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Text Box: Depth gauge reading 14.1ft at same spot 3 years later. Text Box: These photographs above were taken on the 4th July 1998 a few hours before my injury Text Box: Courtney being entertained

 

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Text Box: Corn... corn... lots of CORN!

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Text Box: Corn... corn... more corn...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Text Box: Meanwhile I contacted the Foreign Office questioning why it cost so much for the flight and was it really necessary for me to pay £4,000 for the return of my passport facilities. Bromenn hospital in the United States not only paid £4,500 for the flight, but wrote off the hospital bill which was in excess of $120,000. In reply the Foreign Office totally denied any of the telephone conversations and painted themselves in a very rosy light as my saviours, yet they were very slow on the uptake when I asked for an itemised bill for the cost of the flight.     It was a difficult time in Southport, firstly I didn’t have family or friends close by and I wasn’t surrounded by the lovely nurses I was used to fussing around me in the States, they were all too busy in Southport, there again I would have come across as a bit of an arse constantly going on about America! Not that the nurses weren’t lovely in Southport because they were… I felt frustrated for them on the knife edge of our under funded mismanaged health service that runs them ragged. I did have a favourite nurse called Lisa, she’d just finished her training and I was her first patient, she always wore a smile that warmed my heart and made my day (we still keep in touch).  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Text Box: Then there was my new body, trying to do the simplest of tasks like brush my teeth. I had a strap fixed to my hand which held my toothbrush, but I couldn’t brush normally because I have no ‘active’ triceps, meaning I couldn’t pull the brush out once it was in… I ended up wedging my head, still in the halo, facing down between the taps allowing gravity to drop my arm. This motion repeated enabled me to clean my teeth. Then there was shaving through and around the bars!!! After one month in Southport the halo was removed, that’s 3 months in total. When the halo is unscrewed there’s no anaesthetic, they just slowly dismantle it. As the last screw was loosened and the head piece lifted off, my head felt as though it was going to float away... la la la!