The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Not so fragile: coma victim battles back to write book
health: Amy pens fundraising work after neardeath experience
When Dundee woman Amy Tavendale wished her mum Happy Mother’s Day this year, it was no surprise the response was a flood of tears.
It was the first time Amy had spoken to her mum since she fell into a coma after going into hospital for a routine operation five months earlier.
Amy, 33, spent five weeks in a coma but when she woke, she could not move or speak and her family feared she was brain dead.
Remarkably, Amy says her near-death experience was the result of nothing more than “bad luck”.
It was March before she began talking again – her first word was “fragile” – but she has now written a book in aid of others who suffer the horror of being unable to communicate.
When she did begin to talk again, she did not tell her mother immediately, waiting instead until March 30, when she phoned to wished her “Happy Mother’s Day”.
“She got quite emotional,” Amy said. She continued: “It was horrible when I couldn’t communicate. They thought I was brain dead. “My first word was ‘fragile’. “I was being asked to say words beginning with ‘A’ and so on and when it came to ‘F’, I said fragile. I don’t know why I thought of it.”
Amy went into hospital last November for an operation to correct an underbite. She was due to spend around 10 days there but during the jaw-break operation her throat swelled up and she began losing blood.
She was put into a coma and required a tracheotomy to help her breathe. Doctors brought her round but her condition deteriorated and she had to have part of her bowel removed and an ileostomy. Her kidneys then failed and she fell back into a coma.
When she awoke five weeks later, Amy was virtually “locked in” – unable to speak or move. Her family was told she was likely to require full-time care for the rest of her life.
As she regained some movement, she was able to communicate using a board connected to a computer that she could operate with her head.
Eventually, as her motor skills began to return, Amy, who has a degree in art from Moray College, was given art therapy.
She began writing and illustrating stories about the chickens kept by her father and his partner in Brechin, helped by the Centre for Brain Injury Rehabilitation’s (CBIR) resident artist, Christine Goodman.
When Amy’s sister announced she was pregnant, Amy decided to turn her stories into a book called Chickens to give to her newborn niece, India Sky, as a present.
“At first I was only going to print enough copies for my family but Amy, the speech and language therapist suggested I sell the book,” she said.
“That started me thinking that I could sell the book to raise money for the CBIR, as they helped me so much. Not being able to move or speak was the hardest thing, ever.
“I am lucky now to move and speak again, although badly.”
Chickens was printed free of charge by the Urban Print Company on Perth Road and the first run of books has already sold out so more are being printed.
Amy’s rehabilitation is continuing at the CBIR, which is at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Dundee, but she hopes to be able to resume an independent life soon.
She is currently painting a series of portraits of staff at the hospital, including a painting of acting clinical coordinator Margaret Mitchell meeting the Queen when she received her MBE.
She also teaches a tai chi class for patients in wheelchairs for an hour each week and plans to take up wheelchair sports.
“I just want to show people that no matter what life throws at you, you just have to work hard and be determined and you will succeed,” she said.
“After all, they can crush your bones but they cannot crush your spirit.”
Anyone who wants to buy a copy of Chickens can do so by contacting the CBIR. Each book costs £5.