By Dipo Adesida
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18 years ago, I had an accident.
If it was an action film, the incident could have passed for a scene from a James Bond flick with squelching tyres, glass shattering, cars ramming into each other and bodies flying about the whole place.
Well, that’s exactly how it happened except that rather than stuntmen, I was driving the car that ran into an 18-wheel trailer loaded with cement.
Tyres screeched, people shouted, glass shattered and at the end of the scene, my body lay over the glassy shards, paralyzed from waist down.
Just a few minutes before the accident, I was a giddy 18-year-old freshman studying Dramatic Arts with clear prospects; tall, dark and vainly handsome. I could dance, run, jump and trek really long distances.
But in an instant, everything changed.
I became the guy who spent the next 5 months, immobilized on a hospital bed, staring at the ceiling; the guy who could not piss or poo without assistance; the dude who could not sit, stand or walk.
But that was just one side of the story.
Because spending that much time in one position forced me to see the world differently. First it was denial but once I embraced it, everything changed.
I realized that my case, though dire, wasn’t the worst.
After all, the guy right opposite me got admitted because his wife poured acid all over his face for alleged infidelity.
That experience taught me the value of faith because I had to depend on God’s word to get me out of that knotty neurological situation as the healthcare system had totally collapsed.
It taught me the value of people because I was constantly surrounded by family, friends, neigbours, church members and well-wishers who made me comfortable.
I learned the importance of humour as I found it completely hilarious that a patient farting after a surgery was a good sign that the procedure had gone well.
I learned the value of gratitude as I felt so much compassion for a co- patient who had cancer of the colon and had his rectum redirected to his abdomen in order to pass out waste.
I learned the value of life as every now and then, a fellow patient gave up the ghost and was unceremoniously stuffed with cotton wool before being wheeled out while I remained alive.
I discovered the virtue in patience, as I gradually learned how to sit, stand and eventually take my first of many steps.
Looking back over the last 18 years, I can only be grateful to God, family and friends for getting me back on my feet, helping me complete my degree, get a job, be married, have children, swim, drive, pee, poo, fart and be relevant in the grand scheme of life.
I’m grateful for the irrelevant things.
I’m grateful for the things that matter.
I’m grateful because I lived to tell this story.
