After completing my degree I thought I would treat myself to a year of work and travel abroad before starting full time work that would likely end 50 years later when I retire. Not even a week after my graduation and I was on a plane to work as a cashier in New York City. Following that I attended a Spanish course in Buenos Aires to warm up my Spanish for travelling with friends up the West Coast of South America, from Santiago, Chile to Bogota, Columbia.
On the evening of the 30th October, after a thrilling day cycling the famous ‘Death Road’ in Bolivia I started to feel agonising pains in my legs. I was admitted to a hospital in La Paz where I spent 3 days getting worse, not better. My legs, arms then torso shortly became fully paralysed.
On the fourth day with no real diagnosis, my parents contacted the British Embassy who moved me immediately to a better hospital where the neurosurgeon, Dr de Ferrari carried out a lumber puncture to diagnose me with GBS (Guillain Barre Syndrome) and shortly started emergency treatment. Had I spent another 24 hours in the previous hospital my lungs would have become paralysed with fatal consequences.
On the 14th November, having been stabilised, I was medevacked back to Britain. The flight landed 4 times to refuel before finally touching down in Southampton. From Southampton I was taken to the Royal Surrey Hospital in Guildford where I was registered on the NHS system. Another two weeks later and I was in a rehab unit in Woking. Here I have spent the last 5 months working on regaining my movement so that eventually I can walk again.
Although I have made great strides in regaining strength in my upper body I am still heavily wheelchair bound and a long way from having my own independence.
This blog, although therapeutic is also an opportunity to improve my writing style for a book that I am currently working on. The book will be detailing my experience of becoming paralysed and my recovery with special emphasis on the psychological impact of a near death experience, locked in syndrome and how people react when their world comes crashing down.
In My Mind I Am Free 