Heartbreak of Chesterfield man who lost his voice, his soulmate and control over his life

Tears are never far from the surface as Stan points to the artist Our Kid bracketed by Stan Played Bass on his jukebox. The song on which Stan played peaked at number two in the charts 47 years ago this week.

A bass guitar stands in the living room, an instrument that Stan took up as a teenager and played for more than three decades. “I stopped playing when I lost my hand,” he writes on his computer.

His right hand had to be amputated because of painful contractions after he lost the use of it – among the devastating repercussions of brain damage that he suffered as a result of a medical procedure.