My Story – A Policemans Lot
Hello.
I was medically retired from the Greater Manchester Police with just short of 20 years service following a neck injury, which occurred whilst on duty. This injury required neurosurgery and I much later discovered that it had left me with a spinal cord injury.
I was re-employed by the Greater Manchester Police as a civilian Scenes of Crime Officer, a job for which I was already trained and in post prior to my retirement from the Police.
I initially created my website as I stopped work with my disability. I have endeavoured to make it as accessible as possible for disabled people.
I accepted injury as an occupational hazard. I would rather I wasn’t injured, but I accept that I took a risk and lost. A large number of officers are injured and it was a part of the job of which I was well aware.
Because of ongoing illness and difficulty typing I closed the site down for a while, but resurrected it following a large number of enquiries, many from people considering a career in the Police. Some information may now be outdated. I I’m unable to answer questions from potential recruits as I am now totally out of date with recruiting policies.
Injury is very much an occupational hazard for a Police Officer. I was subject to quite a few injuries during my service with the Greater Manchester Police but the injuries that led to my disability are as follows:-
In 1989 or 1990 together with another Police Officer I attended to a report of a man trying to commit suicide by throwing himself from a bridge into a canal. The man was pulled from the parapet of the bridge and was restrained on the floor by a Policewoman colleague and myself. During the ensuing fracas I was kicked in the face, knocking me unconscious, breaking my nose and causing a severe hyper flexion or whiplash of my neck. I did not report sick following this incident, but, was aware within a couple of days that I was suffering from urgency and frequency of urination. In hindsight this was the first symptom of my neck injury, these symptoms being intermittent until the eventual diagnosis of my condition years later.
The man was treated in hospital for minor injuries sustained as a result of his suicide attempt and released. I understand that within a couple of weeks he had succeeded in killing himself.
As a footnote to this it may be of interest to note that had I sustained these injuries as the result of a criminal assault on myself I would have been able to submit a claim under the government run Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme. However I was informed that I couldn’t make such a claim because there was no criminal intent in the mans actions.
I later underwent major spinal surgery involving bone grafting with a resulting disability which is described more fully on my website … www.apolicemanslot.co.uk