HEALTH & BEAUTY
Rebuilding Lives
Sometimes we can be winning at life and get dealt a hand which completely turns things upside down. When it happened to Dr Sarfraz Khan, he turned to Liberty Physiotherapy for help.
In 2014, Saf was at the pinnacle of his dentistry career, having built up a successful independent chain of clinics in Barnsley which had reached five surgeries and over 40 staff. He was also part of the Sheffield Foundation Dental Training Program and involved in the NVQ Dental Nursing Diploma. One Friday, he came home complaining of back ache and put it down to being 45 and spending long hours being hunched over in clinic. His wife gave him a heat patch and some painkillers but his symptoms developed over the weekend; by Monday, his limbs were tingling and he struggled to
but it had been compressing onto his spine creating permanent irreversible damage, leaving him paralysed from the neck down. “Because of the nerve damage, I had no control of my muscles in my chest. I couldn’t breathe, eat or talk. It was like a near death experience and I just couldn’t come to terms with it, they kept me sedated for three weeks.”
Whilst very rare, the doctors tried hard to determine the cause of the infection. Living with Crohn’s disease since in his teens, Saf is prone to infection and at first they thought it could have been TB which is sometimes a trigger of SCAs.
Dr Sarfraz Khan
couldn’t swallow so I had to learn that again too.
“But my wife told the doctors she’d pay them extra if they didn’t teach me how to speak again. Luckily, my vocal chords were still intact.”
“It’s the real, down to earth people like at Liberty and my carers who have given me the real strength.”
get down the stairs.
By the time they’d made the short journey across the road to A&E, Saf couldn’t feel his arms and legs. “The next thing I knew, I’d woken up in Hallamshire HDU and I didn’t even know what day it was. It was surreal; I could only move my eyes, I couldn’t speak and I’d had a tracheotomy fitted. It was like all my nightmares had come at once,” he says.
An MRI scan had diagnosed a spinal cord abscess (SCA) at C4 level. The doctors had drained and removed the abscess which had been caused by an infection,
However, after taking cultures from the abscess, they failed to grow the bacteria and so have never uncovered what caused it. Due to the location of the injury, Saf’s chest had collapsed and he could only move his diaphragm. Because he was now only using around 20 percent of his lung capacity, doctors didn’t know if he’d ever be able to breathe on his own. “When they said they were going to try taking off the ventilator, I was scared at first, I didn’t want them to take my machine away. But I learned how to breathe again, slowly. I’d forgotten how to eat as I
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After four months in HDU, Saf was then transferred to the spinal unit at Northern General Hospital where his rehabilitation started. “I struggled with that part as I don’t like conforming. They told me to do one thing and I wanted to do the opposite. The psychologists and psychiatrists just gave up on me.”
After being discharged from hospital, Saf returned home to his wife and three daughters but completely shut himself off in his manhut for six months. “I felt sorry for myself, I was embarrassed. I’d been on top of the world like King Kong and I’d suddenly had the rug pulled from under me.
“Some say it’s better to have loved and lost, but it was hard to come to terms with the immediate change that I’d not had time to prepare for. I’d never had to ask for help before; I’d always been
the eldest son who helped everyone else.”
During the darker days, his family continued to support him, buying a specially adapted wheelchair and van so he could get out and about, often against his will.
“They kept saying, ‘So what if you’re disabled.’ Then they threw me in the back of the van whether I liked it or not. But the changing point for me was when my second daughter was choosing her A-levels and said she needed my help. “It made me realise my family does still need me. I’m still here, mentally I’m okay. But we just have to help each other now.”
The hospital had referred him to a private physiotherapist in Sheffield, but having always found his own path in life, Saf wanted to research them on his own.
That’s when he came across the remarkable story of Liberty Physiotherapy and their patients’ journeys in Aroundtown which was only round the corner from his house.
“I met Charlie and Tamar and we instantly clicked.”
That was just over a year ago and Saf has since started a
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