I have never personally known a man who’s endured and overcome as much numbing, electrifying, paralyzing pain as Andrew. Andrew is paralyzed.
Andrew Brown, a former TV journalist for CNN and TVB News in Hong Kong, was the victim of a spinal cord tumor-removal surgery that went terribly wrong seven years ago. Since that day in a London hospital, Andrew has undergone grueling daily physical therapy and intense rehabilitation program to rebuild strength and flexibility. He’s now mostly confined to a wheelchair, with limited ability to walk on crutches.
During his TV journalism career, Andrew was best known for his out-of-the-box quirky smirky style of reporting that highlights the good, the bad, the conflict or the contradiction within hard or soft news stories. But above and beyond his unique news personality, Andrew was a dear colleague-turned-confidant during my on-air days in Hong Kong more than twenty years ago. That makes us old friends, very old friends.
Last week, I flew to Bangkok to see him for the first time since I last visited him shortly after his devastating operation in Salisbury, a 2-hour train ride from London. He’s made Thailand his new home after he, as a British national, maxed out his health insurance benefits in the U.K. I didn’t know what to expect, but I did remember the unpredictable excruciating nerve pain that he’d mentioned in all our email exchanges over the years. With his struggle in mind, I was prepared to render care whenever and however he may need at his home.
“Hello, Chanski…” Andrew greeted me with a big smile, sitting in the corner of a massive sectional sofa in a 2,000 square-foot condominium.
“How are you, Andrew? It’s so good to see you. How are you feeling?”
“I’m well. How are you?” Andrew replied softly with his sparkling green eyes, glowing skin and auburn hair. I couldn’t believe my eyes – he looked fantastic! His firm clear voice, rosy cheeks were a far cry from the frail and haunted image I recall from that London hospital visit in 2006.
But almost immediately, we dived into the months and years since I last saw him in the U.K. – the tormenting exhausting journey of his recovery, the urgent fundraising campaign for his medical care. He explained in painstaking details once again how his bodily functions from his brain, neck, and spinal cord on down had fallen apart and needed to be reassembled through rigorous regimen of breathing & movement exercises every day, seven days a week. He needs to rely on regular doses of morphine to kill the pain every three hours, and frequent massage of his hands and feet to stoke better circulation. He also succumbs to constant, sudden crashing fatigue. While his lawsuit against the UK hospital for malpractice has awarded him a substantial settlement, allowing him to live in a luxurious condo and to afford a daily health & home caregiver, he is still struggling to keep pain under control, his mind and body active, and his humor alive.
Andrew has an unapologetically wicked sense of humor that is so classically British. During my weekend visit, he rarely missed a beat in returning a barrage of one-liners that’d put me in my place. And I tried to initiate as many scintillating conversations or sarcastic comments as possible, trying to restore a semblance of “the good old days” when we were TV colleagues, and occasional drinking buddies in Hong Kong.
Throughout the weekend, there were quite a bit of laughs and moments of tears.
I’d shed tears in hearing how much pain he has had to overcome every day. I marvel at how much strength he can muster to maneuver the day-to-day obstacle course. And above all – I am completely in awe of Andrew because he has personified the profound essence of success embedded in a popular quote – “Success is measured not so much by what you’ve accomplished, but by what you have endured.”