A beloved dad-of-four has been left fearful he may never walk again after he had a huge seizure ‘out of nowhere’ - before discovering that he had ‘the worst spinal infection’ his surgeons had ever seen. The 59-year-old suffered his second collapse in the space of a few weeks on Christmas Eve and was rushed to a hospital bed, where he has been ever since the shock diagnosis.
Glen Urmson was fit and well when he suffered a sudden ‘brain seizure’ while at work on November 30, 2021. Glen, a quantity surveyor from Shaw, could smell a ‘funny smell’ before he began ‘convulsing and collapsed on the floor’, according to his family.
Colleagues called for an ambulance but Glen’s heartbroken loved ones claim paramedics were driving around for ‘five hours’ as the Royal Oldham Hospital, among other emergency departments in Greater Manchester, were full up. Eventually, Glen was taken in at Fairfield General Hospital in Bury where doctors carried out tests.
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The medics could not pinpoint the cause of the seizure and sent Glen home, according to terrified wife Debbie, 58. Then things got worse.
Within a matter of days, Glen was in ‘so much pain that he couldn’t walk’, forcing the family to seek emergency help again. After 999 operators told Debbie there would be a seven-hour wait for an ambulance, she managed to get Glen into the car and took him to the Royal Oldham Hospital alone.
“He had really severe back pain,” the family told the Manchester Evening News . “We put it down to him fitting the Christmas lights.
“He went back to A&E. They said he was having muscle spasms from falling during the seizure - they discharged him with codeine and diazepam.
“They wheelchaired him out to my mum and didn’t run any further tests, despite him being in absolute agony, they dismissed it. This was all in the space of a few days.”
The dad’s difficulties carried on until he was forced to call 111, the operators said he could pick up more pain relief and it was muscle spasms too. In the meantime, he paid to see a chiropractor privately for a scan, say the family. Then, on Christmas Eve, he collapsed again and the family called 999 once more.
Ambulance operators looked over Glen’s medical notes and told the couple his muscle spasms would relent with more pain relief. Despite Debbie’s suspicions that her husband was suffering with a more serious condition, the emergency services insisted that it would not take him to hospital unless he could no longer walk to the toilet.
When Glen, usually a keen golfer, stumbled into a wall in front of paramedics, they relented and took the patient back to the hospital yet again.
“[I had to beg the ambulance service] to take him to hospital, he was getting confused, saying things that didn’t add up. He couldn’t even have a proper conversation because he was screaming in pain,” continued Debbie.
A month after Glen’s first seizure, he was finally admitted to a ward, still evidently confused, saying he was ‘in an army camp’. The new granddad missed the first Christmas with his two new grandchildren while stuck in hospital, as staff told him there were not enough medics to carry out the tests needed over the festive period.
At last, on December 28, an MRI scan revealed a severe spinal infection, featuring abscesses that had burst and were compressing on Glen’s spinal cord. He was rushed to Salford Royal Hospital for an emergency operation, without which ‘he would die’, the family say.
“Had our mum not pleaded with paramedics to take him to hospital, he would likely have died at home over Christmas. The surgeon said they had never seen a spinal infection so bad.”
After seven hours of ‘touch and go’ surgery, medics found that the ‘infection had disintegrated the discs in Glen’s back’. Glen has recently been transferred to a specialist unit in Southport for intensive physiotherapy.
Glen and his family say they remain ‘hopeful’ he will walk again, but have lately been left with doubts after medics indicated they will teach him how to live life with a wheelchair, rather than get back on his feet as the family first say they were told.
With Glen facing his fifth month in a hospital bed and still unable to walk, his family are also demanding answers over whether this could have been prevented had the infection been picked up in one of the first two trips to A&E.
Dr Chris Brookes, Chief Medical Officer and Deputy Chief Executive for Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the Royal Oldham, Fairfield and Salford Royal Hospitals, apologised for Glen's experiences, saying: “We are sorry to hear of Mr Urmson’s circumstances, including the challenges surrounding his admission and diagnosis. Unfortunately, both Covid-19 and winter-related system pressures across all of our emergency departments at the time meant that our colleagues at NWAS experienced challenges in transferring Mr Urmson successfully to our care.
"Following his admission, ongoing challenges to our staffing levels then resulted in his MRI scan being delayed. We acknowledge that these experiences have sadly resulted in Mr Urmson and his family feeling let down, and we are deeply sorry for that.
"Patient safety and high standards of care are our priority and I would encourage Mr Urmson and his family to contact our Patient Advice and Liaison Service so that we can hear in more detail the issues surrounding his care. We will then follow up with them directly, to demonstrate our commitment to understanding individuals’ experiences to help us learn and improve. We send Mr Urmson our best wishes for a full recovery.”
A North West Ambulance Service spokesperson added: “We would like to offer Mr Urmson and his family our best wishes. We hope he makes a full and swift recovery and that they have success in their fundraising efforts. If they would like us to look into their concerns with the ambulance response further, we invite them to contact our patient safety team, and we can share our findings with them.”
As they wait to find out if their once-active dad and granddad will get back on his feet, the family is raising money to pay for a second medical opinion and to adapt their house for when Glen comes home.
"At first, we were told the goal was to get Glen back walking, but now it seems like they're resigned to him living in a wheelchair," Debbie said. "The physiotherapists have told us we'll need to put a bed in the dining room and set up a commode downstairs, that's no way of life.
"Glen is a freelance quantity surveyor and hasn't been paid since November, so there's added financial stress too.
"He hasn't been home since Christmas and there's days when he's absolutely fed up, it's difficult to see past it. But despite everything, Glen has done so well and we're staying hopeful."
If you would like to donate to the fundraiser, head to the GoFundMe page.
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