Life-changing injuries

I’m Oliver Sacks and I mostly see patients to whom something catastrophic has happened, either as a result of injury or disease. In a way, all of us live on a knife-edge and something can happen and we can be thrown, unexpectedly, into a catastrophic situation. But a catastrophe needn’t be a catastrophe. We are resilient creatures and we can learn to live with things and learn to do things in a different way and also the body and the brain and the mind have all sorts of ways of adapting. And one of the wonderful things about this website is that not only does it show a variety of conditions and a variety of people but it shows all of the different ways one can learn to live with things and live a good full life despite what one would have thought, was a catastrophe.

Simon B: An able bodied person’s body does run on autopilot. You just -, it’s so easy being able bodied compared to disabled because I've been both. And that puts me in a unique position in that I've been both so I know what both means. And it’s far easier. But that's not to say that with a disability you can't adjust and get organised but you do have to be very disciplined and that something that does take time.

Raymond: I think back now and just remember how difficult it was really for me to talk in those days. Even today it’s still very, very challenging. And people don’t realise just how much goes into actually trying to speak, to gather your thoughts in your mind, how you want to express them, the mood you want to be in when you express the things you want to say, and then to get them across clearly and concisely can be very, very challenging. And I think for the first few years with me the hardest thing was trying to find and remember words that I’d wanted to say.

Bill: And I went out and drove it for the first time and I felt so liberated because I could feel I was going somewhere at the speed that was normal, and I felt part of the world again, and after that I started, started carrying keys, started having money in my pocket, credit cards, and started doing things again. But it was the point of being able to control my life again.

Bridget: And he said, “Well Bridget, just get yourself a little white stick, a collapsible stick which you old in your hand and you can lengthen it or shorten it with the flip of your hand just have it there.” But I know I went away and I thought, well he really doesn’t know me at all does he? There’s no way that I’m ever going to have a little white stick in my left hand. Because however bad it is, it’s not that bad that I’m going to do that.

Why is that?

Because I don’t want it to be obvious. I mean that’s what I like about it, that it’s, it’s not obvious and people don’t know. 

Rob: I know I’m not getting my sight back. So I can either throw in the towel and be miserable or I can get up, I can be motivated. I can do what makes me happy and I can still seize life. I can take every opportunity I need to take and, you know, be happy where it’s possible for me to be happy. I mean it’s still life and I’m still going to have the usual ups and downs that life brings but, you know, I’m alive and happy to be here.