Recovery Journey Summary
David was a 45-year-old man from Newcastle-under-Lyme in central England, who in July 2015 worked as a freelance IT security consultant with London’s Met Police. While on a leisure ride from his home to Nantwich in Cheshire he suffered a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), following a collision between a car and his bicycle. David was flown by air ambulance to the nearest major trauma centre (Royal Stoke Hospital), whereupon surgery relieved the pressure building up from a blood clot in his brain. David was assessed as Glasgow Coma Scale 3 (severe) during the first two weeks of a four-week comatose period. Upon emerging from his coma, David had locked-in syndrome for six days; he couldn’t speak or move his head, but he could move his eyes and hear spoken words around him. David spent a further eight weeks in a specialist NHS rehabilitation centre, before being discharged to home.
Despite what he described as fantastic clinical support from the NHS, David said it was only after coming home that he understood he was now embarking on what he calls the real life recovery journey. David was incapable of doing anything other than get through each day during the first nine months following discharge. He recognised that he needed a new purpose in life, so in June 2016 he began pursuing voluntary work opportunities. David started off in a charity shop sorting clothes, then took up a befriending role with senior citizens via the Royal Voluntary Service. David progressed to become an “IT buddy” at his local library, enabling him to leverage some of his IT skills. Of most importance, for himself, he felt useful again.
In July 2017, following a year of volunteering, David returned to professional work with the Met Police as an IT security consultant. The Met had pursued David’s availability since his period in the NHS rehabilitation centre in October 2015, during which time he didn’t feel capable of returning – so his eventual acceptance was unexpected and unplanned for. David was surprised to find that he’d lost very little of the expert IT security skills. The biggest challenge David experienced in returning to professional work was his severe short-term memory limitations. However, David had developed numerous note-taking coping strategies which he was able to rely upon.
In June 2018, David enthusiastically embarked upon a three-day training course to learn new IT skills in Amazon Web Services (cloud technology). Despite immersing himself in the learning experience, he found that within minutes he lost retention of any new skills he was taught. David worked on a variety of freelance IT security engagements leveraging his existing skills, before retiring in July 2019.
Prior to his professional retirement, David became involved in voluntary work again. In 2018 he was engaged in charity work supporting the elderly with technology, which he expects to pursue indefinitely. David was also involved in university / NHS research projects whose aims were to establish return-to-work programs for people who’d experienced traumatic injuries.