Preston Major Trauma Centre

Headlines on today's national BBC news was the success of the 27 NHS Major Trauma Centres established around the country not at all long ago.   They are saying that 1,500 people are alive as a direct result of these places.   People who would have died in 'ordinary' A&E units, good though they are.

Until today I had not really thought of myself as having had 'major trauma' with my broken neck.   I was wrong.   A fracture of the C2 vertebra is in most cases fatal.   Survivors are most likely to be paralysed from the neck down.   A minority survive with few disabilities to resume normal life.  I am in that final category, praise be to God and in huge measure to the treatment and attention that I (unknowingly at the time) recieved at Preston, firstly at the major trauma centre, then in the neurosurgery unit.

This is from www.spinalcord.com - an American website:

 Due to the high level and placing of these vertebrae at the top of the neck, damage to C1 and C2 is most often fatal or leaves the individual fully paralyzed.

Today's news coverage has brought home to me just how lucky I am to have ended up at a major trauma centre.   Next nearest would have been Leeds which was deemed on the night to be too far away.

By chance, my neck x-rays and CT scans arrived last week by post on a DVD following my Freedom of Information request.   The data files are enormous and so far we have only glanced at them.   Many of the neck and wrist x-rays were taken during my marathon dual-purpose operation back in April.   They show just how much metalwork was inserted with such skill.   Four steel rods in my left wrist are now removed but the titanium in my neck is there for good.  Radiographer Pat will be able to examine the images at leisure and in detail but she has already reported that the injuries were both severe and the neck operation was spectacularly intricate.   When I have mastered the techniques of copying the relevant images (out of a very large number) I shall post them here.  Meantime, here is a short video, made at the Preston Major Trauma Centre, explaining their multi-disciplinary approach.

Preston Major Trauma Centre (11 mins)

Until seeing it, my 'memory' of the unit was of a church hall sort of room with high rafters and not much else.   My brain and recall, drugged up and on the edge of extinction at the time, had been playing tricks.  I knew that would be the case because, for instance, I 'remember' standing watching my own scalp being stitched - clearly impossible on at least two counts!

From my written notes I now know I was CT scanned on one occasion of which I have no memory whatever.   I have only vague recollections of the family gathered around my bed afterwards, ominous on reflection.

As I recover badly distorted memories and nightmares are being explained by meticulously recorded facts and images.   On balance it helps.