Clothes removed / cut-off and destroyed / lost by ambulance / A&E

You possibly don’t remember kindly helping me out with gps routes around Brizzle ages ago AA. I do though. But best of luck for 2013. Hope your recovery continues.

What a story, I feel particularly unqualified to comment, but I will in STW style….good man, great strength and best wishes for 2013.

Rich

Did the Paramedic ever get a thank you for the treatment received?

Head injuries are fascinating things. Good to read that you are healing well. Best of luck for a full recovery.

(I found) Head injuries have a ripple effect through time. I have an erratic short term memory but also still some anger issues.

Keep going on the healing OP 🙂

bren2709 – Member
Did the Paramedic ever get a thank you for the treatment received?

Indeed 🙂 I had lots of people to thank, I made a series of visits and sent a load of cards and emails.

I went back to the A&E ward, was weird speaking to people who obviously remembered me but who I had no memory of.

I think I mentioned above that an off-duty nurse saved my life at the scene(it turns out that I’d stopped breathing). I managed to get a card to her via the newsagents that I crashed outside of but they said she wanted to stay ‘anonymous’ and was ‘just doing her job’. A true ‘angel’..

The daughter of the owner of the newsagent was working at the time, heard the crash, came out in the street and dialled 999. She burst into tears when I went in and explained who I was. “I thought you were going to die” she said. In many ways it’s that that has been toughest – not dealing with my injuries but trying to get to terms with how the accident affected everyone else – especially my family. Still brings tears to my eyes thinking about poor wife getting that dreaded phone call.. ..physical injuries are now well on the mend, the mental ones are still ‘undergoing treatment’!

What a story, I feel particularly unqualified to comment, but I will in STW style….good man, great strength and best wishes for 2013.

+1

hora – Member
(I found) Head injuries have a ripple effect through time. I have an erratic short term memory but also still some anger issues.

Keep going on the healing OP

James Cracknell’s wife tells the story in the book of the time he lost it and started to strangle her. She was on the verge of passing out when something thankfully ‘clicked’.

My best so far was losing it in the main branch of Boots one busy Saturday when the poor phamarcist refused to sell me more than the permitted 2 packs of paracetamol!

Erratic short term memory – know exactly what you mean! Interesting what I manage to forget (where I parked the car, what I went into the shop for etc etc). My wife says I’ve just become like most other men!

How long ago was yours Hora? They tell me that the brain can continue to recover for ‘years’ so hopefully your ‘ripples’ are still subsiding?

I have an erratic short term memory…

Do you find you’re always forgetting you only just bought another frame? 😉

AA, hope your recovery continues ok. If it’s any consolation I’ve never knowingly hurt my brain and I forget everything and am not terribly even tempered either…

just a thought… I’ve got a set of fauxleys… As a paramedic I’m more than happy to post them to you!

It’s 2.50 am, and I’ve just read through this whole thread! I’d forgotten even posting on it at the beginning, but then I’d lost track of it. What a story, I’m so, so glad that you’re on the mend, and I send my very best wishes to you and your family for your ongoing recovery, and for a great 2013. 😀

Missed this first time round but reading it takes me back over 30 years to a car accident I was involved in; so many similarities (and hazy memories). I had a gold Dunhill cigarette lighter returned to me some time after the event after it was found at the (rural) scene.
My healed bones still occasionally ache, my memory can still be erratic, but I’ve enjoyed 36 active and fulfilled years since.

So, all the very best to you for a continued and successful recovery.

Well that’s a read!
Hope it all continues to improve!

Speedi recovery dude and all the best for 2013. 😉

meehaja – Member
just a thought… I’ve got a set of fauxleys… As a paramedic I’m more than happy to post them to you!

Haha, cheers meehaja but I was told that the real Oakleys saved me from almost certain eye injury – unlike Fauxleys they stayed intact and although I broke cheekbones and eye-socket my eyeballs survived. 😆

Thanks too for all the ‘be strong’ comments and best wishes, they really help 😀 And thanks too for not saying “time to get over it and move on” – I am moving on, slowly, but still have stuff to deal with along the way..

