Interview 38

Age at interview: 55

Brief Outline:

Was admitted to intensive care in 2005 after having a car accident. Spent about a week in intensive care and 2 weeks in a trauma ward.

Background:

Occupation: secretary. Marital status: married. Number of children: 2. Ethnic background: White British.

She had vague memories of having a car accident and a scan in hospital, but learnt more about...

It was a car accident basically. I'd been perfectly well. I'd been to my daughter's for lunch after we'd seen to the horses, because we keep horses, and I was on my way home. And I don't know what happened. I don't remember the accident, apart from the impact and then broken glass. And then again I've got no concept of time. I can remember somebody removing the ignition keys, turning the engine off and removing the ignition keys. And then the emergency services. I can remember asking somebody to phone my husband, and they did. He came down to the site of the accident. And then from there it was, the emergency services had to cut me out of the car, and then being transferred into the ambulance and taken to the hospital and through the emergency service, you know, A and E. I remember him telling them that I was wearing contact lenses, so they had to get those out. And then all the various things to determine what injuries I had. 

And everything goes sort of very, no timescale whatsoever. And then I don't know whether I was in an assessment ward for a while before I went into Intensive Care or whether it was sort of straight into Intensive Care. I can remember being taken, put into, I don't know what it was, some sort of scanning machine I suppose, where I had to hold my breath until I was told I could breathe again. And then they told me what injuries I'd got and that there was a possibility that I'd ruptured my intestine, but they weren't sure, and they'd have to wait and see. And it turned out that I had.

Yeah. What had happened? People told you afterwards, talked to you about what happened, you were driving and?

Yes, it would appear that for whatever reason I veered on to the wrong side of the road into the path of the oncoming vehicle, and it was a more or less head-on collision. But, as I say, I don't actually remember the accident.