The nervous system is comprised of the spine, the brain and neurons. The nervous system is split into two parts; the central, and the peripheral. Below, you can read the transcript of an interview between Allie Travis (interviewer) and Sam Kuenzel. Sam Kuenzel is a fifteen year old student at Animas High School. He has experienced an injury that has affected his nervous system. Here is the written interview.
Interview taken place on November 8, 2010.
So, what happened to you?
I was in Knoxville, Tennessee, and my best friend and my parents were at a party. We were running from the huge crowd of people, and I had jumped off this ledge between two walls, which I though was only a foot or so drop, and I thought that there was grass there, but it ended up being a 40 foot drop on to solid concrete. I had damaged my arm, my ribs, my head and my face.
Has a member of your family or a friend ever had an accident such as this before?
No, never.
Had you ever had anything like this happen to you before?
Well, I fell down a flight of stairs before, but I wasn’t hurt in any way.
What was your reaction to this? How did it feel?
Well, at first, when I hit the ground, it was really cold, then it got really, really warm. I felt okay, but just really warm.
Did you think that it was worse than it was, or did you think it wasn’t a big deal?
I thought I was fine at first. I wanted to get up and walk, but I couldn’t quite do it, so I just crawled. I was telling everyone that I was fine, and that I was okay.
What was your family’s reaction to this?
My best friend had ran to my parents, and told them what had happened. They freaked. My dad came running over to me, and people called the police and they had an ambulance come and get me.
How was being in the ambulance?
Well, people kept touching my arm, and I was sort of going in and out of consciousness, and I was swearing at them and telling them to stop touching me and stuff. It sucked.
What was it like being in the hospital?
Horrible!!! I absolutely hated it. All I wanted was sleep and drink chocolate milk. They said that I wanted chocolate milk so bad because my body needed calcium, and I just wanted to sleep other than that because the pain was so bad. It was really uncomfortable being there because it was so hot. I couldn’t hear all that well, so it was frustrating knowing that people were talking about me, but not knowing what they were saying because it was just muffled noise.
What treatments did you receive?
I was put into a coma for three or four days, I had rib work done, I got three plates in my arm, I had plastic surgery on my face, and I had lots of tubes and needles all over me
What had the doctors told you about what happened to you?
I don’t really remember much, but I thought that I was pushed off the building at first, but they were telling me otherwise.
Were you scared that you might not be able to function like you used to?
That never came to my mind until a few weeks after I was out of the hospital, but I was just thinking that it would really suck if I couldn’t go to parties or if I couldn’t ski.
Was life a lot harder for you after the accident?
Horrible. I was bored and in pain all the time. Any little thing that would touch my arm would be excruciating pain. I passed out a few times because it hurt so bad. My head hurt so bad all the time. I had to wear sunglasses everywhere, and when I was in a room with a window, I would have to have the blinds on it shut.
What were the setbacks of that having happened to you?
I didn’t have any muscle strength like I used to have, and I had pretty much no endurance.
Were there any advantages to what had happened to you?
I got a lot of pity, so I was able to get a lot of things that I wanted.
How long did it take you to recover?
Well the doctors said I would be recovering the rest of my life, but I started walking about a month after I got out of the hospital. It was more a limp than a walk though.
What were a lot of the things you did in your recovery process?
I never had physical therapy, but I had to do exercises with my arms, like turning my wrists around and stuff.
What was the thing that helped you most through this?
Meds. Defiantly. It took away most of the pain, even though I was still in a lot of it.
How quickly did you think your progress was going? Did you feel that you were doing a good job for being in your condition?
I was going through everything extremely fast. Most people were amazed by how well I was doing.
Are you still facing difficulties from what happened to you?
I still have very little strength and endurance, and my arms and head still hurt sometimes.
If anything happens like that to you again, could it be permanently damaging?
The doctors said that if anything like this happens again, I will probably die.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Well thank you very much Sam, for doing this. I hope everything works out well for you in the future.
These are two different interviews that were published on National Public Radio that were about ailments to the nervous system.
A historian named Tony Judt was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in 2008. This is very quick moving, and it eventually causes the patients nervous system to degenerate. Click here to listen to Mr. Judt’s interview.
Scientist, John Ramsdell, talks about the discovery that wildlife biologists made, algal blooms causing humans, as well as sea lions, having seizures when consuming this object. Click here to listen to the interview.
Allie Travis
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