Not so safe!

When we were down at the village pub the other day, we were joined by a couple of friends.

Last Friday she’d had an accident. She is a wheelchair user & has uncontrollable shakes. On Friday she shook so much she fell out of her wheelchair – it came tippling over with her - & cracked her head on the road. There was blood everywhere. Needless to say an ambulance was hastily called for her & she was taken into hospital. Monday was her first day out in public.

We did our best to make light of it, suggesting that there was no need to go to such extremes to get some attention. A bit of make-up in lurid colours would have done the job.

The full extent of her injuries became apparent. She’d had several stitches around her right eye. Her right cheekbone had been broken. All the right side of her face was more black with bruising than anything else. Her right eye was virtually closed by the swelling. She’s going back to the hospital later this week to have the eye checked out. Hopefully by then some of the swelling will have gone down so they will be able to see if any damage has been done to it. As it is she’s feeling pretty blind as she’s already waiting for a cataract operation on her left eye.

All of this goes to show just how dangerous wheelchairs can be. Even if she had had the safety belt done up on her wheelchair, that would have just have meant she’d have had that land on top of her as well. At least she’d been thrown free of it.

Fortunately I’ve never had such an accident. Fortunately I don’t suffer from shakes. I sometimes get restless, especially when I’m overtired, but never as bad as our friend. My nearest accident was when we were leaving my brother’s place, going down a steep drive. It was icy. Even with my brakes on, I skidded uncontrollably down the drive so fast, the Fox couldn’t hold on. I skidded straight in front of an oncoming taxi. Fortunately he managed to stop in time to avoid hitting me.

Now we just hope our friend makes a good recovery & her partner, and carer, can start to breathe again.