Bill: „Mr Grumpy‟

This interview differed from the others as Bill requested that his partner, Mary, be present throughout the interview. At first I felt unsure about this, but could see no reason why it would cause a problem and said it would be satisfactory. With his partner‟s presence, Bill became more relaxed as he began to answer my questions.

Mary‟s presence enhanced the interview by supporting Bill as he struggled to tell me about his experience and she offered insights into the impact felt by the family. This was the only interview carried out with Bill. Bill‟s accident had occurred fourteen months prior to the interview.

Bill recalled how a truck had run into the back of his vehicle whilst waiting at a junction. He was thankful that he had been in his pickup when the truck hit him and not a car as he said „I would have been creamed‟. Bill went to an Accident and Emergency (A&E) department the same, day as his neck, shoulders and back began to stiffen up soon after the accident. Bill continued to stiffen up and about three days

was advised by the doctor to take paracetamol and was given a leaflet on neck exercises. Bill‟s own GP told him he needed physiotherapy but the NHS had a three to six month waiting period for a non-urgent referral and prescribed stronger pain relief.

Bill was also advised to support his neck when lying down, to rest but keep moving, to avoid heavy lifting and to refrain from work.

When asked about his experience of healthcare Bill laughed [ironically] as he recalled how the A&E doctor, after feeling his neck said „Yeah it‟s whiplash, take paracetamol and you‟ll be alright‟. Bill felt that he had not been examined as they did not take an x-ray and said „I waited three hours and was in and out in 5 minutes‟. Bill said that his GP had responded to his concerns and he also used planned follow up appointments to review his condition. Whilst Bill could understand the NHS defining conditions as non urgent, he saw himself as being an urgent case as he was unable to move properly or do any work. Bill‟s GP explained to him the mechanics of his injury which helped him to understand what had happened to his body. The physiotherapist, who he saw privately over a period of six weeks, used different treatments aimed at relieving the pain and improving his body movements and also advised him on how to manage on his return to work.

The whiplash injury affected Bill‟s life in many ways and he described it as „life being brought to a standstill‟. This was because everything that he was doing stopped through the effects of the pain and restricted body movements. The pain he experienced was „9‟ or „10‟ on a scale of 1-10 and he needed regular pain relief to make it tolerable. Bill found the treatments from the physiotherapist helped him the most as he was then able to move more freely for several hours afterwards. Bill found

his regular sleep pattern was disturbed for two reasons. The first was due to the pain and discomfort that he experienced and the second was because he had started to worry about his business and the finances as he could not work. Being a self employed one-man business, meant there were no colleagues to support him at work and he did not qualify for any financial help such as incapacity benefit. Fourteen months after he first had his whiplash injury, there are still occasions when Bill has to get assistance from elsewhere to help with some of the work, as there are certain jobs that he can no longer do.

The injury put a strain on the whole family as they struggled to manage the effects of Bill‟s injury. Mary had thought about going out to work to help them financially but the physical effect of the injury meant that Bill could not even lift their little girl and was unable to manage the movements required to change a nappy. All the work that was previously shared within the family fell to Mary and their eldest son. Bill found that he could not even walk the dog. Bill was renovating the house at the time and he had to stop doing the renovations, so they lived in a mess. He became irritable and depressed because of the frustration of his situation, and the family named him „Mr Grumpy‟.

Bill found that he had changed from feeling at ease in the car to being very nervous in the car, especially when passing where the accident had happened and he had also become nervous as a passenger. Wendy described Bill as „having got back on the horse‟. He still finds himself becoming edgy at junctions and explained that it is like he is waiting for somebody to run into the back of him. He also gets nervous and on

particularly noticeable if he has to stop in a queue of traffic as he would have nowhere to go if an approaching vehicle did not stop.

Bill claimed compensation for which he received the minimum settlement of £2000.

He felt this amount was not fair as he thought that it did not reflect either his actual losses or the stress that he suffered as a result of the accident. He told me that he did not even recover his physiotherapy expenses which were around £600 as his solicitor lost the receipts.

Bill did not consider himself to be fully recovered from his injury and described himself as ninety percent recovered fourteen months later. His reason for saying this is because he still has ongoing problems with certain body movements or positions, for example when he bends over, his back goes, or if he is leaning back or stretching, his neck is problematic. This means that he is still very aware of what he is doing and he emphasises the fact that he has to be very careful at work. He does feel that he manages his injury quite well by exercising caution in what he does, by using a warm wheat bag to relieve any pain and discomfort and by stopping what he is doing and taking it easy instead of ignoring any pain and carrying on with what he might be doing.