Jay walked into my office wearing a cervical collar. Not the soft fluffy one that makes the neck feel cosy, but the hard sturdy one that supports the chin in front and braces the back of the head down to between the shoulder blades. It made him look like a character straight out of RoboCop. He was 6 ft-tall and able-bodied, but walked with such caution that each stride seemed programmed and motorised. I allowed him to gingerly seat himself on the examining bed while his wife and mother perched themselves on chairs in front of me.

“What happened?” I asked curiously. “I’m a civil engineer,” he introduced himself, “and I was at a construction site on the second floor,” he laid the premise. “A colleague of mine accidentally slipped off the edge of the building and luckily I was right there. As I stretched out to grab him, my neck felt a solid jerk,” he continued with minimal animation, extending his burly arm, but then wincing. “All of his 65 kilos were hanging on my left hand and I somehow managed to pull him up,” he said, heaving a sigh of relief.