Queen's Reus Lauren
speaking an archery Arrow oh lots of
blood any loss of
consciousness significant swelling to
his eye and cheek
oh is it are his OBS
okay I'm just going to put you through
to peeds all right one
[Music]
minute hello it's Lauren in adult
research about a 15year old guy who has
walked into an archery Arrow if it's
gone into your eye and through the back
it's not far to your brain and that can
be life-changing life ending we were on
holiday and we went do uh the archery
activity I didn't see it happen somebody
came over to me and said I think there's
a problem with your son I looked over
and James was crumpled onto on the floor
and he was holding his left
eye I ran over to him and it was it was
just
horrific the blood was pouring out of
his eye out of his nose it it was just
everywhere Becca do you need another
pair of
hands James I'm Ian I'm one of the
doctors there's nothing worse than
seeing her own child bleeding and
injured
if you ignore your face is anywhere else
hurt anywhere else causing some troubles
no okay and it looks like you had a nose
bleed you're all not beding has been
bleeding out his nose okay if anyone
tries to put anything in your
nose say no all right all right if it's
a swab or anything you know the top of
your nose um up here your brain sits on
top of that bone so if you've got a
break there and you put something in
somebody's nose it can go up into the
skull into where where your brain is can
you look at my name b no can't read that
can you read it with no no
no can you see my
picture no
no can you see my hand no your question
to yourself is is the is the globe is
the eyeball itself you know
irretrievably
damaged and that's that means that
they'll never have that Vision again I
always sort of knew that there was
something different about
James he was just a little bit slow on a
lot of his
Milestones especially when it came to
talking are you all right game backwards
yeah cuz I'm definitely better at
steering going backwards he struggled
with friendships it wasn't until James
was around seven or eight and we were
living in the UK that he got his
diagnosis of
autism sounds very futuristic
a bit further up there was a lot of
emotions going on a good portion of it
was relief because it was that
confirmation of everything that I'd felt
and thought his entire life when he was
a lot younger around the age of five he
would hurt
himself he would smash his head against
a wall or a door or a hard surface when
he was experiencing strong
emotions that has happened recently as
well during High School hours which has
been difficult for
him how did it feel being in that
scanner machine didn't feel that bad
it's just a bit
warm it's heartbreaking to deal with a
child who's going through something
that is so obviously painful for them
James is awaiting the results of a head
scan after an arrow penetrated his eye
socket in an archery
accident we need to give you a tetanus
vaccine um it's an injection into the
into the muscle of your arm you've not
missed any vaccinations or anything as
far as you're
aware it's it's difficult because I'm
just I'm just struggling to remember
because that's just something that my
brain doesn't
that's okay I have also dyspraxia so it
makes things like that difficult
remember the best people do do you as
well I'm dxic so you know you know what
I mean yeah no neurodiversity hangs
together I'm quite open with my with my
patience I I have some um uh
neurodiversity of my own um I have some
U problems with uh dyslexia and I've uh
just been diagnosed with ADD attention
deficit disorder means that sometimes
you have problems with with Focus just
settling down to do something it's
almost like it's asking someone to to
walk up a
cliff hi I'm one of the Pediatric
registers in pzd and I've got a
15-year-old who has lent forward onto a
static arrow that was embedded in a
Target growing up I um had quite a few
difficulties especially at school I
didn't feel like I fitted in I didn't
have that many friends I was much more
of of a loner yeah yeah yeah um and then
we'll send him around to I way through
people tell you that you know you're
stupid that you're not going to achieve
anything my teacher said that I wouldn't
um do my GC cuz I wasn't intelligent
enough I think I felt like I constantly
had to prove to people that I wasn't
stupid from the intracranial images that
we have there doesn't appear to be any
injury yeah Dr Ian now has the results
of James's head scan there are some
fractures to the maxillary sinus on the
left involving the orbit thank you very
much that's really
helpful if you've fractured the bones at
the back of the eye then those bony
fragments can damage the optic nerve if
the optic nerve is damaged enough that
will cause
blindness So the plan at the moment is
for him to go to eye casualty okay okay
and then they will um take on that
ongoing ongoing care we're going to try
and work out if there's any underlying
fracture um get some idea what the globe
is up to it will it will be all right
you'll be fine yeah just be be kind to
yourself look after yourself give
yourself a little internal hug okay and
um but you'll be fine you'll work it
out the world can be a real challenge
would often feel quite
sad okay it's really difficult because
you're there for other people so much
sometimes you forget to be there for
yourself I don't walk around thinking
maybe I'm a role model for
people but if people can see that
despite some some difficulties then you
can still do okay or more than okay then
that would
be really
amazing if I look back on that
12-year-old that was told that they
wouldn't get their gcss well you know
I've come a bloody long way
um and I've climbed some really big
mountains um and I just need to remember
remind myself to look at the view from
time to time my graphic art teacher he's
blinding one ey is he yeah oh but it
hasn't stopped him has it no autism is
just a different way that the brain
works we've always been very positive
about it it's it's not a negative thing
he is a wonderful person with his own
unique set of skills and
attributes and then I'll let Miss prep
have a
look am I hurting
you can you look down for me James
excellent I think that any parent
worries about how the world will receive
their
child the experience that they're going
to have the heartbreaks you know the
jobs the
losses than you left James I want them
to be fulfilled I want them to find
connections with people that enrich his
life I just want happiness for
him the eyeball is intact as far as you
can see we think there might be a small
fracture on the in one of the orbital
bones which is the facial
bone try and open your eyes as much as
you can
that's
good you look all the way up for
me that's good so the back of the eye is
fine and there's no constriction of the
optic nerve so that's probably the main
thing that we wanted to see so you've
got a a little cut at the top um I think
it will need some stitches in the way
that he Embraces life it's beautiful
thing
James is being taken to a ward to await
an operation on his damaged
eyelid I don't know what I would have
done if I lost sight in one
eye it's a really difficult thing to
think of losing something that you're
used to always having I think I've been
very lucky but what this experience has
taught me is to not do
archery I plan to be an author and write
stories I would say I'm a pretty
creative person autism is like being a
superhero hero there's you've got your
superpowers like being more creative
having good
imagination but like every superhero
they have their weaknesses like me
struggling to have this conversation