|
This didn't stop my boyfriend Barry from going
to work at Pizza Hut. At the time I was playing our new Playstation 3 - Need
for Speed Carbon, a racing game - when he said at about 12pm that it was
time for him to go to work. We exchanged our usual hug and kiss and told
each other that we loved the other. He walked out of the room, I heard his
car pull out and he went to work.
The Call
At about 5pm, I looked at my watch for no reason and thought to myself,
"He'll be home in about 3 hours!" (his shift was 12-8pm). This meant I could
talk with him for a while and cuddle before it was 10 o'clock, which was
usually lights out - but this was a Friday, so it didn't really matter.
About 5-10 minutes after looking at my watch, my mum is running up the
stairs with the phone in her hand. She's looking desperately at me and
passes it over saying, "She's right here." I casually said, "Hello" thinking
that it might be my College tutor calling me.
Instead I was greeted with, "Hello, this is
so-and-so from Walsgrave Hospital. I'm calling you about Barry Hooton." I
didn't know what to think, I thought it may just have been a burn or
something - what could possibly go wrong at Pizza Hut, right? And it
couldn't have been a crash in his car because he's been working there since
12. Then I began to become confused as the nurse said to me, "You see, he's
'very poorly'. Do you have his parents number?" I said yes, and I gave her
their number as I was put as his next of kin. Then she began to say, "Yes,
he's in 'critical condition'." This was when I stopped her and said, "Okay,
is he 'very poorly' or in 'critical condition'." To me, there was a massive
gap. It was confirmed he was in 'critical'. So then my mum was frantic, just
knowing she had to get me and herself to the hospital - we jumped in the car
and drove.
On the Way out the Door
The next mode of action was I called his brother Paul to let him know,
because I didn't know if he had been told yet. His parents were already
being called so I knew I didn't have to worry about that. Still, we had no
idea what had happened yet - they can't tell you anything over the phone.
So, on our way to the hospital I call Pizza Hut to try and find out what had
happened. To my surprise the ambulance crew told them not to call me. The
Area Manager had ironically just popped in to see how things were doing and
he picked up the phone. He walked in as all of this just happened with
Barry, and I was told that Barry had collapsed in the kitchen for no reason,
while cleaning pots for the night shift to help out.
However, he had stopped breathing and his heart
had stopped, and Caroline - one of the Managers - had given him CPR before
the ambulance took him away. Later, we found out that Caroline was
giving him CPR for about 4-5 minutes before the Ambulance came, and after
that, it was another 20 minutes before they resuscitated him. In all,
he was technically dead for 24-25 minutes. He had to be shocked 6 times
before he returned to a semi-stable state.
A&E
Finally, we arrived at the hospital. I went into A&E with my mum, and had to
wait in one of those awful off-side cubicles where they put people who are
crying so that they can control the atmosphere. It was the longest wait
ever; "the doctors are still working on him" they told me. Eventually, they
had finished and I was able to go see him. To this day I will never forget
what he looked like. I wanted to burst into tears so many times but held it
back. He was hooked up to the works - ventilator, all sorts of tubes of
different vitamins and sedatives going into him.
He was basically put into a medical coma to
stabilise his body. The worst thing was, his eyes weren't entirely shut, so
his eyes were just there with water coming out of them from the air of the
hospital - it looked like he was crying. I saw a bit of blood on his arm
from I don't know what and just immediately felt ill. I tried to talk to him
like normal, in case he could hear me, but when someone is in that state and
can't respond, you can't help but talk about them in 3rd person. I still had
to wait for his parents, who were going to arrive at about 9pm because they
live near Skegness while we were in Coventry Hospital!
