The Isolation of Healing

Hospitals can be extraordinarily lonely places. Even with the amazing talents and kindness of the hospital staff, recovering in hospital can be an impossible experience. Here, Jacob Fry shares the hardest and most touching parts of his impossible story as well as his first waking moment …

“Exercises in Ward 2”, Leith Hospital, 1950s, courtesy of Ena Munro

"I remember waking up and everything was a bit hazy and white and I was quite scared and claustrophobic because I had tubes down my throat and I couldn't move.

I was in lots of pain. I knew I was in hospital, that something bad had happened, and I started getting scared, because all I could do was move my eyes and nothing else.

But then I heard this voice and I don't know where this voice came from, whether it was a nurse, whether it was just me, whether it was God or whatever it was, but this voice just kept going over in my head saying

"Jacob it's okay, you'll get out of it, just do your time, it's okay".

And that just kept going over my head and I started relaxing a bit more and then went back off to sleep.

It was pretty crazy. And apparently a lot of people do that. When they first wake up, they want to rip out the tubes, just try and yank it out of their throats and stuff, but I was very fortunate that I had that calming voice so that didn't happen.

During my recovery, there were two low points...

One of them was in the remaining three weeks, within the last sort of two to three weeks of rehab, where all I wanted to do was go home, because it felt like a prison.

You're not allowed to leave, you're stuck in a room.

And 8 o'clock is when visitors have to leave...

So from 8 o'clock until the next morning, you’re alone in a room with beeps, other people in other rooms, you can hear them snoring, beeping or coughing.

It's…ah, it's awful. It is absolutely awful. The only times I ever cried was not from the pain but was from my parents or my friends leaving.

Because it was just such a lonely place.

I can see why people can get into such a depressive, sad state when they're in hospital or rehab for months, cause it's just… unless you have people there every day, it's just awful.

So that was one low point. And the other one was when I was at home months later, and things started to sink in. I had one week of depression, and then I was able to snap out of it.

What kept me going was mainly mates and family.

They were the ones who were able to put a smile on my face in the most hellish environment possible. It's pretty amazing the power friends and family can have on you when it's the most amount of pain I've ever experience in my life, and yet they were still able to put a smile on my face and make me laugh so that's pretty cool.

This is something I live by, that I've learnt through this experience.

To live a life that enriches others' lives which will in turn enrich your own.

Because it is so true.

For me, I use this accident, the most painful thing I've ever done through, as a powerful tool to be able to help others. To inspire others to live the best possible lives they can, and to be a mate, and to hold those close to them. To not …be a bastard pretty much.

To love everyone and treat everyone with respect, because we all have a power within us, and that power is to be able to create happiness and joy. And by just smiling at someone down the street, that could be the best part of their day. You have no idea.

So yeah, live a life that enriches others which will in turn enrich your own.

Because I get so much joy and happiness from making my story seem like it's worth going through. I wouldn't say I'm glad it happened. But I'm glad to see what has happened because of it."

- Jacob Fry

(Check out Jacob's other two stories: Wolverine's Miracles and Back to the Extreme)

No matter how dark the recovery, how impossible the path, together we pull each other up towards our dreams and hopes. Send and share your stories as we celebrate the Impossible!!