Paul update - Day 75

Day 75 - Monday 26 January

Lesson 1 – Don’t speak to the Press – here endeth the lesson!

Those of you who saw last week’s Evening Express / P&J will hopefully understand why we feel a little aggrieved and why I think we should have stuck with our initial reaction to their approach and not spoken to them.

So, just for the record, Pat was originally contacted by a reporter from the Evening Express who said that they wanted to do a follow up story on how Paul was getting on; this was in response to the tragic story of the 16 year old who was killed in a car accident and it was, they said, normal practise in these circumstances to follow up on previous accidents. We agonised for a few days but eventually decided to speak to them and having done some media training in the past, I was extremely careful what I said. I basically just told them just three things:

1. Paul was making a very good recovery and we considered ourselves extremely fortunate; things could have been much worse,
   
   
2. The doctors, nurses and specialists at the ARI and Woodend and all of our friends have been absolutely brilliant and we have nothing but praise for all they have done for Paul,
   
   
3. Other teenagers should take note of what has happened to Paul, realise that they are not invincible and drive more carefully.

Basically that is all I said and the guy I spoke to took notes (presumably using a crayon), sent somebody round to take some pictures and said that this was the line his article would take. A couple of days later though he contacted me again to say that he had heard that 2 17 year olds had been charged in relation to the accident and could I confirm this, to which I replied that there was only 1 car involved and that to date I was not aware of any charges – which is true.

Nonetheless, he chose to take the line he did with the story which was not only badly written and inaccurate, but untrue. The “news” that Paul had been reported to the Procurator was not in fact news at all – the police told me that it is common practise for a report to go to the Procurator after any serious accident and is something that actually happened 2 days after Paul’s crash – about 10 weeks ago - when Paul was still in the high dependency unit and was something that I discussed with the police at the time. Quite why it is newsworthy now then is beyond me!

At the time, the policeman that I dealt with (who has in fact been brilliant throughout, very sympathetic, supportive and helpful) advised me that there was no need to worry Paul (or Pat) with this and so although I did mention it to Pat, we decided not to discuss it with Paul. Now that the halfwit reporter has chosen to splash it all over the front page of his trashy newspaper though we have obviously had to tell Paul that a report has gone to the Procurator, which is obviously causing him some concern. To date though, there have been no further developments since the report originally went in and hopefully nothing further will happen.

The policeman also told us that it is sometimes better to talk to the press because otherwise they will scour Bebo, Facebook, Blogs etc. to find things to print so it is generally better to make sure they get accurate information – hence our decision to speak to them which, as it turned out, was a complete waste of time. Quite why they sent a photographer round to Alford from Aberdeen to take some pictures of Paul is beyond me – a complete waste of time and money. Given the huge number of inaccuracies in the story, it makes you wonder how much you can believe about the other nonsense they print – my assessment is probably not a lot!

Since the reporter concerned is obviously about as sharp as a cricket bat he will probably not be aware of the distress and anguish he has caused us all. I just hope he thinks it was worth it....

Anyway, moan over – the key priority is Paul, so, how is he?

The good news is that Paul has been coming home every weekend since New Year and is still progressing well. He still gets quite tired, but his walking, talking etc. is improving daily. He has been out and about a few times over the weekends and is slowly but surely getting back to normal – the only problem he has is that he thinks he is able to do far more than he can, or more accurately than we are prepared to let him!

He recently had a follow up eye appointment regarding his double vision and this has improved by about 50% since the last appointment so, as predicted, it is gradually correcting itself. Last time we went Paul was still in a wheelchair and not fully with it so it was quite difficult to do some of the measurements, but this time he was able to do all of the tests so his actual progress can now be measured more accurately. He has another appointment in March and hopefully by then it should have fully corrected itself.

His hearing in his right ear is still slightly impaired so he has been referred to a specialist for this as well, but unfortunately there is an 18 week wait!

He also had a 24 hour heart monitor fitted recently and this showed that he had an increased heart rate on a couple of occasions during the day but that this was nothing to be unduly concerned about at this stage, so we will have to wait and see what, if anything, needs to be done.

During the week his physio, speech and occupational therapy have continued and he has even ventured out to the shops to buy some food to cook, all of which he has completed with no bother so the good news is that he is being finally discharged this Thursday – January 29^th – which will be 11 weeks and 1 day following the accident. When you think back to the first few days after the crash and all of the uncertainties that we faced, this is truly remarkable.

He will have weekly appointments for the first few weeks to continue with the various therapies but hopefully he will soon be able to go back to work and we can start to plan for the future again.

So thanks once again to everyone for their help and support throughout and I am delighted to report that this story looks like having a happy ending – quite rare in this day and age with all of the gloom and doom in the Press – mind you, a lot of what is being reported might not be true......