From Poison Arrows to Prozac by Stanley Feldman

Author:Stanley Feldman [Stanley Feldman]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: John Blake Publishing
Published: 2012-03-04T16:00:00+00:00

The accident

Gill was in the habit of roaming over his vast ranch on horseback to inspect his banana plantations, castor-oil bushes and coffee crops. It was when he was returning from one such trip, shortly before his planned journey to North America, that a snake startled his horse, Chugo. It reared up, throwing him off. He landed heavily in the upright position on the heel of one foot, on top of a rough boulder. He described how at the time he felt that his spine had been given ‘a quick squeeze by a giant press’. Although in considerable pain he was able to remount his horse and cover the few remaining miles to his ranch before collapsing from exhaustion.

In the days following the accident, Gill started to develop trembling and weakness in his right hand and a heaviness in his legs, which caused him to drag his feet. He started to have difficulty holding a knife and fork. A few days later he woke up to find the right side of his body paralysed. At this point he remembered his fall from the horse and the acute pain that it had caused in his spine at the time. It seemed likely to him that this was the probable cause of his symptoms.

He sought medical advice from a local doctor, who diagnosed his condition as ‘spinal contusion’ causing spastic paralysis. The doctor advised him to go to the USA for treatment and rehabilitation, since, in his view, the prognosis was uncertain. He returned to North America, where he spent some months lying on his back having spinal traction and remedial physiotherapy in a Washington, D.C. hospital. After some weeks he started to recover his muscle power, but full recovery from the paralysis was slow.

It was some three months before he was able walk unaided and almost four years before he was fit enough to consider returning home. He never completely recovered from the accident. In later life he had episodes of weakness and trembling in his hands and legs. In retrospect, it is possible that it was not the fall from his horse that caused Gill’s problems but that he was actually suffering from a form of multiple sclerosis. During his stay in hospital Gill used his time to write a series of delightful children’s stories based on the native legends and superstitions that he had heard told when he had been a guest of his Indian friends in the jungle.

It was during this recovery period in the USA that Gill suffered severe agonising muscle spasms in his right arm and leg. The painful spasms that he experienced are not uncommon in patients developing or recovering from spinal injury. They are not unlike the painful episodes experienced by healthy individuals at night in their calf muscles when a slight movement triggers off a cramping pain without any warning. Although these calf cramps are agonising, they are mercifully of short duration; even so they leave the muscles aching for many minutes after the pain has dispersed.

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