Hello, my name is Andy.
While I was working on building sites in Leipzig, East Germany in 1994 during a cold December 9th morning, I walked into the house we were working on and fell 20 feet headfirst down an unguarded stairwell. I landed on my head on bare concrete. My skull smashed and a large chunk wedged itself on to my brain!
I was rushed to Leipzig hospital already comatose. My parents were telephoned and told (I’m not kidding) “Get as many members of your family here as we don’t expect Mr. Nicholson to make it through the night,” “Happy Christmas”.
I was comatose for three weeks, but fortunately my skull healed without the need for surgery. I spent a further six weeks in hospital in Germany while the extent of my brain damage materialized.
If you saw me now you would never know, but the effects of the damage are numerous. I am partially sighted, my coordination is shot, I have weakness down my entire left side, I have migraines frequently, I developed epilepsy (now controlled) as a result of the damage and the list goes on.
I’m still alive, I still function and I’m going to enjoy it while it lasts. I'm now married to Sharon with two children, Joshua and Hollie and life is wonderful. Yes, I'm ill an awful lot of the time, but that's just the way it is. Adapt, move on.
