Dad paralysed from the neck down ‘RELIVES meeting his baby girl for the first time while in a coma’ thanks to unique experiment
A YOUNG dad, paralysed from the neck down after not wearing his seat belt, has become the first in the UK to take part in an extraordinary experiment.
Taylor Britton, spent a month in intensive care at Southampton General Hospital after breaking his neck in a car crash.
With his fiancée just two weeks away from giving birth to their second child, the 23-year-old could have died, but doctors said whatever the outcome, he would remember nothing of his time in ICU.
"That time can be a black hole and having no memory of it can be quite distressing for patients," said, Dr Roger Lightfoot, ICU director at University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust.
"Intensive care patients often come back to hospital, some times years later, to find out what happened.
"Their lives have literally been in someone else’s hands, so to be able to see who cared for them and how, can be very healing."
The experiment was filmed at the Neuro Intensive Care Unit at Southampton General Hospital for Channel 4’s Cutting Edge, by the 24 Hours in A&E team.
Doctors, nurses, friends and family, all recorded Taylor’s medical journey in the hope he would pull through and be able to see it for himself.
Taylor’s mum Donna, 44, dad Dave, 58, and fiancée Emma Cotterell, 24, all from Havant, Hants, were frequently by his bedside.
In an emotional series of video diaries Emma said: "You mean a lot to me. I’m in love with you.
"Since I first met you I’ve always been in love with you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you."
Emma, 23 at the time of the accident, already has a daughter, Tiarna, four, with Taylor.
They met in a pub when she was 16 and he was 17.
At the time of the crash, she was 38 weeks pregnant not knowing whether he would live or die.
Her main concern was reminding Taylor what he had to live for.
It was truly the moment he began to come back to life. A few days later we managed to wean him off the ventilator and he breathed for himself
Dr Roger Lightfoot, on the moment Taylor met his baby girl for the first time
She told him: "You’re a brilliant dad and you’re always playing with Tiarna.
"She just loves you because you joke with her, play with her and swing her up in the air and she just loves all that.
"She’s a real Daddy’s girl.
"We’ve got a baby on the way and I need your help. I need you to pull through and be a dad to our new baby."
Mum Donna, reminisced how he was always accident prone.
She said: "How many times have we been down that hospital? Last count 28 times since you were five.
"You’ve fallen out of trees, had handlebars stuck in your leg, cut your arms open, plus all the other bumps, bruises and cuts."
While Dad Dave said: ";Every time you do anything you have an accident.
HOSTAGE TO YOUR MIND Watching their birth, flying and SEEING family cry...what it's REALLY like to be in a coma
"Riding your bike, jumping down steps. Once you jumped six and tried to do seven but you only made six-and- a-half.
"Roller-blading, riding your bike, anything that involves speed or climbing."
But the chance that Taylor would even be able to hold Tiarna, his new baby or ride a bike again, were slim.
Dr Lightfoot is tells staff: "An MRI shows significant damage to the spinal chord between the fourth and sixth vertebrae.
"There was also damage to a blood vessel through his neck which could cause a blockage.
"Parts of that blockage could go off into his brain (and cause a stroke.) Any injury like this has the potential to get worse."
He was also recorded gently breaking the news to Taylor’s loved ones that he might never walk again.
He said: "The injury he’s got to his neck is serious. But we're not even 24 hours into this so I’m not going to try and predict how far this goes.
"But there is a possibility that he may not get any more recovery than what we see at the moment."
Taylor was a back seat passenger when driver and close friend Brad Betteridge, ploughed into the back of a stationary car at a roundabout when his foot slipped off the brake.
Taylor was trapped in the back of the car and a 999 caller explained that people were trying to pull him out.
By the time he arrived at hospital his breathing was laboured and he was immediately hooked up to a ventilator and sedated.
He was brought out of his induced coma gradually over three weeks.
It was scary but I’m happy my family’s managed to get it all on tape so I know what was going on, what I missed and seeing how bad it really was
Taylor, after watching the video diaries
During that time, intensive care physiotherapist Nicola Seal tested his reflexes: "I’m here to have a look at your movement and sensation."
She told him gently. She then tested whether he could wiggle his toes or feel her touching his legs - he couldn’t, but he
could move his arms.
It was a huge relief to Taylor who managed to murmur: "I want to hold my baby."
His family is bitter about the fact he is paralysed while Betteridge, and front seat passenger Brad Perry walked away.
Betteridge was later convicted of driving without due care and attention, fined £660 and disqualified from driving for a year.
Dave recorded: "Your mum is in a bad way, wants someone to blame.
"We all want someone to blame but your mum more than anyone.
"You won’t want to blame Brad now. If I was where you are I would have definitely wanted to blame him, but I’m not like you.
"You’re different. You want to think the best in everybody."
Taylor had been in intensive care for two weeks when his second daughter was born.
Only semi-conscious and still on a ventilator, mum Donna showed him a video of his newborn.
Taylor did not want her brought to hospital.
So she told him: "I can only imagine what’s going through your brain. I think you’re feeling that you’re incapable of being a dad.
"When I had you at 19, I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to cope or do what was best, but I’ve managed."
During his time in ICU, Taylor contracted life-threatening pneumonia, his left lung collapsed, he had multi courses of antibiotics.
But it was when Emma brought in their week old baby, who they named Tayla, he started to turn round.
Dr Lightfoot said: "It was truly the moment he began to come back to life. A few days later we managed to wean him off the ventilator and he breathed for himself.
"We were concerned he wouldn’t."
When Taylor finally went home, he tearfully watched the vlogs and recorded a message to them and to Brad.
He said: ‘It was very strange being in intensive care and not knowing what I was doing, how I got there or what happened.
"It was scary but I’m happy my family’s managed to get it all on tape so I know what was going on, what I missed and seeing how bad it really was.
"Brad, I don’t want you to feel responsible for it. It could have happened to anyone.
"It was just the wrong place, wrong time. So don’t beat yourself up."
Programme director, Graeme McAulay, said: "Taylor didn’t remember any of the details of naming his daughter or seeing her for the first time.
"He was so pleased to have a record of that."
Dr Lightfoot said: "Video diaries helped Taylor and could help more patients with their recovery.
"Our experience is that people really want to know what happened to them.
"However uncomfortable the facts, they want complete honesty.";
- Cutting Edge: Bring Me Back To Life, Channel 4, 10pm, Wednesday 30 August
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