
How the life-changing injury occurred
- Age at interview:
- 25
- Sex:
- Male
- Background:
- Aiden is single and currently unemployed. Ethnic background' European.
- Age at interview:
- 29
- Sex:
- Male
- Background:
- Sam works as a strategist for an advertising company. He is single. His ethnic background is Caucasian.
- Age at interview:
- 68
- Sex:
- Male
- Background:
- Nick is a retired chartered surveyor. He is divorced, lives alone and has two children, age 37 and 35. Ethnic background' White English.
Well as the driver came over I’m in this sea of pain because a 12 tonne bus has just run over my leg. I was absolutely in agony. I was in and out of consciousness I think and also my mouth tasted of tarmac. I sort of hit the road and banged my, you know. I saw this shape coming towards me and I said to him, “I’m sorry. It was my fault. I’m sorry.” And I think I was really saying, “Please help me.” Anyway I mention that because when it came to a criminal prosecution that excused the driver. They said, “Mr Black said it was his fault. End of case.”
- Age at interview:
- 31
- Sex:
- Female
- Background:
- Louise is a photographer. She is single and lives with flatmates. Ethnic background' Middle Eastern/English.
I kind of think things happen for a reason. This is why I’m going to go back there to see if I remember anything, but I mean it’s possibly something that I did. Maybe I climbed that? And then if one were to climb something like that then one has a death wish, which I don’t believe I’ve ever had, but I have, in terms of performance wise, you know. I have used performance in my work and stuff, but I’ve never done anything to a dangerous level. It could have been an accident. It’s a strange one.
- Age at interview:
- 30
- Sex:
- Male
- Background:
- Wesley is single. He was living with his mum at the time of the interview, but was in the process of looking for a new place. He works as a dustman. His ethnic background is White English.
- Age at interview:
- 42
- Sex:
- Male
- Background:
- Adrian is divorced and lives alone. He worked as an accountant at an investment bank until his head injury. He now volunteers at Headway, the brain injury charity. Ethnic background' White/British.
- Age at interview:
- 31
- Sex:
- Male
- Background:
- Dave is a financial consultant. He is married. Ethnic background/nationality' White British.
I suffered a severe spinal cord injury in September 2005 at the age of 25. I was living and working in London at the time. Three years after graduation from university I went on holiday to Portugal with a number of friends. One day while on the beach I went down to the water for a swim, dived into the water into a wave off my feet, and suffered a spinal fracture of the neck, resulting in immediate paralysis from the neck downwards. And I suppose luckily I had two friends that were with me at the time, because obviously complete paralysis means you can’t move. So I was face down drowning in the water but the two friends and some passers-by managed to get me out of the water in time, on to the beach. I have to say that it was a fairly painless experience, and certainly the most difficult sensation was drowning.
- Age at interview:
- 36
- Sex:
- Male
- Background:
- Bryan is single, lives alone and is employed in an administrative role by a charity, which supports disabled people. Ethnic background' White Scottish/British.
- Age at interview:
- 44
- Sex:
- Male
- Background:
- Ambrose is a research nurse, but was not working at the time of interview. He is single, has four children, aged 26, 23, 20 and 18, and lives alone. He also has grandson, aged 4. Ethnic background' White/Irish.
And so the plastic surgeons came, the bone doctors came and microbiology doctor came and they, then the microbiology doctor said, “What there is growing in there” – and then obviously looking at the x-rays – he was saying, “It would be very, very difficult to actually completely clear it of infection. It would be, you know, four months of intravenous antibiotics then goodness knows how long oral antibiotics.” And unfortunately, well fortunately for me, but unfortunately for the plastic surgery team was that the pain wasn’t being controlled properly. So I was saying to them, “Well yes, I can see that your new fangle dangle machine is healing the tissue, but I can’t put any weight on it.” So for me to be able to get back to work and you know, back to normal life it’s no good because I can’t use it as a foot, and an ankle and a leg. And because that would then be, you know, like a planned amputation, their procedure, which is right to make sure everybody, you know, the person who’s asking for the amputation and the doctors that are, you know, going to perform it, you know, we had meetings with the psychologist, the leg amputation team, the plastic surgeons, the orthopaedics, who after discussion and discussion with me, and you know, they’d … because I’d known them for years they were able to say, “Ambrose has had this for a long time. He knows what it feels like. He knew when we first did the reconstruction there was a chance, well not a chance, it probably would need taking off at some point in the future, and it appears that we’ve got to that point now. That now is the right time to have it amputated.”
- Age at interview:
- 57
- Sex:
- Male
- Background:
- Bill, a retired police sergeant, and his wife Catherine, a retired staff nurse, are married and have two children, aged 19 and 22. Ethnic background' White British & White British/Irish.
And I think they were grateful for that, so I don’t know how other people would deal with it, but that’s the way I dealt with it, you know, because if she had deliberately, you know, done a stupid move or manoeuvre or anything, you know. But it wasn’t; she thought she had a green arrow there and she just made a split decision well a decision in a moment of a time, you know, a split second decision. And got it wrong. And you know, I shouldn’t hate her for that. But she doesn’t deserve forgiveness. Maybe I will at some point in life, I don’t know. Maybe? I don’t know.
- Sex:
- Male
- Background:
- At the time of publishing this website, this person was in the process of filing a compensation claim. We cannot display further information until the case has been resolved.
- Sex:
- Female
- Background:
- At the time of publishing this website, this person was in the process of filing a compensation claim. We cannot display further information until the case has been resolved.
By the time I’d met him, the man that had attacked him had already been in jail and come out of jail, because I think he had eighteen months, but he only did about nine months of it. So within nine months he was, you know, he’d done his time. To me, when I’d heard that it was definitely, definitely not long enough for what had happened to [husband’s name]. And like [husband’s name] says, you know, he’ll be on medication for the rest of his life. He’ll still have certain problems for the rest of his life. And this guy has done that and he’s, he’s done his bit and now he’s back out there doing whatever he wants to do. And that’s another thing [husband’s name] finds unfair. He finds it very unfair that, you know, he’s been left with these problems – can’t work, can’t drive, always has to take medication – and yet somebody, the guy that done it is just out there doing whatever he wants to do.
- Age at interview:
- 52
- Sex:
- Male
- Background:
- Kenneth is a volunteer gardener. Before his traumatic brain injury he ran his own business. He is single and lives alone. Ethnic background' White/Gaelic/Scottish.
People also were responsible for causing their own injuries; they were driving too fast, had been drinking alcohol or became involved in fights. Sometimes they worried what family or friends thought of them, which could cause feelings of guilt and shame. Sam thought it was unhelpful to dwell on how the injury is caused, saying it’s “the worst use of your time”.
Last reviewed May 2019.