Thread: UK: Richard Rudd blinked to save his own life

Richard Rudd blinked to save his own life - Telegraph



Richard Rudd flicks his eyes to the right, showing a sign of life when the intention was to end his life support that day.


A photograph of Richard Rudd in hospital with his daughter Bethanie taken in March 2010


So when he was left paralysed and brain damaged from a motorbike accident last October, his family thought they knew exactly what to do.
With a heavy heart his father – also called Richard – gave permission for treatment to be withdrawn from his 43-year-old son at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge.
However, as the staff gathered around his bed, they noticed their previously unresponsive patient was able to blink his eyes for the first time.
Seizing on a chance to ask him directly what he wanted, the doctors asked Mr Rudd three times if he wanted to carry on living.
Three times he blinked “yes” in reply to their questions.
It was the first time Mr Rudd had responded to any stimuli in three weeks and the moment was captured on a BBC documentary.
Far from being brain-dead, as his family had feared, Mr Rudd was perfectly aware of his situation and finally able to communicate.
Now nine months on, he can move his head from side to side and smile at his family.
He will always need round-the-clock medical care, but is able to interact with his parents and daughters Charlotte, 18, and 14-year-old Bethan.
Mr Rudd’s case again raises the issue of patients who express a clear wish to die but then change their minds due to their circumstances.
His father said the family was relieved that they had not had to make the life-death decision after all.
“We said that knowing Richard, there was no way in a million years that he would want to live with his injuries,” said the 60-year-old from Kidderminster.
“But doctors wanted to wait a little bit longer.
“The doctor held open his eyelids and asked him to move his eyes if he could hear and was awake. He moved his eyes around, so we knew he wasn't brain dead.”
Mr Rudd Sr said his son originally had been clear about not wanting to be on a life support machine.
“Before the accident, he had spoken to Charlotte about an acquaintance who had been in a crash.
“He said then that if something similar happened to him, he wouldn't want to go on. “But his doctor asked him three times if he wished treatment to continue, and each time he moved his eyes to the left, the signal for 'yes'.
“I'm glad that he's been given the chance to survive and to have a say. Having to make the decision of whether your child should live or die is almost impossible.”
Mr Rudd was driving from his home Kidderminster to Spalding, Lincolnshire, to see his girlfriend on October 23 last year when a car pulled out in front of him.
The former coach driver was thrown 20ft into a ditch but could still talk and move his arms in the immediate aftermath of the crash.
However, complications in surgery three days later meant he was brain damaged and completely paralysed.
He also developed pneumonia and renal failure and ended up in the Neuro Critical Care Unit (NCCU) at Addenbrooke's, where he remained for 31 days.
Professor David Menon was in charge of his care at Addenbrooke’s.
“He had severe injuries to his brain and we could not communicate with him. The outcome was thought to be very bleak indeed,” he said.
“In fact, Richard was in a locked in state where people have relatively normal cognitive processes in the brain but are only able to allow you to know about that by movement of the eyes or eyelids.
“When, after a period of waiting, he showed voluntary movement of his eyes, everything changed.
“We could use these eye movements to document "yes" or "no" responses, and through such communication, allow Richard to have a say in his own care.”
Mr Rudd is now in a lower dependency unit nearer his home in Worcester and hopes to go to Stoke Mandeville Hospital, where he will be taught to communicate using his tongue, eyes and facial muscles.
His father spoke of the family’s relief: “His daughters are certainly glad that he's alive. They joke around in front of him, he smiles and that lifts him for ages.
“His long term memory is intact, he can make facial expressions, and has an Elvis Presley twitch on one side of his mouth. But physically, he's gone.
“It might not be the same Richard that we started out with, but at least he's still coping because he still smiles when we talk about the past or when he sees his children.

I saw that documentary it was a tough watch, I'm sure I would'nt want to go on in his state.

as rich,s younger bro i wish people would report the facts not dramatise the story for there own benifits
he never blinked he simply moved his eyes .no blinking was involved so get it right

Originally Posted by leorudd

as rich,s younger bro i wish people would report the facts not dramatise the story for there own benifits
he never blinked he simply moved his eyes .no blinking was involved so get it right

Don't be a fairy queen but who cares anyway? I clicked on this because I thought it would be an interesting story.