Featured Image Credit: Facebook/Janice Buckelew
Topics: US News
James Moorhouse
The father of a man who went to a chiropractor before being diagnosed with locked-in syndrome has explained the reality of his current life.
Ten years on from the tragic event which saw Jonathan Buckelew's life changed forever, his father has spoken to the media about everything his son now needs on a daily basis to stay alive.
Jonathan was at the chiropractor's in October 2015 when he started to become dizzy, disoriented and unresponsive, and he was rushed to the North Fulton Hospital in the US state of Georgia.
However, doctors failed to recognise that Jonathan, who was just 24 at the time, was suffering from a stroke, with court documents later accusing medical staff at the hospital of 'gross negligence' as he remained undiagnosed and untreated for over 12 hours.
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Sadly, this led him to develop locked-in syndrome, a neurological condition characterised by complete paralysis of almost all voluntary muscles, meaning that a decade on, there isn't much he can do other than move his eyes vertically and blink.
And now, his father, Jack, who helps to care for Jonathan, has spoken out on how his son is doing as the family prepares to mark 10 years since their lives were turned upside down.
Speaking to Atlanta News First, Jack said: "Treatments never came until it was way too late. It's just a lot of pain. In spite of his spirit, which keeps us going. He wants to do things, he wants to go places, it just breaks our heart to see him like he is."
Jonathan is unable to move or speak due to the paralysis, but remains fully conscious, which means a team of his family and nurses care for him at all hours of the day.
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Jack added: "There are some days where he says, 'pull the plug'. Those are the tough days.
"I really feel like there's no real justice for somebody who lost everything, who lost every part of his life. It's way past the anger and the frustration, just focusing on 'what can we do? How can we give him the best life possible?'"
Their entire home has been restructured to accommodate Jonathan's needs, with a physical therapy room for exercise and a fish tank, which is now his favourite spot in the house as he watches the fish swim by.
In the wake of a verdict which saw Jonathan's family awarded $75 million, making it one of the biggest medical malpractice cases in US history, his family's lawyer Lloyd Bell spoke out on the tragic incident.
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He said: "Jonathan was having a stroke when he came to the hospital, and they missed it. The people who were responsible for reading the radiographs misread them.
"The ER doctor saw this patient was having all these signs and symptoms of stroke and never called a stroke alert, and they had policies in place that they were supposed to follow certain protocols to reach the correct diagnosis, and they didn't follow their policies and procedures."
"This case is heartbreaking because Jonathan's paralysis and brain damage were completely avoidable.
"If the slew of healthcare providers involved in Jonathan's care had acted according to the standard of care, caught and treated his stroke earlier, and communicated more effectively, Jonathan's life would look entirely different."