Thursday the 8th of December 2022.

I opened my eyes in shock with a gasp, having been hit with a sudden wave of cold air, my brain hadn’t quite woken up yet and I felt slightly confused having just had the strangest dream which lingered like a deja-vu and was so peculiar it didn’t seem like it could be real. Unfortunately looking around didn’t immediately clear up the situation. I was laid on my back on a stretcher. The brightly lit and high-tech interior of an ambulance greeted me, accompanied by the regular beeping of a heart monitor. I followed the mass of cables in my view to where they led, and I was met with the realization that I was their destination and the beep began to quicken. I was greeted by a friendly face of a female paramedic who began to engage in conversation and check my responses. I became very aware that I was almost naked (save for my underwear) and was bloody freezing. I was asked if I could remember what day it was. I couldn’t. I was then asked what month it was. I hadn’t a clue. But judging by the temperature I could make a pretty good guess at wintertime. This got a quick laugh from the paramedic. She asked me if I could move my legs. I breathed a big sigh of relief when I realised I could move my legs as well as the rest of my body when asked. However, the seriousness of the situation began to dawn on me as the pieces of my memory began to return. Off to the side in the ambulance, I could see the remains of my beautiful 3 piece work suit and winter coat, very obviously cut into pieces. The second paramedic a kind-faced white-haired gentleman then entered with various bits of plastic that used to be my phone. I was pleasantly surprised to find that he had found my Garmin watch completely intact apart from a broken strap. He triumphantly stated that he had found it about twenty meters down the road. I was very glad he did, and made a mental note that paying for the extra tough Sapphire version was a good idea at the time. Without further ado, I was covered in a blanket as my body began to jackhammer before the side door slid closed and the ambulance began to amble along the road. I found the rocking motion this made strangely comforting. On the way, I managed to give one of the paramedics the details of my next of kin so they could get in touch with my family. As it turned out I could still remember my home phone number in Ireland! Winner! On the ride into A&E the picture of what had happened became clearer.

I had just left work having finished up with my last patient of the day.  I decided to use an electric rental scooter to save a bit of time and make it home a little earlier. I had used them hundreds of times before as they are super handy for quick impromptu journeys, but on this occasion, I remember moving off at a junction in the dark and gloomy winter’s evening & remember hearing a very loud noise and experiencing a sudden jolt as my scooter was clipped by a silver blur of a car. I distinctly remember the E-scooter going one way (under the car) and me rolling another. I’d like to say that all my years of Jiu-Jitsu and Krav Maga training kicked in and I rolled to safety in a precise and organised manner like Keanu Reaves in John wick 3.  It’s possible that this did in fact happen. However, it all happened so fast that I honestly can’t remember how I managed not to get pulled under the car. Thankfully I didn’t hit my head on the road (or the car) as far as I know, but after standing up from the impact I was pleased to note that I had managed to reach the relative safety of the pavement, I looked around to see if the car was still there and at that point, I realised that I could not look in the correct direction of where the car was! My body kept wanting to pull in the opposite direction. I could also hear the strangest groaning noise and I had a sharp, wet pain in my mouth. It was at that point I realised it was me that was groaning and I was biting my own tongue aggressively and could taste my own blood!  I thought. FUCK, I’m having a seizure and with that, I remember the pavement coming up to greet me before everything went black.

Now looking back I am very grateful those weren’t my last moments and thoughts as it could have very easily been over for me on impact or following the seizure but for luck/higher powers and or the timely arrival of an ambulance within a few minutes of my accident.

Roll forward an hour & I had been triaged and treated by an amazing A&E team in the Bristol Royal Infirmary. I was taken through many neuro examinations & tests including an immediate head CT scan and at some point, it was identified that my left foot had been crushed under the scooter as it went under the car and some of my toes had been broken. One had been split pretty badly and required stitching up and currently resembled an overcooked and blackened cocktail sausage split down the centreline. I watched with curious admiration as my 4^th toe was sutured back together again.

With all of that said and done, I was given some good and some bad news. Before delivering the news, I was wheeled into a private room which I took to be a pretty shit sign. The good news was that there were absolutely no bleeds on the brain, or any obvious neurological damage caused by accident apart from a slight bit of inflammation that would settle with some steroids. Overall, I had been very lucky and there were no serious injuries to my body apart from a couple of broken toes.  I was slightly reprimanded (and rightly so) for not wearing a helmet and told they had seen people come off a lot worse in these situations.

The bad news was that they had found something that they weren’t expecting to find. I was told that a suspected ‘space-occupying lesion’ had shown up on the CT scan of the brain. They would need a further MRI to be done the following day to assess it properly and confirm. But the poor A&E doctor appeared distraught and very sympathetic when delivering the news that this was highly likely to be a primary brain tumour.

Oddly I was very calm when receiving the news. You would expect this to be one of the hardest things you could be told. Maybe it was because I had just escaped a potential near-death accident or maybe I had picked up on some of the not-so-subtle non-verbal indicators or perhaps even working in a clinical setting myself helped me to focus on the rational aspects of the case. But I felt quite prepared to hear news of this calibre and took it fairly stoically. Obviously, this was less than ideal but a strange part of me had expected to hear something like this and I was in a weird way glad to know now as it was a problem for tomorrow and I had survived the immediate and pressing issues of the day. With all that said, restful sleep was not easy to find until I would have more answers in the subsequent few days. I was left impressed and amazed at how excellent the team was and how this sort of thing was their day-to-day work.

Stay tuned for more updates to follow.