A Gamston man had to learn how to walk again after a freak piece of scar tissue wrapped itself around his spine and effectively paralysed him.
Johnny Lyle, 51, was leaving his local Co-op on Hilton Crescent in April when his life suddenly changed.
“I went into the shop, did my usual and came out, walked out through the door and my legs literally just went and I was in a heap on the floor,” he said.
After initially being given the all-clear, by the end of the week he was being rushed to hospital after deteriorating again.
At one point Johnny was in so much pain he had to be sedated to lie down just to undergo an MRI scan.
“This young doctor about five o’clock in the morning, after I’d only been back in bed about two hours, woke me up and said ‘oh Mr Lyle you’ve got a spinal tumour – you need to be operated on immediately’.”
It wasn’t until weeks later that doctors realised the problem was not actually a tumour – but scar tissue which had wrapped around his spine following a previous back problem.
After the successful surgery at the Queen’s Medical Centre Johnny faced months of trying to rebuild his strength and effectively learn to walk again with help from specialists.
“Sitting there in bed and looking at your feet, and doing everything in your power to try and move both toes – and nothing moved,” he added.
“I just didn’t understand it, suddenly your legs aren’t connected. I had no reflexes, nothing below the waist.”
But he’s since improved and recently walked back into the supermarket where it all started for the first time since his collapse – to buy a bottle of Cava to help him and his wife celebrate his recovery.
Since documenting his progress in a popular blog while he made his recovery, Johnny has also had to re-think his career as an advisor to theme parks and attractions, setting up the watch retail website Edvård Ingersson, and a miniature Schnauzer fan wesbite.
“I think the big life lesson is you’ve just got to live life while you can,” he added.
“You just don’t know what’s around the corner.”
