MY NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE
As I was only ten, I had no knowledge or had never read of other peoples experiences.
This is my near death experience, I was fighting to live, as I was only ten I had a lot I wanted to do.
When so close to death I felt I was falling into a well, like a brick tunnel, but this was a well complete with a pitch roof, like a "wishing well".
I was falling downwards into the darkness, looking up I could see a bright light and I had to go to the light.
Propped on the sides of the well, two cotton reels bounce. I`am falling but I could grab the cotton and climb to the light.
My life was being held by two lengths of cotton hanging down the well one thin piece for each hand.
As I climb the light becomes brighter almost at the top.
Suddenly the cotton reels are jumping about, I am unable to hold on to my cotton, I am thrown down falling into the darkness! Many times I made that climb, only to fall when almost at the top.
One day I tried really hard. I had to climb fast before the cotton could throw me off, I made the climb. At the top I was alive but still very sick.
Having been so very close to death for such a long time I came out of my coma slowly, my first post-accident awakening happened with flashes of light, the sky and clouds. My hospital room had lots of windows, the first voice I heard was my mother.
My mother had not missed a day. She had sat and waited 32 days, waiting for that moment when my eyes would open.
My parents had been warned to expect the worst, they were told it was unlikely that I would recognize them. It was expected that the lack of oxygen to my brain had caused major damage, but they were wrong, I did recognize my mother.
I had suffered brain damage which affected my movement, (motor neuron damage).
I could see and hear my mum, but I could not move. I wanted to reach out but my arms would not move.
It would only be a matter of days before I regained some limited movement.
I was to stay in that ward for more than eighteen months.
Those first eighteen months of my hospitalisation were marked with many setbacks. I was told I would not walk again, but I was only young and I wanted to walk.
I remember many times climbing out of the bed and falling flat on my face. I wanted to walk, so I needed to get out of the bed.
So many times I fell and unfortunately the doctors decided to use wrist cuffs and tie me down to prevent me from hurting myself.
But they did not manage to stop other young patients from releasing me from my bonds. What would happen is I would fall on the floor
Once the doctors realized that I would not give up and with the insistence of my parents, I started intensive physiotherapy.
It took two or three years but I did it, I walked again. I have a limp, my left leg is weaker than my right, but with hard work and the support of my parents I beat the odds.
Once I learned to walk I was allowed to go home. My home visits were short - an hour or two, I would then be returned to the hospital.
I was not allowed to be far away from medical care as my breathing was unreliable. I had tubes inserted in my throat which allowed me to breathe.
These keep me alive but were prone to block. but I was now well on the road to recovery
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