But now Kylie Grimes, the only woman in the British team in possibly the most terrifying of Paralympic sports, has accepted a multi-million-pound settlement from the hospital she blames for her life-shattering injuries.
A condition of the out-of-court deal was that the sum involved should never be made public. ‘But let’s just say I will be provided for throughout my life in terms of equipment, a carer and so on,’ 25-year-old Kylie told The Mail on Sunday. ‘Maybe I could have got more if I’d taken them to court, but I’m not greedy and I wanted to move on with my life. I’m 85 per cent paralysed and that’s how I’m going to remain for the rest of my life.’
Games star: Kylie Grimes in her Team GB outfit
Yet this remarkable young woman has never shed a tear over her plight. Instead, her rage and frustration is reserved for the staff at Frimley Park Hospital – not far from her home in Farnham, Surrey – whose treatment exacerbated her spinal injuries.
Speaking for the first time about the accident, she recalled it was a warm Friday evening in August 2006 when she went out with a group of friends and then on to her friend Katie Hawkins’s house near her own home.
‘Her parents were away on holiday,’ she said. ‘There must have been a dozen people there, maybe more. We sat around in the garden and then someone suggested a swim in the indoor pool. It was about 1am. I stayed in the shallow end, lying in the water with my feet on the side of the pool and chatting. In time, I got out to change my wet clothes.
‘But instead, on impulse, I walked back into the room, dived into the pool and that’s when it happened. It wasn’t the shallow end, but the dive was badly misjudged. My head hit the bottom of the pool and I felt something snap at the back of my neck. I knew something bad had happened. I was conscious throughout.’
Active life: Kylie Grimes before the accident, riding her horse Dolly in 2004
‘I was taught first aid at the stables where I kept my horses and I’ve seen a number of nasty accidents. That’s why I knew I had to keep my neck as still as possible. The pain in my neck was unbearable. I also had sharp pins and needles in my right foot, as if it had gone to sleep. I knew I had to get to hospital so I said that someone should call an ambulance.’
It was almost an hour before the paramedics arrived. ‘They couldn’t have been more professional or sympathetic. They listened to what I had to say and then got me on a board with my head in a collar and brace. Frimley Park Hospital was only about 12 miles away but they had to drive slowly so that my neck wasn’t jolted.’
She was put in an A&E side-room. ‘No one came to see me for quite a little while and I was slipping in and out of consciousness before being taken for an X-ray. When I came round, Mum was there.
‘She was trying to find out exactly what had happened. At first, she was told that I’d had a stroke. But I was 18. I’d heard my neck snap as I hit the bottom of the pool so it didn’t seem very likely. Then they told me the X-ray was clear but I didn’t believe them so I asked to see it. They wouldn’t let me. In fact, they were quite stroppy about it. This wasn’t adding up. I felt I wasn’t being taken seriously.’
It quickly became clear the staff had decided Kylie was a Friday night drunken teenager. ‘A succession of people – including a doctor and nurses – came to see me, but they were all saying something different and they didn’t seem to be communicating with each other. Then one of them said that, as the X-ray was clear, the brace could be removed and I could sit up. I started panicking. I shouted, “No, no, no. That’s wrong. You mustn’t move me.”
‘I was stressed and getting quite loud – and that seemed to convince them I’d had too much to drink. I said, “Excuse me, you don’t know me. I’m not drunk. Why don’t you do a blood test and that will prove it?” But the insults kept coming. The next thing, they were accusing me of having taken drugs. I told them I’d never taken drugs in my life but they’d made up their minds. I was getting more and more frustrated and Mum was really upset. But they just wouldn’t listen to me or her or do another scan which I repeatedly asked for.’
As Kylie was still in her wet clothes, her temperature had fallen. ‘That’s when I was told I needed to walk around to help improve my circulation. I knew what they were saying was wrong. That I could do myself more damage. I pleaded with them.’
