to improve on what is going on now. Trying to be the way you were or trying to or comparing back to then is a state of mind that will lead to frustration and impatience, not good for recovery. Accept the situation you are in and deal with that situation, do not create new problems of "but" or "if" or "maybe" deal with what you have now. If you can improve on that each time then things will improve. It maybe slow but they will improve little by little, day after day week after week. Patience is the name of the game and your friend, frustration is the enemy.
