HSE People - Health and Safety Community

Submitted at the request of Kevin Forbes - HSE People

It is twelve (12) months today since the accident that nearly claimed my life and turned me into The Sixty Dollar Man (not sure what the Titanium is worth?).

The journey thus far has been long and arduous. Whilst my left elbow and hand function quite well, the left shoulder has, at best, ten percent (10%) function.

Many people ask me "does that not upset you". The honest answer is, "Of Course" - followed up very quickly by the "what might have beens". In my case I can still sit at the dinner table with my wife and hold both the knife and fork etc. There had been a very real chance that they might have had to remove the left arm.

On Wednesday October 28th I presented the Keynote Address at the Safety Institute of Australia's lead conference in Sydney. The Title of the Presentation was "Oh &#*& , Where'd that come from". Just read this small excerpt from within that Address.

"............Now I  shall return to the situation that has brought us together this morning. The fact that I was bitten so badly by the car that collided with me. When we were last here I was describing the Surgery. As a result, my left arm and shoulder are now heavily reinforced by surgical Titanium. 

I also happened to be hooked up to all sorts of machines and had cables and tubes running all over the place. That, in itself, is quite distressing. Probably the most important tube at that time was the one leading to my right foot. It was hooked up to a Patient Controlled Analgesia (PCA) Unit, and was feeding me straight morphine. This little beast was designed to allow me to choose to top up the “juice” every six (6) minutes. There was a countdown timer on the screen. I can tell you I spent a lot of time learning to count backwards. Now you are not supposed to OD using a properly calibrated PCA device. There is one particular day I recall where Anne visited, and all I did was sit in chair…….tubes everywhere…..and rock myself gently in the chair….counting backwards from 360. That is a distressing memory.

The next ten days or so were a mixture of pain, awareness, fears, and questions – the PTSD had not arrived yet; I actually thought I had missed that boat. In the first week one of the highlights of my existence was being provided with a bed that was remotely adjustable, by me. Prior to that every time that Anne left, she would have to wind the bed up; in much the same way as you started a Model T Ford. 

When you are laying in a bed, unable to do almost anything, the ability to raise or lower your pillow actually becomes a benchmark on the road to recovery. I am sure in times of difficulty you may heard someone say something like “don't sweat the small stuff”. The meaning being that the little things are not worth getting upset about; it’s almost like having to wait for the big things. 

Well I am here to tell you that I have experienced the “big things” – and was right in the middle of them. There was very little I could do about them. What I had some control over was the little things. So an applied reality is, that in situations where the majority of our “control” has been removed, and I certainly was in that category, it is the “small stuff” that might show the way toward the “recovery”. So… do not automatically discard the “small stuff”…It needs to be given greater prominence in recovery. Sadly our health systems deliberately pay scant attention to this “small stuff”. 

In New South Wales it has recently been announced that all hospitals shall be directed toward the universal use of pre-packaged frozen foods. This decision rings alarm bells for me. I am reminded of a Kitchen Overseer who was in charge of catering at the Maitland Correctional Centre quite some time ago – this was a maximum security prison. He suggested, and this has been confirmed by every Custodial Officer I have ever met, that if the food is “ordinary”, or there is not enough of it “expect a bad day”. Now I am not saying that a prison and hospital are the same, although the French philosopher Michel Foucault might argue differently. They would both be defined by his nomenclature, as “Total Institutions”

The NSW Minister of Health may not consider the quality and volume of food as being a high priority. Indeed they had been quoted as saying that “the efficiencies we obtain shall release funds for other frontline health services”. Now we all know “efficiencies” means “cheap”….. and “front-line services” might translate to “operations, nurses, doctors etc”. So what we do is remove the “small stuff” to spend more on the “big stuff”. Make no mistake please, I am not saying that this is not a difficult area to manage. It is……….., and because these health systems are dealing with ourselves and our families they are always amongst the most emotive in our communities. 

It is often said though, that you are safer at home than in Hospital. Well of course you are! When you are in Hospital your health has been compromised by some illness, disease, accident etc. Let me put this another way. You are safer at home than in Hospital. Not because you are ill…because you are there. In the United States more people die as a result of their hospitalisation (not their illness, accident, disease, complications etc) than do from Motor Vehicle and Workplace Accidents, Suicides, Falls, Poisoning, and Drowning combined. These are what are called “preventable errors”. The Washington Post reported on April 8^th last year that between 2004 and 2006 there were almost a quarter of a million people (240,000) who died as a result of preventable errors. To put this into perspective this is around three percent (3%) of all admissions – that is a pretty big number! Remember these deaths are not the result of the circumstances etc that put you there. They are all determined to have been “preventable”. Now if we add in those persons whose illnesses etc are actually made worse due to their hospitalisations, and the preventable errors that become part of their treatment, that number well exceeds the millions. It has been estimated at over fifteen percent of all admission in the US , with an approximate worth of two hundred billion dollars+..............

Here is just one of the Comments from the Keynote Address:
"That was one the most powerful presentations I have ever seen. It has really made me think about Risk and Culture in a very different way. When I go back to Work and share this knowledge with my colleagues I know it will strike a chord for them as well. By the way would you consider coming to Canada to present this to the Board?"

Once again if my own story, background etc can add value to your own safety journey, or the journey of those around you, just let me know. I shall do ALL that I can to assist.

I have been asked if I shall place some of the "Keynote Address" on Youtube. An audio only version should happen in the next few weeks.

With my kindest regards