United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

After scanning through this site for the last few weeks I thought its time I let you all know my story. My name is Leon and back in April 2002 aged 28 my life changed, it was a lovely sunny afternoon and I thought I’ll take the Aprillia out. Things were going well until a Lady in a BMW decided to pull out from a side road leaving me now where to go other than front wheel, bonnet, windscreen and then road. The next thing I remember was a week, 2 hospitals and about 5 operations later with a Doctor standing over me telling me my injuries and what he’d done to fix them: - open factures to both forearms held together with pins and plates, open facture of my right femur now with a pin in it, inter-trochanteric (snapped off) facture of right hip more metal, broken collarbones and ribs. Just to brighten me up he then told me about the 2 non-recoverable injuries. The day after the accident I developed something called compartment syndrome in my (what they thought uninjured) left leg. Basically the leg had swollen to double its normal size and the only way to relieve the pressure had been to perform a fasciotomy (surgical cut from the knee to ankle) on both sides of the leg. Unfortunately the damage had already been done and they had to remove all but a tiny bit of muscle from my lower left leg. He was also pretty sure I had a brachial plexus injury to my right side but to be sure I had to be transferred to RNOH (Stanmore) for explority surgery to be carried out by Dr Birch. The main findings of the surgery were a rupture of the C5 and C5 root, avulsion of C7 root and recovering G1 root. Dr Birch was able to do a partial repair and was very positive about what he had done and he sent me off to another hospital for more skin grafts on my legs, these kept failing due to MRSA undoing all the hard work the various doctors had done. That’s the boring medical bit done anyway, after 4 months of lying in a room, many operations, sleepless painful nights, crying and a month of physio done in a week they stood me up and let me go home. As many, probably all of you reading this know that’s when the real hard stuff starts, getting back to living and dealing with the injures. Now 18 months later I’m left with a left foot with no sensation or movement and a right BPI affected arm that showing little sign of recovering any feeling or function. I think through time you get through doing everything with a non-dominant arm/hand and its very easy to get angry and that’s when the support network of family comes in, they have all been so good especially my girlfriend who suffered badly with post-traumatic stress. She really did get me through the time in hospital, its funny we’ve been together over ten years and all that time she had been the most un-organised person with no time for anything and she managed to travel for 1 ½ hours everyday for 4 months to see me whilst running a house and caring for her 2 children. I’m getting used to the way I now am and are hoping to get back to work soon, the problem there is I am only skilled in manual work and now have to retrain in something. One thing I don’t understand is the relative lack of pain in my BPI affected arm, since my accident I’ve researched the injury and most people really suffer with the pain, other than an arm that aches and feels heavy and an electric shock sensation in my thumb I’m not affected. My balance due to a foot that won’t move and a leg 2 cm shorter than the other is poor and I think I must be the world stumbling champion, but I’ve always tried to look on the bright side and its good I can walk and have just brought an adapted car and I’ve got one (almost)good arm. I’ve just made the trips to see the doctors and Dr Birch is going to do tendon transfers in my wrist and some muscle grafting in my bicep to try and get something out of the arm early next year. The plastic surgeons are still working on the left leg to improve movement and the metal work from my right leg may be removed in the next 18 months. On my birthday I got a call from my solicitor and after a year the Lady (her insurance) admitted 100% liability. So I’m hoping to get back to work, return to keep fit in some form and somehow play my guitars again.Thank you for taking the time to read this and thanks for putting the website together. Leon.

If anyone has knowledge about any of the following I’d be grateful for your input.

How successful are the muscle/tendon transfers?
Does the intense pain commence a time after the initial injury?
How does the compensation process work?
What are the dangers of subluxtion?
How have people dealt with post-traumatic stress?

Sorry to hera about your injury. My son has C5,C6,and partialC7 injuries. Though his are caused by the doctor panicking, she yanked and twisted then walked away from me. She left him half way lodged like that. ANyways, he had his first surgery 2 months ago at 71/2 months. They took a golfball size neurema off his C5,6 nerve. I know this is a serious injury and that he will never gain much use back. Surgery was pretty scary and I am not sure it will benefit him. We have a decision to make if the riskd are worth it for future surgery. I do not like the scars he has, I dare want more. Especiallyy if this does no good. Good luck. Ann Zak's mom

Check out the message booards at http://pub28.ezboard.com/badultswithbra ... usinjuries all Brits on this site and youll find answers to all your questions and more
Most are bikers and a lot have seen Dr Birch

good luck
karl

Leon, This is the first time I have posted as well, although like you I have been reading and researching.My 3 year old son was ran over by our riding lawnmower aug.2 2003. He suffered many injuries as well(many muscles and bones lost). He is still unable to lift his right arm. You say you do not have much pain from your injury? I dont believe my son's arm hurts, but because he cannot quite verbalize yet I have been unsure. Although it has only been 4 months I believe our family has come a long way. The first 2 months my husband and I wept every time my son was not around to see. we were so torn apart and sad for him. This accident has put things in perspective for us though. We try to appreciate every moment with our son. Instead of thinking about what happened and the way our lives were before, we are trying to enjoy every moment of this short life we are given. Sorry this is so long. If you ever want to talk to me you can. My son has many surgeries ahead, and I would like to hear more about you. Heather, Evan's mom

Hi Leon,

Your story is similar to mine in that I too badly injured a leg in the same accident as my pbi, I did a graceful swan dive over a tractor and bounced a few times on the pavement break my right tib/fib. It was 6 years before the reconstructive surgery was over. Having the dual injury is tough.

It's been over 20 years for me, but the best advice I can give you is to see a therapist to deal with the process and the stress. Don't wait 20 years like I did. The other thing is exercise. I was a weightlifter at the time of the accident and I've kept it up. My right arm is stronger than ever and I have no problems with repitive strain, It helps with the walking too.

Good luck and hang tough.

Henry

Heather it sounds like you and your family have been through a lot since your sons accident and i know you will all get through it.It must be so difficult with an injury to a child so young who does'nt understand and can't let you know about pain and exactly how he feels.My girlfriend still struggles to come to terms with my accident i think that is because i have to deal with the physical injures while she worries about my mental state,thinking about the future,work and things like that. I think i must have been one of the lucky ones regarding pain in the arm,only my shoulder hurts.Next week i'm having a nerve conduction test done in London this will let me know how the nerves are regenerating, then in Febuary I'm having muscle and tedon transfers done there going to take part of my pec muscle and attach it to my bicep and do something with the tendons in the wrist to enable me to grab and let go of things.To help with my walking there also lengthening my achillies tendon in my left leg in a way i'm quite looking forward to these operations and i hope there gonna work, it could also bring my claim for compensation a step nearer. You're right though things like we've been through certainly make you think about life differently.I'm currently training in computers with the aim of landing some kind of job i would rather be doing physical work but thats not possible.My good hand is now starting to ache so see ya! Heather you and your family stay strong I'm sure you will.

Leon,
I just got back from surgery with Dr. Tiel at LSU. First off, I think you should marry that girl. Secondly I am truely sorry to here about what you have gone through. Regarding muscle tranfers the success rate is very good, its an orthopedic surgery whereby they just re-attach the muscle to a diffent bone. Kind of takes getting used to thinking about which movement to make to move your arm. And your lack of pain in the bpi arm is a blessing, might be due to the repairs done by Dr. Birch. Can't help you with the rest because I am a Yank. One thing I have noticed is in the UK they seem to take care of business up front. It seems here in America where we deal with health insurrance companies they treat us like insurrance claims. Hope this helps and keep fighting the good fight....Karl...