Critical Care
Soon he was moved to the much quieter Critical Care area of Walsgrave
Hospital. By now, he was cleaned up and just looked like he was asleep. They
kept his body temperature lower than normal because it was therapeutic to
the body. However, this made it no easier for myself to touch him because,
as most people know, a body goes cold when it dies so every time I felt him
it felt like I was touching a corpse. The feeling was awful. I talked to him
now, just like he was awake, but the hardest moment came when he began to
lurch. If you've ever seen the movie 'The Exorcist' and have seen the bit
where the girl springs to an upright position, this is what happened with
him at first. It was terrifying, because you didn't know if he was in pain
or anything and you just hoped that everything inside of him was OK and
mentally he was OK - if he was conscious at all. Every lurch I wanted to
just burst into tears because it felt like you were getting a reaction from
something that technically wasn't supposed to be able to move at all on its
own. Later that night they gave him a full muscle relaxant which
stopped this, and although he was away in sleepy bliss, none of the rest of
us were. While he was asleep like this, I found it so hard to have much
contact with his body. It terrified me. I knew it was him, but it was
terrifying. I couldn't at this point even get the courage to kiss his
forehead.
There were two nurses who really stick in my mind, because they were simply
brilliant. Their names were Lisa, a brilliant Irish nurse, and Ray, who
reminds me of our friend Nicky. They were so brilliant and happy. I remember
the first thing that Lisa said to me, "Oh, you must be Anna. I'm Lisa - I'll
be looking after your man today." Ray also took very good care of Barry,
always giving him a thumbs-up and always talking, explaining, and generally
looking after him. Barry doesn't remember meeting Ray, to this day.
"Waking Up"
All of Saturday he was asleep and the Doctors on Friday had told us that
they would start to wake him up. When someone says "wake up" you imagine
yourself in the morning just... waking up! However, with this, they
had to first very slowly raise his temperature to normal, then very slowly
take him off the sedatives. Also, when he was first waking up, things were
very hard. He was looking around, but the doctors had said that he hadn't
talked yet. I went in to see him, he had no energy. He could barely turn his
head. The bed wasn't big enough for him - he's 6'4" - and so he was
semi-curled up on the bed, looking like a child. His eyes showed that he was
terrified.
I talked to him, he would slightly nod, or
slightly smile, but his body was shivering and shaking all over. I assume
this was just the shock that was postponed. It was the sort of shaking your
body starts to get when you feel like you're going to be sick and you can't
help but quiver with the nervousness of it. I told him I was going to get
some lunch and that I loved him, leant down and gave him a kiss on the lips.
His first words, ever, after this whole thing were, "I love you too." This
made me jump inside. I was so happy. Not only that he remembered me, but
that he was showing instant signs of progress - he could talk. I immediately
told the doctor.
The next thing that he proceeded to say to me
was when he was looking at me weird and I said to him: "Do you remember who
I am?" He then pulled me down to his lips and said quite simply, "How can I
forget you? You're Anna, the love of my life." I could have broken down and
cried a million tears at this point. It was like something from a romance
movie or novel. There are fairy-tale moments in real life, and this was the
proof. However, at this point, he could still barely talk. When he did, it
took everything he had in him. He also still could barely move. He was quite
"disabled."
The next thing was the worry. Within the next
few days (Monday to Wednesday), every day or even hour just got better and
better - more movement, more talking, more awareness, and more insanity! He
began to remember things, but was also starting to hallucinate about things
as well - this was the effect of the "comedown" of the sedatives. He thought
he was living with his parents, going to college, even doing work experience
at the hospital! All of the facts were there, but they weren't being pieced
together properly. I think the best instance to explain how someone is
coming out of sedatives is this: Barry said to me, "The nurses locked me in
the toilet." I couldn't believe what I was hearing. However, it was almost
true. The nurses had walked him to the toilet because he didn't like the
catheter, and tried to let him do things on his own. When they tried to open
the door after he'd finished, the door handle had come off! So he was
technically stuck in there but they soon got him out.
However, this was another great step - he hadn't
forgotten how to walk, either. Another thing he seemed to not forget was the
ability to become sexually aroused. His father was sat in Critical Care with
me one time and Barry just decided he was going to show me how passionately
he cared for me! He suddenly lunged at me from the side of his bed and tried
to snog me, right in front of his dad, and the nurses! No matter who was in
there, my mum or dad, or his family, he didn't care. Eventually, it got
quite out of hand, and the nurse said to him; "Now, Barry, we think this
whole thing might be a problem with your heart so you can't get frisky!"