..today my eldest daughter, the beautiful teenager that is Daisy told me about how she found the bravery to hold my hand when she first came to see me in hospital (she never normally does any contact) I was about to well-up again when she kindly added “your face was so bad you looked like Stavros” (the Dr Who character)!

(On day five and after surgery when I apparently looked “much better”!)

Glad you’re on the mend AA, have a great Christmas and New Year!

A bump for the one year anniversary. For lots of reasons it’s interesting to come back to this one occasionally 😉

I’m not sure if I mentioned it above but a nurse at the scene saved my life. My wife was told by the police that she ran through the traffic. She sorted out my airway and held my head to keep my kneck stable until the paramedics arrived and collared me, also saving me from potential spinal damage that could have left me paralysed.

Despite trying I never managed to track her down. I was told that she was from the same nearby hospital that I was sent to but that drew a blank.

A few weeks back I thought it would be a good idea to get the local rag (The Bristol Evening Post) to run a story saying “thanks” to everyone who’s been in involved somehow in getting me back to where I am now, starting with the driver behind me for not running over me and the nurse who came to my aid:

http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/grateful-angel-came-aid/story-18541165-detail/story.html#axzz2QWnNQNui

The phone rang on Tuesday and..

..it was the poor driver of the car that was directly behind me. We had a chat which helped fill in a few gaps for me. She didn’t know whether I’d survived and was really pleased to read the story. Clearly shaken by the whole experience I think it helped to be able to talk to me.

Then the following day I got a call from the prison in the same village. They told me that they thought the nurse worked there, she’d mentioned to a colleague about the accident a year ago but was away that day.

I spoke to her on Thursday. Lorraine. She was as lovely as I imagined she might be. The only thing was she has a distinctive accent (soft southern Irish) and my wife recognised her voice immediately which brought back tearful memories of the last time they’d spoken.

She said that she was “just doing her job” and I made it clear to her that she’d done much much more than that. I said that I was told she’d run through the traffic to get to me and she said that she “could see it was bad”. She stayed with me until the paramedics arrived. She event sent the (off duty) police inspector who arrived to get a bag to put my kit in. And although the police wanted to phone my wife, she said she wanted to do it as she thought it would be better to hear a woman’s voice (which my wife said it was, if there was ever a way to break such news she did it in the kindest way possible).

I told her about my injuries, how I’d got on in hospital and since, and she was really pleased to learn that I was back on the bike. (She rides with her family too).

In so many ways a nice way to mark the anniversary. One circle in time closes..

Did you get your sunglasses back ?

we’ll find out in 12 months time 😉

weeksy – Member
Did you get your sunglasses back ?

Sadly not, but.. those fantastic folks at Oakley UK took pity on me and gave me 40% off a new pair – yeah, I know that’s still 400% more expensive than a pair of CE ones from Screwfix etc etc but still..;-)

interesting you tell that story I went to an accident last night (I’m old bill) an took details of all the off duty nurses who helped but didn’t witness to send them a letter of thanks. There’s always an off duty nurse when you need one it’s great, very heart warming. nice to hear it all ended well.

Was in a bit of a smash a while back and the ambulance guys loaded my bike in with me and let me drop it off at home en route to a&e. Top guys!

Same here Keves, paramedic loaded bike in ambulance and then found a safe secure room for it at the hospital, really helpful!

And another same here, bike in ambulance then kept round the back of the hospital by the bins (and they did a good job hiding it too, my mate coming to pick it up had to check twice where it was supposed to be!).

Glad to hear that you’re recovering well, and the ‘thanks’ thing in the paper is a lovely touch.

Thanks for the update 😀

Blimey – a year already?!!!!!!

Good you are pretty well healed!

Good to hear you’ve healed ok!

Glad you are recovering well – and good effort on tracking down the nurse.