life is fragile

Another reminder on the fragility of life and a brutal jolt to help put things into perspective. My brother came home this week after being involved in a serious car accident near Manchester where he lives three weeks ago. Having seen the state of his car and also the extent of his injuries it’s amazing to see where he is today.

An extra few mph, another 2 inches of the passenger side of his car collapsing, the side pillar collapsing at chest height not head, another rotation in the spin his car was in and he would have been hit driver side not passenger, not having a doctor and nurse in the traffic behind the accident, not having an off-duty consultant walk by and intervene at the exact moment the trauma team were going to undertake a potentially devastating procedure in the emergency room for what they thought the injury was, not having the fitness level of an athlete to withstand the impact and to keep his body going until emergency surgery.

All these small things. But had they not gone exactly the way they happened then I could have lost someone else close to me this year. I won’t go into the details of the massive internal injuries and the fractures but the power of the human body to heal is phenomenal. And I am so glad. Not only is he my brother, he is a son, a husband and a father to four. And a friend of many, many more. I like to think that my Dad was with him that day. And It also makes you realise that despite all the Daily Mail horror headlines, there are some brilliantly talented and exceptional people in the NHS without whom he would not be here today. Life is fragile. Put it in perspective. Treasure it.