Pediatrics
One Youth's Story
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Jeannie Martin’s son Pete’s nature changed after he hurt his head in a fall from a bus in Duddingston Road West.
Picture: ESME ALLEN
Sometimes the pain of a fall never goes away
Sarah Howden and Sandra Dick
’IT’S not been easy," admits Jeannie Martin. At first glance you may be forgiven for wondering just what she means.
The 42-year-old’s warm and welcoming Inch home is immaculate. Her cheerful husband Frank has just waved her goodbye as he sets off for work as a display artist.
Her friend is due round for a girlie chat and coffee, and her son Pete, 14, lounges on the sofa. She looks as if she has it very easy.
The medical secretary nods over to Pete, and adds: "This is life now."
Pete is not off school with a bug or cold. This is a normal day now. While his peers enjoy the friendships, triumphs and failures of school he stays at home most of the day. He was just like them until last September when a phone call made Jeannie rush to Duddingston Road West.
Long traffic jams, sirens, flashing lights, ambulances, traffic police and hysterical children surrounded Jeannie’s son, who was lying on the ground in the middle of the road.
"He’d knocked his head badly as he was acting funny and agitated," recalls Jeannie.
According to Jeannie, while on the school bus home, Pete and his seatless friends were standing and, at a bend in the road, he lost his balance and fell down the emergency exit staircase to the back door.
It opened and he fell head first on to the road.
He was taken to hospital with a bleed on the brain, and transferred to a specialist unit at the Western General. Luckily his condition stabilised and four days later Pete returned home.
But Jeannie says: "He didn’t remember what had happened and that was a panic for him.
"There was an awful lot of confusion for him, and for the first month or so he just slept all the time."
It was only then that the family realised just how badly the accident had affected their son.
"It’s strange because it’s caused a lot of problems, but it’s only as time goes on and things change that you realise just how it’s affected him.
"Peter became very confused and mixed up.
"As time went on, life went back to normal but there are still a lot of problems most people don’t realise when it comes to brain injuries. Like his memory, for example.
"He can only do two and a half hours of school a day because it’s difficult for him to concentrate, hard for him to remember and he gets agitated very easily because of this.
"His personality has changed in a lot of ways. He realises he’s changed too. Before he was always, ‘I love you mum’ and I’d get a kiss before he went to school. He was really caring and sensitive.
"All that’s changed - there’s not any of that any more.
"You could look at him and think he’s really selfish and that is how it comes across. It took a long time for me to get my head around it.
"It’s difficult and frustrating to watch someone who was your normal wee boy have a personality change.
"Everyone’s life has changed," stresses Jeannie, sadly. "It does cause animosity. It’s the small things that affect everyone’s lives.
"For example, he was once just a typical big brother, now he’s got no time for his sister Hollie [who’s 12] any more.
"It’s affected her because she’d do anything for him, but he’s not interested. It’s hard to watch."
Jeannie continues: "Before the accident he was a typical young teenager. He can remember most things prior to it but he now gets mixed up.
"There are certain things he doesn’t remember and you need to remind him. And there are just some things he doesn’t remember at all."
Pete is not alone. Each year an estimated 2500 people in Lothian survive head trauma, according to the Edinburgh Headway Group, a charity which supports people with brain injuries.
The charity, which is based in the grounds of Astley Ainslie Hospital, is backing Brain Injury Awareness Week, which begins today.
"Common problems after a head injury can include personality changes, memory loss, lack of concentration and depression" says Headway’s Maxine Lowrie.
"Without the support of volunteer services like Headway, head injured people, with their hidden disability and quite often socially unacceptable behaviour, can become isolated - which, of course, can mean their behaviour or attitude just gets worse."
The charity provides a centre for therapeutic and rehabilitative activities, and helps families cope with the on-going difficulties brain injuries can cause.
One family who have had good cause to need the charity’s support over the years is the Clarks.
A favour for a relative almost 40 years ago changed 72-year-old Alistair Clark’s life - and that of his family - forever.
"It was 1966 - the first day of the football World Cup in England - and I was rushing to finish decorating my mother-in-law’s kitchen so I could watch the opening game on television," he remembers.
"I was cleaning up and all that still looked a bit dirty was the window. So, I went on to the windowsill to give the window a wipe."
A simple everyday task caused Alistair to lose his footing as he stood on the window ledge 40 feet up.
"I have no idea what happened. I had my slippers on, cleaning the window and the next thing I remember was waking up four days later in Ward 20 of the Royal Infirmary."
Alistair had plunged four floors, fracturing his skull. An operation to seal the skull was needed, but when he was sent to the Astley Ainslie Hospital to recuperate he developed meningitis and was rushed back to the Royal Infirmary for a further operation.
At 34, Alistair was left facing a lifetime legacy of unpredictable epileptic fits.
And his wife, Isobel, mother to the couple’s two children, Neil and Diane, found herself his carer for life.
"Alistair can’t be left by himself," explains Isobel, 73. "He could have a fit at any time. Recently he had a fit when he was in the bath, that was particularly frightening.
"There was one hell of a bump and then his head got lodged between the taps.
"You just never know when it might happen. Every day you cross your fingers and hope it’s not going to be that day."
The couple make regular use of the Headway organisation’s facilities, praising the volunteers who give up their time to help head injury survivors.
Respite care organisation Crossroads also steps in once a week to give Isobel a precious evening off to enjoy country dancing.
But they can’t fully escape the legacy of Alistair’s momentary good deed three decades ago.
"We have two grandsons but Alistair can't be left alone with them, which is a real shame," sighs Isobel.
Alistair adds: "What happened that day has had a massive effect on my life - and the lives of everyone around me.
"I can’t tell you how many times I’ve asked myself why I climbed out to clean that window ..."
Alistair’s take on what has happened is something teenage Pete, who is still coming to terms with his injury, can identify with. According to Jeannie, he isn’t as outgoing as he once was, he’s easily frustrated and misses his "normal life".
"There are times he says he wishes it had never happened, he wishes he was OK," says Jeannie. "He knows something isn’t right and he feels different. He just can’t do anything to change it. He’s been really low at times.
"Strangers don’t know there’s a problem - outsiders just see him as rude and selfish, but see him as a typical boy. They don’t realise what’s gone on. Friends and family know different. One of his friends even commented that he’s changed and he wasn’t frightened of anything any more.
"There definitely is an ignorance about brain injuries, and unless it had happened to me and I met Maxine of Headway I’d have been the same - and I work in a doctor’s surgery.
"At times the school have thought he’s OK, and we’ve had to tell them otherwise. Maxine had to come in and explain about brain injuries so they knew. I couldn’t have done it without her and Headway."
She adds: "Just because the bandage has gone, the injuries haven’t."
The future is uncertain for the Martin family, but they remain optimistic.
"He’s by no means fine, but this is life now. You just have to live with it. You’re stuck and no-one can help you. You just continue to hope."