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• Emmerdale's tetraplegic storyline ends in assisted suicide

  

  Ironside on Jun 08, 2011
  Tagged in: gay disabled man , emmerdale tetraplegic assisted suicide , Disability

  Those of you who watch Emmerdale will have been following a dramatic storyline last night which saw tetraplegic Jackson Walsh commit suicide with the assistance of his mother and boyfriend, Aaron . Now I know there has been a lot of controversy regarding the storyline, a lot of people believe that the storyline should have been more along the lines of showing the positive side of being confined to a wheelchair, rather than showing the negative side. I can certainly understand where these people are coming from, but you have to look at it from the other side as well, not every person who ends up being confined to a wheelchair is able to cope with life, is happy sitting in a wheelchair 24/7, some people cannot cope with life being disabled. From my experience of being in hospital and seeing newly injured people, everyone takes the terrible news that they may never walk again in completely different ways. Take me for instance, I was told that I would probably never walk again and it really didn't affect me at the time, and it hasn't had any detrimental effect on my life since being injured, and that was back in 1986. However, I can remember another young chap who broke his neck who literally cried for days after being told he would never walk again. Thankfully, the same chap seems to be very much like myself and has made a life for himself and make the best of what he is able to do.
  
  I believe the Emmerdale storyline writers have been extremely brave in approaching this storyline of the young tetraplegic in a completely different way to what has been seen before in any other soap. From the handful of disability storylines I can recall, all of them have portrayed disabled people just getting on with life without showing any of the problems that may accompany life in a wheelchair. I can remember Chris Tate who was also an Emmerdale character, he suffered a spinal cord injury to the back during the plane crash, he met his demise by drinking poison, but only after being diagnosed with an incurable brain tumour, and then his suicide was only intended to try and frame his ex-lover. The Jackson Walsh storyline has showed a completely different side to being confined to a wheelchair for life. It has been clear that he is terribly depressed and cannot contemplate living his life being completely paralysed. We have to remember that his level of injury is very high, probably at best a C3. This means that he cannot move his arms or shoulders, he can only move his head. From my point of view I can't imagine what it must be like not being able to move at all, at least I have got fairly good use of my arms so I'm able to drive a vehicle, use a computer completely independently, operate my amateur radio equipment, go fishing and use my rod I myself, if I was completely paralysed, some of these tasks would be impossible, or at best only possible with quite a bit of help from a care assistant. As we could see by Jackson's character, he was able to use a computer, albeit with a little bit of poetic licence. He was also able to operate his electric wheelchair by himself. With the technology that is available nowadays, I think that a person in his position would be able to have somewhat more of an independent lifestyle, i.e. turning lights on and off, opening curtains, operating an electric bed, switching on the television and radio etc etc.

  The scriptwriters obviously decided that they only wanted to show him living in one room, only having a couple of people as personal carers. In real life, he could have easily lived in his own house, had two or three care assistants to help them with daily living, funds would have been made available for somebody with such a high level of disability to live an independent life as possible without relying on his immediate family. From this point of view some people might look upon this as a negative theme to follow but obviously that is what they chose to write.

  Jackson obviously fell into deep depression from virtually the first time he was told he would never walk again. I'm pleased that the scriptwriters followed through and didn't suddenly turn the storyline into a farce by somehow turning his situation into a miracle where he got up and started walking again. We have seen these so-called crazy miraculous recoveries with characters in soaps such as Eastenders where we saw Jack Branning being shot and sustaining a serious brain injury that rendered him unable to speak properly and almost incapable of walking. Less than a year later he is now walking around as if nothing ever happened.
  
  Last night's episode of Emmerdale was extremely moving, I am not embarrassed to say that I did have a tear in my eye whilst watching Jackson's mother agonise over giving her son a drink that she knew would end his life. Then Aaron who was against the whole thing at the beginning gave Jackson the drink himself which he knew would kill the person he loved. A truly moving and superb episode of Emmerdale which I hope will receive the praise that it deserves.

  Finally, hats must be taken off for Danny Miller and Marc Silcock for this excellent portrayal of a man who can't cope with life in a wheelchair, and his partner who can't imagine life without him. Marc did a grand job of portraying a completely paralysed man, believe me I watched his hands on more than one occasion and how he managed not to move his fingers whilst also delivering his lines I will never know.