It's Something to do with the Heart
By Thursday, he was moved to the Cardiac Ward.
He was, again, the youngest person just like he was in Critical. It wasn't
long until the doctors moved him into a side room. He was much more like
himself now, and starting to remember things even more. When he was in
Critical he had the memory of a goldfish. Things were getting better. Soon,
they were talking about moving him to Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham.
They had never seen this sort of record recovery and still to this day he
has no brain damage of any sort except for when he was in critical care he
cannot remember being there, or perhaps the day he was working.
The Taxi Ride
Waiting for a bed in Birmingham took about a week or so, and then we
suddenly were told to get packing because the ambulance was here to take us
to Birmingham. I rode with Barry, naturally. The "ambulance" was actually a
taxi. However, the driver doubles as a fully qualified paramedic and
has all of the tools and kits in the boot if anything went a bit crazy.
There are only 15 of them who operate in the area and I say thanks to them
because the one we had was brilliant - his name was Bill. We soon got Barry
settled into the new ward at Birmingham. Funnily enough, the first nurse we
met was called "Rommie" which was funny because 'Andromeda' is one of
Barry's favourite shows and the ship in its human form is called "Rommie"
for short.
Birmingham
We arrived in Birmingham on Saturday the 16th of June. Birmingham was very
different to Walsgrave Hospital. Walsgrave was pristine in condition because
it had just been rebuilt and had all new equipment - Birmingham was waiting
for this makeover. Things seemed older and less inviting, but the staff were
brilliant, and the people on the ward as well. The men on the ward were so
nice and just had a laugh as often as possible, with everyone. This was more
when Barry remembers things. He doesn't remember any of Critical Care and a
little of the Cardiac Ward. Barry says the best thing about this ward was
the older men were more than willing to help him through this tough time.
Barry was going to have an ICD implanted into his body, and one of the men,
Ron, already had one of these, so Barry got to converse with him about what
it was like.
Surgery
Soon, Barry was in surgery to have an ICD implanted. He was scared about the
whole thing, as anyone would be, and so were we - but soon it was in and
settled. The surgery had no problems and it was very funny because to this
day, if you met Barry you would think that nothing like this had happened to
him. He is exactly the same as he was before, with the addition of an ICD.
Laugh or Cry
One of the biggest things about dilemmas like this is whether you laugh or
cry. At times, it was both. Here are some things that we look back on now,
and can just smile about: we used to joke about Caroline giving Barry CPR -
but now, we're so thankful for it. We even would joke about Barry having a
heart attack because of a tingling he gets in his hands sometimes. Now, we
realize, its nothing to joke about.
Another thing that was a big laugh / worry was
whether or not our love-life would be able to resume. The doctors said it
could, and at first it was very very peculiar. At first, because Barry had
had an angiogram, we had to put a pillow on his groin/leg area before we
started anything. It was quite funny, and we just did it in increments. You
can only go as fast as what you're comfortable with. It was a funny
experience, but very weird. We still both feel weird about it today. After
not being around each other 24/7 like we normally were for about a month,
and then suddenly going back to it, its very weird.
My best advice for people is give yourself time to adjust. A month is when
all the heavy stuff comes out like the crying, the emotions, and everything
else. After that, things slowly get better. Although you will always know
that something is different, don't let it rule your life. The worst thing
for anyone who has had something like this, is not being able to drive.
Barry can't drive for 6 months, and if in that time he gets a shock from his
ICD then that timer goes up and up. He hopes not to get a shock.
The Mystery - Still Unsolved
To this day, the doctors have no idea what happened or why Barry collapsed
so suddenly. They've done an MRI scan, ECGs, an angiogram - everything, and
cannot find a single cause or reason as to what happened, why, or what it
was that actually happened. He still remains a mystery. The only thing that
people can come to the conclusion of, seeing him from literally dead, and
now where he's exactly normal like he was before, is that he's a walking
miracle. I like to think that too.
back |
