Blackout and accident while sitting on a stool
Posted: Fri Nov 24, 2017 10:13 am
I was working as a nude model at a local art school. I had never previously posed for a sculpture class but had some experience with drawing classes. What I didn't realise was that the sitting position for a sculpture class would be much more dangerous than for a drawing class. I remember taking my clothes off and putting them in a chaotic cupboard in the corner of the studio. The instructor helped me up to a podium about two feet high.
Sitting on a high stool with my feet on the cross-supports about 6 inches off the floor. My head must have been at least seven feet above the concrete floor. After about 50 minutes I had a short spell of back ache. I did not think much about it. It was mild for January. Despite having been still for 50 minutes, I did not feel cold. Suddenly I began to have tunnel vision. Blackness closed in. Three or four seconds later I passed out. I know nothing of what happened after that until I woke up lying on the floor with two ambulance me looking over me before pinching my leg and asking whether I could feel anything. I couldn't. I felt nothing as I broke my neck at C4/5. I also had an injury above my right eye. I guess I must have knocked my head back sharply as I fell. My spinal injury left me with paralysis and very limited sensation below my chest, severe spasticity and double incontinence.
Sitting on a high stool with my feet on the cross-supports about 6 inches off the floor. My head must have been at least seven feet above the concrete floor. After about 50 minutes I had a short spell of back ache. I did not think much about it. It was mild for January. Despite having been still for 50 minutes, I did not feel cold. Suddenly I began to have tunnel vision. Blackness closed in. Three or four seconds later I passed out. I know nothing of what happened after that until I woke up lying on the floor with two ambulance me looking over me before pinching my leg and asking whether I could feel anything. I couldn't. I felt nothing as I broke my neck at C4/5. I also had an injury above my right eye. I guess I must have knocked my head back sharply as I fell. My spinal injury left me with paralysis and very limited sensation below my chest, severe spasticity and double incontinence.