Two male members of staff grabbed Kylie, one under each armpit, forcing her to sit up. ‘I was crying out, “No way! No way!” Then I passed out and fell off the side of the bed. I blacked out as I hit the floor and that’s the last thing I remember.
In action: Kylie at the London Paralympic Games 2012. She began training in the summer of 2011
It wasn’t until 9am that a consultant came to see Kylie. ‘When he found out what had happened, he apologised for the way I’d been treated. He confirmed that I’d broken my neck and that I was being transferred straightaway to a spinal injuries centre at Stanmore [40 miles away].
‘I was angry. I couldn’t believe that no one had listened to me. The paramedics had told them I had a serious head injury. Anyway, even if I had been drunk – and I most emphatically wasn’t – they should still have taken my injury seriously.
‘When I was first tested at the hospital, I could wiggle my left toes, I still had feeling in my left leg and in the core of my body when they tested me for reflexes. I could even move my right toes and hold a cup in my left hand. But, after they made me sit up and I then fainted and hit the floor, all that feeling went away.’
Her reaction was extraordinarily bold. ‘Later, I told a psychotherapist – and I meant it – that I had no negative feelings about having a spinal injury. I wanted to look to the future and find out what I could do. Hand on heart, I never felt: Why me? I never reflected on the things I used to be able to do but were now not possible. I did miss my horses and that I’d never be able to ride again but I was all about looking forward.’
Violent: Kylie has no feeling in her body below
her breastbone, although with only partial paralysis in her hands and
arms, she can manoeuvre a wheelchair
Her anger gave her the strength to pursue a claim for compensation through the courts. Initially, she sued Katie’s father, David (the owner of the pool), and the local health authority. The total claim was for £6 million – the lion’s share to come from the hospital.
‘It was a three-way battle between me, David Hawkins and Frimley Park. I didn’t feel comfortable about suing my friend’s father but I was advised I had to eliminate him from the case before I could turn my full attention to the health authority.’
The judge ruled against Kylie in the claim against David Hawkins – on the grounds he wasn’t there at the time of the accident and that Kylie was an adult able to make her own choices.
‘The hospital blamed my injuries solely on the diving accident which clearly wasn’t the case. The tests they’d done on my reflexes when I’d first been admitted to A&E proved that blacking out and falling to the floor must also have contributed to how I am now.’
The second case against the hospital never got to court. She said: ‘It was settled in my favour a few weeks ago – it was like a heavy weight being lifted from my shoulders.’
Kylie first became interested in wheelchair rugby while in Stanmore’s Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital. ‘I went to watch some players training in the gym and knew this was something I wanted to do,’ she said. ‘It’s a full-on contact sport. It’s fast, furious and loud. That would have put off a lot of people. Not me. I liked the idea I’d be playing with people all of whom had some form of disability in all four limbs just like me.’
Fearless: People sometimes ask if Kylie's
worried about getting hurt. She replies, 'Well, I've broken my neck. It
can't be worse than that.'
‘I’ll never be as strong as a man but I’m a good tactician. Being a girl, I think I’m cleverer than the boys.’
Kylie began training with Team GB in the summer of 2011. ‘I’ll never forget the phone call telling me I was in the team for London 2012. I was overwhelmed. Now my big ambition is to be picked for the team going to Rio for the 2016 Paralympics.’ There are also the European Championships later this year.
‘I’m not a great one for speculating about the future. What’s the point? If life’s taught me anything it’s that you don’t know what’s round the next corner.’ Does she never think about having a family of her own one day? She shakes her head. ‘I love being an auntie to my sister’s little boy but I’ve never had maternal feelings.’
Kylie has reserved all her anger for the staff of Frimley Park Hospital whose treatment exacerbated her injuries
If she prefers not to ponder the future, she’s equally as uninterested in dwelling on the past. ‘I will say this. I don’t regard the accident as the worst thing that happened to me. But the way the hospital dealt with me is what made August 4, 2006, the worst night of my life.’
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