How Narcolepsy Almost Took My Life

Owen Cox almost had his life taken by narcolepsy, he speaks about how a near fatal incident that nearly took  his life and how he has still been able to accomplish so much since being diagnosed

Owen Cox, 23, was diagnosed with narcolepsy a rare neurological condition that affects the brain’s ability to control sleep-wake cycle after a near fatal car crash in 2019 since then he and his family has got so many answers to questions they’ve had his entire life about his excessive tiredness, loss of muscle control, and even sleeping standing up.

The crash took place in Castleton, a small village with a tight knit community in North Yorkshire where Owen was on his was home from work driving late at night he said ‘’I’d worked probably an 8- or 9-hour shift at work” which already for someone with a disorder that enhances your tiredness is gruelling. He described his way home

‘’It’s all sort of backroads”

“Single track roads or like one and a half cars width”

 it gives the impression that you need to be an alert driver who is completely conscious and experienced to navigate.

As he admitted to me that he’d only been driving “less than a week”.

Giving his account of the moments just before the crash he recalled that ‘’ I don’t remember say the last five minutes before my crash”, “I remember getting through sort of the villages and then I got to the point where… I don’t remember anything until after the crash”.

“I remember waking up in sort of my car, it was enveloped in smoke, and I thought… the engine was on fire” he says giving his best recollection.

Owen, then went on to say “it was just the airbags” which will have been relieving since the idea of being trapped inside of a car on fire is traumatic and would have only heightened the panic he would have been feeling in that moment.

“It was a very severe accident, I took out an electrical pole, my car was trapped underneath, and the road had to be closed off”.

He then went on to state that he is fairly certain that “the accident was definitely most caused because of my narcolepsy”.

After the car crash Owen was questioned by the police after someone near to the scene saw his car planted bonnet first into an electrical pole, “they breathalysed me at the scene, I was very worried when they were called”.

“I’m in a bit of a state in here what happens if I get taken away for dangerous driving”.

However, Owen emphasised and thanked the police officers who came to the scene saying ‘’They were really nice to me” and “made a little bit of a joke” to calm him down at the time as he was “shaken up”.

Maria Cox, Owen’s mother called back to when the crash occurred “I was straight over to him, I was out on a date with my partner at the time, luckily he was okay and just shaken up”.

“I hope to never experience the fear and dread that I experienced that day again”.

Even though he left the car crash unscathed the sheer severity and danger of the incident took a toll on Cox.

“As soon as I got into my Mum’s car” to go to the hospital.

“I started having panic attacks”

“We had to stop the car about four times on the way to James Cook because I was just wanting to get out”.

It was a chaotic and dramatic first week driving for Owen, who then would go on to actually be diagnosed with narcolepsy just two weeks after his crash along with being given a lot of medication to help his disorder, it was discovered he had not just narcolepsy but narcolepsy with cataplexy.

“It’s quite common with narcolepsy that you get cataplexy along with it, which is loss of your control and muscles”.

“I got started off with Ritalin…which it does the same thing as speed, it’s the same for like people with ADHD and that really worked well on the narcolepsy side of things”

“But we eventually found a drug called venlafaxine, which is predominately used for an antidepressant”

“It worked really well for both the narcolepsy and cataplexy”

I questioned whether taking all these types of medication would make you in ineligible for driving since you are 4 times more likely to crash if you have narcolepsy which Owen stated that you “find a medication that works for 6 months, and then after that the DVLA would be happy for me to drive again”.

 However, the disorder did affect Owen’ education before his diagnosis “ I would say in college when I was doing my A-levels… it affected my grades”.

“As much as I did well in college, I would just be asleep and the teacher would just let me be”.

“At university… it was sort of under control then. I did still have effects, in lectures and stuff, I would just fall asleep now and again”

“But that was a mix of the university lifestyle and narcolepsy”

Owen’s mother hailed his resilience to keep going with his education even though he could have given up because of narcolepsy.

“I’m extremely proud of Owen for accomplishing what he’s done with his life so far”.

“Getting a master’s degree in law and obtaining a training contract with a solicitor firm isn’t an easy task for the fully able let alone someone with a disability”.

Even though a crash so early on into his life driving was an extreme, start it didn’t stop Owen’s desire to continue driving. He wanted to thank his family and was grateful that they helped him get back into driving.

“My Mum and Auntie would give me up somewhere quiet and let me just drive a little bit to rebuild my confidence”

“The way they put it was if I don’t get behind the wheel now as soon as I can, I’ll probably never do it again and they were right”.

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