One among us … Peter Gibb (మనలో ఒకడు - 3)

One among us … Peter Gibb
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    Friends, I hope that most of you might know Newton’s third law of motion - 'for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction'. Here in this article I am going to share the journey of a person whose experience stands as one of the best examples of Newton's third law. You might want to know who he is, but at this point, all I say is ‘He is ONE AMONG US’.
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Peter started to become conscious, his senses filled with light and noise in an unfamiliar place. The first question was 'where am I?’ Very next moment, the strong smell of medicines and seeing the people (doctors and nurses) around made him to realize that he is in the hospital. But, why? More questions again. Slowly Peter started gaining control of his emotions slowly, and started gathering the last memory. The first bit he could recollect '...was being at a Placebo gig at Brixton Academy the night before and advising friend to buy a concert t-shirt'. The best he could recollect the incidents after that were - going to work and then to woods near Bow Brickhill, Milton Keynes with Mike Hanson his friend and colleague to go on a mountain bike training ride. It was important for him and Mike to practice and make sure that they were fit for the French Alpine mountain biking challenge that they signed up for in July 2003. Peter never expected that the challenge awaiting him would be one to test his very will to survive and lead his life down a very different path that, in course of time, might stand him as an inspiration.
    They reached the point on the ride where there was a fast downhill with a jump on it, a favourite spot for Peter and of course other bikers where Peter had ridden many times before, each time taking the jump a little faster to fly further before landing. But, on this occasion, something went wrong soon after he took off over the jump and even Mike could not quite place what happened. In Peter words "... I landed at speed on my head. Had I not been wearing my helmet as I always did, I would certainly have been killed as I landed. The expanded polystyrene helmet did its job and shattered taking the brunt of the impact. Even with this, I was left with a brain haemorrhage, a broken rib that had punctured my left lung, a fractured vertebra in my neck and two broken vertebrae in my back. I was struggling to breathe, unable to move but still conscious, so I'm told."
    Mike, with the help of few other fellow mountain bikers managed to get some help and first aid for Peter. The air ambulance was called in and Peter was taken to Milton Keynes General Hospital where he was admitted. Peter was in Intensive Care Unit for three weeks and for most of that time was on a life-support machine but it took him many more months to begin recover physically and psychologically. The emotional journey he experienced through in this phase was the key factor that drove him to do something to help people who face the similar experiences. Like many ICU survivors, he suffered from the mood swings, paranoia, anxiety and depression and at one point in his recovery, for a moment, even considered the possibility of committing suicide. The thought quickly passed but course of recovery back to a normal life would take many months. (more about the incident, Peter's experience can be found on ICUsteps website at http://icusteps.org/patients/patient-experiences/Peter).
    As mentioned earlier, it depends on the individual as to what they take from the lessons life tries to teach. A similar kind of experience can make one man a mahatma and another a criminal. I may not be the right person to define who is mahatma or who is not, but that's not my topic here. The man I am talking about Peter Gibb; and the struggles he faced made him to think about doing something for other people who survive critical illness and face the long road to recovery. Mo Peskett, a nurse at the Milton Keynes Hospital made this possible for Peter and other ex-patients by bringing some ICU survivors together as a group. In 2005, this led to founding ICUsteps, a patient led charity with the aim of supporting patients recovering from critical illness and raising awareness that recovery from critical illness needs support and does not end on discharge from hospital. In 2008, they wrote an information booklet for patients and their relatives (which has now been translated into many languages including Indian languages Hindi and Bengali), and have gone on to present to medical conferences across UK and Europe.
The main aims of ICUsteps are
-    Support patients and relatives affected by critical illness,
-    Promote recognition of the physical and psychological consequences of critical illness through education of the medical profession and the general public, and
-    Encourage research into treatment and the prevention of these issues.
    ICUsteps was established with the above mentioned goals in 2005 and became a registered charity in 2006. It's run by ex-ICU patients but in close partnership with healthcare professionals. ICUsteps has modest beginnings but has helped many former patients, their relatives and medical staff from organisations around the world. The ICUsteps.org website offers very useful information and shares experiences of people who’ve experienced critical illness, both as patients and relatives.
    In ICUsteps words - "Run by former intensive care patients and relatives we aim to improve the care and support available to patients recovering from critical illness during their long recovery. We have been active in a number of areas as part of our aim to improve patient support and highlight that recovery from critical illness does not end on discharge from hospital.'
More details at http://icusteps.org/
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    Last but not least, a little about the series 'One among us...' - we read about many great people and their great works/services to achieve betterment in society we are living in. We always tend to admire people who are located somewhere else, but will forget recognizing the work of an old man who waters the trees on his own interest near our homes; an old man who dedicates his time to explain lessons learnt in his life to next generation of kids. It reminds me the saying ‘…grass is always greener on the other side of the hill’. There are a lot of people around us, among us who are doing their level best to make things better instead of just dreaming about a better world. This is my attempt to share the efforts of people I know personally who are doing something positive to achieve the better society.
I wish and hope at least someone who reads this will take inspiration and start working towards the betterment in society they talk about. Forget about my linguistic abilities or the level of work Peter is doing (what I described here is a little drop) - intention is not to showcase our abilities nor for publicity as well, just to spread the good with the hope that at least one take it as an inspiration.

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