Kevin

Age at interview: 54

Age at diagnosis: 7

Brief Outline: Kevin was diagnosed with a childhood hip disorder at 7 years of age and still experiences pain in his hip to this day and walks with a stick. He had an industrial accident in 1993. In 1996, he was injured as a result of routine operation to remove a kidney stone. He also has learning disabilities and asthma.

Background: Kevin lives alone and is unemployed but does voluntary work. Ethnic background: White English.

More about me...

Kevin was diagnosed with Perthes disease (a childhood hip disorder) at 7 years of age and has always had problems with one of his hips which now has a metal plate inside the joint. In 1993, his hand became trapped in machinery at work. In 1996, during a routine operation for removal of a kidney stone, he suffered harm from the procedure which it took 3 years to put right.

Kevin has learning disabilities. In his account, this aspect of his life appears more troublesome than his health conditions. For example, he encountered problems getting access to his father when he was dying in hospital. He used to be managed by a Learning Disabilities Team, but he stopped being involved with them after he became stressed about workers visiting and throwing some of his things away under the guise of cleaning up; he wanted to be in control of his own life.

Kevin has lived in the area all his life and knows a lot of people through his former work and the many voluntary jobs he has undertaken. Throughout his account, we learn about Kevin’s rich social network and his deep connections with the place where he lives.

Kevin was in hospital at the same time as his father, who was dying. Kevin had problems visiting his dad because some staff did not believe he was his son. There was no apology when an aunt confirmed that he was.

What do you call them, house doctors?

The what, sorry?

House doctors.

House doctors, yeah.

Yeah, I was trying to tell him what… who I was and what dad had, but the bloke said, you ain’t his son, he said the only son he’s got is up in [county], so I was telling him, he wasn’t even listening to me and I was fuming, we were up on the ward, we all went back to the sister… the nurse who was looking after me, she said, right, she said, give it until about quarter past 10 when the night shift come on and she said you can go and see your dad and that and I went down there and the nurse who was looking after dad, I said to her, oh, I’m his son and she didn’t believe me, so she said… because dad’s sister come down all the way from [town], she said, because I think she got there about two o’clock in the morning, up at the hospital to see dad, and she said… the nurse said to her, she said, we’ve just had a bloke off ward 15 come down and see him, she said, yeah, that’s his son, he’s been in here for at least three weeks for an operation. Then the doctors and the nurse didn’t even come back and apologise.

And why do you think they didn’t believe you? Do you think it’s because you’ve got learning disabilities?

I’ve got… yeah, because I have learning disabilities.

Surgeons would only give Kevin a “fifty-fifty” chance of an operation on his hip being successful as there is already a metal plate attached from previous surgery for Perthes disease.

What symptoms cause you the most problems?

Well, I normally get stiff in my, with my left hip.

Right.

And I gets a lot of pain, because it’s the same when they’re in the…it’s only like, get a really sharp pain and I can’t move, laying on… laying on my left side to ease the pain off and take some paracetamols.

So the hip that’s causing you the problem is not the same hip that you had a problem with when you were younger…oh, it is the same one?

Yeah.

So that’s, kind of, gone on over the… over the years.

Yeah. I’m still under [a hospital], but they won’t do the operation, they would only… they would only give me fifty/fifty.

What a fifty/fifty chance of it working or…

Yeah.

…a fifty/fifty chance of you being alive afterwards?

Well they said it could be walking again or else I’ll end up in a wheelchair for the rest of my life, so…

Right. And would you have preferred to have the operation then, do you think? Did they try to put you off?

I think they… I think they tried putting me off a little bit, because they would only give me, like, fifty/fifty and I wasn’t, happy. So I walked away out there and so I saw another doctor and he said, he said we could do the operation, but he said it would be… because there’s a plate I’ve got in there now, they’ll have a job to remove it.

Right.

And the, because I’ve got three screws in my… in the plate on… in the plate as well.

Right. And the plate is related to this…

Perthes Disease.

When Kevin had keyhole surgery for a kidney stone it led to a problem that had to be put right 3 years later.

I had a kidney stone back in ’96 and they, err, they done a keyhole surgery and they split the tube in the back of my bladder, they split the tube and I had to have… then they let it go on for about three years before they put a… before they put a new one in and I was in hospital for nearly three weeks.

One hospital would only give Kevin a “fifty fifty” chance of another operation on his hip being successful. He already has a metal plate from a previous operation.

They won’t do the operation, they would only… they would only give me fifty/fifty.

What… a fifty/fifty chance of it working or…

Yeah.

…a fifty/fifty chance of you being alive afterwards?

Well they said it could be walking again or else I’ll end up in a wheelchair for the rest of my life, so…

And would you have preferred to have the operation then, do you think? Did they try to put you off?

I think they… I think they tried putting me off a little bit, because they would only give me, like, fifty/fifty and I wasn’t happy. So I walked away out there and so I saw another doctor and he said we could do the operation, but he said it would be… because there’s a plate I’ve got in there now, they’ll have a job to remove it.

Right.

And the, because I’ve got three screws in my… in the plate on… in the plate as well.

Right. And the plate is related to this…

Perthes Disease.

When his hip pain gets bad, Kevin is helped by lying with his cat.

Yeah, it does get on my nerves sometimes, I…when the pain gets really bad, I just, like, lean on that side…

Right.

Try and ease off the pain and the cat sits with me, because he’s on…because of the heat from him…It does my hip a bit of good.