I’m proof you CAN recover from spine damage
LIKE the unfortunate injury Olympic gymnast Beth Tweddle sustained taking part in TV’s The Jump, I was involved in an accident during a rugby match while serving with the RAF at Akrotiri, Cyprus, in 1969. I had two holes drilled into my skull to enable the surgeons to attach the traction (no halo in those days) and was transported back to Britain via evacuation aircraft. I was transferred to a Stryker Frame, which used a spring to maintain the traction. A helicopter was waiting for me at Brize Norton and I was transported to Stoke Mandeville hospital. Some months later, I was moved to the other side of Aylesbury to the hospital at RAF Halton. On my second day in Halton, the senior orthopaedic edic surgeon said heh wanted to fuse the vertebrae by taking bone from my hip. I couldn’t understand why Stoke Mandeville had released me if further operations were necessary, but I was told at Halton that it was essential to prevent arthritis setting in. I was also told that there had been disputes over the necessity for further surgery. I managed to speak to the people who had been treating me at Stoke Mandeville and their verdict was that Halton was trying to rush nature and that there was always a chance of rigidity with a fusion. I turned down the operation, as I didn’t want to risk ending up in a wheelchair. My children were seven, five and three at the time and I hadn’t seen them for months. I spent 16 weeks in a rehabilitation unit in Chessington, Surrey, and, on my return to Halton, the doctors were amazed. Further examination revealed that my neck was fusing naturally. I’m now 74 and have been off work with spinal problems only twice since, once with suspected arthritis (which turned out to be not the case) and once for suspected premature degeneration of the lower spine (which also wasn’t true). For many years, I was part of a survey on the effects of age on serious spinal injuries and have been regularly checked at Stoke Mandeville. I’m sure techniques have improved since 1969 and would like to wish Beth all the best.
ANTHONY SEMPLE, Northborough, Cambs.