of his situation, and
when asked about the
time he accidentally
touched a young nurses’ breast he replied
smiling ‘I’ve only just
got over the litigation!
I was in hospital…. and
I’d made one of my bold
gestures…. I sat on the
edge of my bed and the
nurse was next to me
and I was making a gesture pointing to another
part of the ward….and
my hand touched her
breast and she slapped
my face. I said what
was that all about and
she said well you just
don’t do that….you just
don’t go touching people’s breasts like that!
Well I didn’t know that
I had! I didn’t notice
that was what I’d done.
I wouldn’t have mind
getting a slap around
the face if I’d gone for
it but I hadn’t!’ Perhaps
this is the most telling example of how a
lack of proprioception
can rob a person of
any affectionate contact with another. How
could anyone who cannot feel what his hands
are doing be able to
make love to another
or demonstrate caring
affection to others?
Waterman has confounded all the diagnoses of the specialists
by discovering ways of
performing tasks that
26
should be impossible
for him. Something
as simple as holding
a fork to eat a meal,
which we do with ease
and no thought, was
a million miles away
from Waterman after
his diagnosis. But, with
years of single minded
effort he has regained
the use of his limbs
through his eyes. As
long as he can see
the limbs he wants to
move he can control