• Gay tetraplegic storyline in Emmerdale soap

  

  Ironside on Mar 12, 2011
  Tagged in: gay disabled man

  
  Those of you who watch Emmerdale on a regular basis will know all about the storyline that has been running for quite a while now involving Aaron and Jackson. For those of you who are not regular viewers of this soap and let me fill you in briefly. Aaron is the young teenage son of Chastity (Chas) Dingell. When he first arrived at Emmerdale he was an obnoxious troublemaker who often got himself into trouble and was often involved in fights. About a year ago the storyline saw him struggling with his sexuality and the fact that he was gay but didn't want to admit it. Eventually with the help of Jackson, a young man he met in a gay bar, he finally accepted what he was and started going out with Jackson. The relationship was rather shaky at times and on more than one occasion they split up. One evening Jackson has had enough and told Aaron that it was all over and drove off in his van on a dark evening. Whilst answering a telephone call from Aaron he crashed his van onto the train line. Unconscious and unable to get out of the van, it was hit by a train and we were left wondering whether he had survived or not. Thankfully Jackson did survive but was left completely paralysed from the neck down with a movement of his arms or legs. To cut a long story short Aaron and Jackson have decided to give their relationship a go even though Jackson is permanently confined to a wheelchair and needs constant help from his family and carers. So now you know the basics of this often moving and dramatic storyline that has nominated awards for both the actors who play Aaron and Jackson.
  
  I would imagine that it came as quite a shock for Marc Silcock who plays Jackson Walsh when he was informed that he was going to be playing the part of a wheelchair-bound disabled man with absolutely no movement apart from his head. I would imagine that he did a little bit of research into what it was going to take portray somebody who had just suffered a serious spinal cord injury. I must say that from the word go he was very convincing at playing a high-level tetraplegic. I suppose if we want to be really pedantic and look at it from the eyes of somebody who really knows what it's like to be disabled than we could pick a few holes in his portrayal of this young disabled man. For a start, it is very unlikely that such a high-level tetraplegic with absolutely no movement from the neck down would be able to move his head so easily and have such strong vocabulary chords. Last nights episode was the first time that I believe the storyline let itself down a little bit and not enough research was done. You've got to remember that there are probably a lot of disabled people watching this storyline progress at the moment and I think that every effort should be made to make this situation as believable as possible. We saw Aaron invite Jackson back to his house where he had set a bed up. However this was to happen in real life then you wouldn't just turn up in your wheelchair with absolutely no provisions and stay the night. For a start I doubt very much whether Aaron would have really been able to lift Jackson into bed by himself, not the way he was doing it anyway. In rehabilitation, friends carers family are shown how to menu the people properly so as not to cause injury to themselves or the disabled person. Secondly Aaron had not taken anything with him that would enable him to spend the night properly. Now I may be jumping the gun here as I haven't seen Monday's episode, but it wasn't evident that any type of system was used where he would be able to pass urine during the night. To most people this really wouldn't have been apparent but it's the sort of thing that myself and I would imagine every other disabled person would have been aware of. But, we will give them the benefit of the doubt, it is only a soap opera at the end of the day.
  
  I don't know whether the subject of sex is going to be approached. I would have thought that this will be just a little bit too risky for a program that is shown at seven o'clock in the evening so I imagine that it will be overlooked. The producers have also decided to broach upon the subject of depression which does affect a lot of people who suffer devastating and debilitating injuries that will leave them permanently disabled. Not everyone can accept that they will spend the rest of their life in a wheelchair, to some people it's not the beginning of a completely new life, it's the end of their old life and they just can't handle it.
  
  The storyline is not perfect, it has few flaws, however, I think that Marc Silcock is doing an extremely good job and as a disabled man myself, I must congratulate him for his acting skills which have allowed him to pretty much pull off this risky and difficult role.
  
  There have been a few storylines in various soap opera is where we have seen people have serious accidents that render them incapacitated and unable to look after themselves properly. However in most cases they have made dramatic recoveries which in some cases have been quite ludicrous, such as the case of a character in Eastenders who suffered serious brain damage after being shot in the head, less than a year later, he is now walking around like nothing ever happened.