I've survived my first semester of university! Well almost, I have one more day and then I'm completely finished. I'm so excited for Christmas! Hope everyone has a great festive season.
I thought I'd leave a little feature article I did for my journalism class here since its the closest thing to being published that it'll come to. Please leave comments/feedback if you'd like. Enjoy!
Woody: A cowboy or a bit of a plank?
When someone mentions the name Woody,
everybody’s favourite fictional cowboy Sheriff
Woody from the Toy Story franchise is most likely the animated image
that comes to mind. But what if I told you that ‘Woody’ was also the nickname
given to a patient recovering in the high dependency ward of Glasgow’s Southern
General Hospital?
To clear up any
confusion, on 3rd September 2010, Raymond McNaughton, a Timbmet Ltd
wood machinist, was the victim of a serious industrial accident in which
several pieces of wood were ejected at speed from a malfunctioning rip saw.
These pieces of wood stabbed Raymond in the lower back and in both legs, with
one piece of wood piercing straight through one leg and clattering to the floor
at the other side of the room, with flesh still skewered on to the small plank.
Hence the nickname ‘Woody’ considering that for a time, Raymond appeared to be
half man-half tree.
Raymond chuckled as he
recalled the events that followed his accident: “It was one of the nurses who
gave me the nickname when she wheeled me out from my first operation. She said
to my wife and my mother, ‘Here comes Woody!’” The same nurse also compared
Raymond to a pirate due to his ‘wooden leg’ and said “Your favourite bevy must
be Strongbow, you know, because an arrow does right through the bottle in the
advert?”
Raymond was also
teased after his surgery when he was flopped on to a hospital bed with a puffy,
swollen face like a baked potato and for being rather, shall we say, disorientated
under the effects of morphine, much to everyone’s amusement. It seems that the
jokes were hardly side-splitting, unlike the splinters, but the tongue and
cheek teasing from friends and family did serve as a nudge towards recovery
since laughter is naturally the best medicine.
If the surgeons
performing Raymond’s emergency operation that night hadn’t been anxious enough,
what with the daunting task of extracting wood that was lodged dangerously
close to the spinal cord and the main artery in the right leg, they were also concerned
that instead of having the ideal empty stomach for surgery, Raymond’s belly was
instead full with a large, greasy chip roll and a 75cl of Irn Bru from his
lunch break.
Though Raymond can
muster a laugh over his ordeal now, the severity of his injuries were apparent to
everyone from the start. Raymond went on to tell me that medical staff from throughout
the hospital would come to see him, with many in astonishment that he was still
alive. Groups of fresh faced student doctors would also be brought to gawk at
Raymond’s wounds as if he were a freak side-show act at a circus. Step right
up folks, come and see Woody the Tree Trunk Man who is half human-half timber!
“It took a long time
for me to get back on my feet and it felt like years before I could work again,”
Raymond told me when I asked about his recovery. “I had a catheter for around
10 days because my bowels and other internal organs had been damaged in the
accident. The wood had also tilted my pelvis which made it very difficult and
painful to walk.”
Unfortunately, shortly
after Raymond’s health began to improve, it was discovered that there were
still pieces of decaying wood and splinters inside his pelvis and thighs, which
were the reason for his ongoing pain.
“I had x-rays and MIR
scans that showed there was still wood inside me. So I had a second operation
to remove those pieces and now I have a big scar across the bottom of my
stomach. This led to jokes about me having a caesarean section and being attacked
by a shark since that’s what my scars look like,” Raymond laughed.
Although Raymond still
suffers from pain in his legs, he has made a full recovery and in February of
this year he finally received compensation for his ordeal. The company Raymond
previously worked for, Timbmet Ltd, were also fined £24,000 at Glasgow Sheriff
Court on Wednesday 27th November this year for failing to adhere to safety
regulations. The Health and Safety Executive, Aileen Jardine, specified: “It
was preventable.”
“It was a good result
but I’m just glad it’s all over. It has been a nightmare but I’m moving on and
looking to the future,” Raymond said with a much needed cigarette freshly lit
and sagging from his mouth.
As Raymond felt it
would be too difficult to return to industrial work, he decided to radically change
his career path after his recovery. Raymond is now a full-time support worker
for adults with disabilities including autism, brain damage and challenging
behaviour. To his surprise, he has discovered that he has quite a knack for his
new line of work.
“I’m much happier now
and I have received a lot of praise at my new job. I even got an Employ of the
Month award for my efforts,” Raymond snorted with a slight hint of a cringe. “I
feel more satisfied being in a job where I’m doing something good for other
people.”
Today, Raymond keeps a
small figurine of his Toy Story comrade, a gag gift from his family, in
the kitchen at home as a reminder of his experience. However, Raymond’s old
nickname ‘Woody’ doesn’t seem to suit him anymore. He’s made of tougher stuff
than that.
No comments:
Post a Comment