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EDUCATING OLIVER

A CASE FOR SPECIAL TREATMENT 1982–2007

PHILLIP MEDHURST

WITH THE DOCUMENTS OF OLIVER’S FATHEREDITED WITH PERMISSION BY

HARRY KOSSUTHIN TWO PARTSPART 2: WORCESTERSHIRE. 1986-2007

including an appendix with the full text of

“FIGHTING BACK”

The HEADSTART FOROLIVER (H.O.P.E.)programme

1984

for

PART 1: LEICESTERSHIRE. 1982-1985

see

http://www.archive.org/details/EducatingOliver.Part1Leicestershirehttp://www.scribd.com/doc/17605113/Educating-Oliver-1http://books.google.com GGKEY 7H1CYHD6UFX

for

recent news about Oliver

see

http://www.redditchadvertiser.co.uk/search/1697311.Burglary_brings_birthday_miseryhttp://archive.worcesternews.co.uk/2007/9/18/484539.htmlhttp://www.redditchadvertiser.co.uk/news/1712448.residents_moved_by_olivers_plighthttp://archive.worcesternews.co.uk/2007/9/25/485637.html

printed for the OLIVER MEDHURST appeal fund at

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8 Prophets CloseRedditch, Worcs.B97 4SDU.K.by HARRY KOSSUTH96 Withins LaneBolton, Lancs.BL2 5DZU.K.2009© Phillip Medhurstphillip.medhurst@googlemail.com

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PART 2: WORCESTERSHIRE

TEN YEARS ON: SOME REFLECTIONS

In some ways the pain increases as time goes on. Those dreams which gavehope are gradually seen to be delusions rather than visions.Our hope that Oliver would recover some functional use of his limbs has notbeen fulfilled. If anything, we have seen a deterioration as joints have calcified,unused muscles have wasted, and contractures have become more severe.Major spinal surgery was necessary (in 1990) to stabilise his posture. In1987 a bout of nearly-fatal pneumonia was a shock which raised a host of forgotten demons.No speech has returned. Some days before his accident Oliver had won a choir-scholarship at Leicester Cathedral. It is still impossible to hear a boy singingwithout acute emotional pain. Knowing through a simple "Yes/No" code thatOliver was intellectually intact, we placed great hopes in technology, and Ibecame something of an expert in this rapidly developing field. But it was all invain. While computers have provided Oliver with some worthwhile educationalactivities, they have not proven to be the panacea we expected. Oliver'sparticular pattern of visual difficulties and cerebral-processing problemsmeans that use of the equipment is slow and frustrating.Perhaps the greatest blow was having to "admit defeat" and send our son away to boarding school. By 1985 we were emotionally drained and exhausted andour teenage daughter was beginning to react. Our attempts to obtain adequateresources in the community became a running battle. My career, our means of livelihood and financial independence, was beginning to suffer. Our dwindlingsocial relationships were dominated by our constant demands on a small,forbearant circle of friends whose "normal" family pre-occupations becameincreasingly remote from our own. Eventually, the time came for us to swallowour pride and our deep sense that we were betraying Oliver, and ask for aresidential placement. Since 1985 Oliver has spent only three months of the year at home. This has given us time to adjust as far as possible and to preparefor the very demanding arrangements that will come into operation when Olivercomes home permanently in 1993.