martin_s_buckley
Winger
Afghanistan 2007. A Taliban rocket flew about 25m over my tent and exploded about 100m away in scrubland.
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Nah, if I’d wanted a droll existence I woulda joined the RAF as an engineerI'd jack in that job as a lollipop man if I was you
WOW !Just under three years ago. Contracted Encephalitis (a virus that attacks the brain). The body was fighting the virus so hard that I then contracted Sepsis (not sure how that works but is apparently quite common for the body to do that).
I was oblivious to it. I had a terrible pain on my left hip and could barely walk. I was working nights and at the end of one shift I realised I was slurring my speech. I put it down to tiredness and maybe the onset of a non-serious viral infection. A good sleep and I'd be fine.
The following evening was a bit of a blur. I'd watched Scotland get hammered in a World Cup qualifier. Next thing I knew I was in a dingy, dimly room with grey paint on the walls and a gadgie in a bed next to me being wheeled away, having just died.
I was in intensive care, paralysed from the neck down, having gone into cardiac arrest at home and taken to hospital by air ambulance. I had apparently died but paramedics at my home and then on the air ambulance made sure I'd continue to suffer with Sunderland.
Initial prognosis was that I wouldn't walk again and would need care for the rest of my life. If I survived. They had to change my bedding at least 4 times through the night. It was pretty grim, that first night and the outlook.
I simply wasn't having that. I was in intensive care and critical care but had no idea how serious it was. It never occurred to me that I was gravely ill. I was simply going to get myself better and carry on.
A month later I left the infirmary to be transferred to a rehabilitation home. I lasted 48 hours because I was the youngest there by 20 years and the food was abominable. Their 5pm 'activity' was making a sandwich. I discharged myself, went home, then on the Monday went down the pub at lunchtime to see my work buddies thanks to crutches and a number 17 bus.
Looking back now I have no idea how I sirvived. The consultant said in over 30 years, he'd never known anyone to have those three conditions simultaneously and live. Let's just say Leicester City's odds to win the title were decidedly stingy in comparison.
It may have something to do, ironically, with my ignorance. I didn't know Sepsis was a serious condition, and thought encephalitis had to be a much less serious form of meningitis because I'd never heard of it. By not knowing about either illness, I had no fear of dying from them. I look back and smile now, though, and think "How the fuck did you not die?"
No mate never seen him since. It was the policeman who knocked on my door and told me of his sentence.
I had alcohol poisoning once after drinking a top shelf. Wasn't my proudest moment.Had a few hangovers where I’ve seriously thought I must be close to dying
No but I can feel where he drilled through skull.Every time I closed my eyes I could see them. They were just people going about their business but they weren’t nurses or anything. They were just regular people.....children too. I’d be watching them and thinking “why don’t they get out of my room when I’m trying to sleep?” It was relentless and then after a couple of days I didn’t see them anymore. The strongest medication I was on was paracetamol. It wasn’t scary.
Can you feel them in your head still? I can.
That’s one thing I did with the kids that I look back on and think it was worth it. Every Saturday morning swimming.I was forced to become a very strong swimmer after that but to this day i still dont like pools much.
Prefer the sea/lakes/rivers despite them being objectively more dangerous.