Well-known Wellingborough Sainsbury’s worker’s sadness at leaving job after ongoing health issues causing him ‘unbearable’ pain

A former Sainsbury’s employee in Wellingborough who is known for his upbeat customer service has shared an update on his whereabouts as he struggles with health problems that have resulted in him leaving his job.

Stephen Adamski, who worked on the Northampton Road supermarket’s checkouts, left his position of 17 years a few weeks ago.

In May 2021, Stephen experienced a pain in his back, and was referred to John Radcliffe Hospital, an NHS facility in Oxford, subsequently undergoing surgery (which was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic) to have a Dorsal Root Ganglion (DRG) stimulator installed, a treatment that inserts a pacemaker-like device to stimulate the nerves in the back running to the specific region of pain.

However, over two years later the pain hasn’t subsided, and Stephen has been finding it hard to recover.

He said: “I get the burning, stinging, prickling, shooting pain. I can’t live like this, it’s ruining my life.

“It has changed my life as I absolutely 100 per cent loved my job and all my customers.

“Because of the pain I’ve now got mental health issues.

“The pain is unbearable and excruciating and all I'm doing is taking morphine to help me get by, what sort of life is that?

“Everyone is saying I’m more of a shadow than I was when I was working.”

Stephen worked at Sainsbury’s for 17 years, with only three days off.

His unwavering positivity and helpful customer service made him a familiar face to supermarket shoppers in Wellingborough, so his absence from the checkouts has been noticeable, and the change in his temperament has been evident.

Tony Adamski, Stephen’s father said: “He’s like this all the time, that’s not him.

"Stephen was hoping to retire there, he loved it there, he loved his customers.

"He could walk down the street and see one of his customers he’d only served once, and he would remember them, and they start to get to know Stephen.

"It’s all gone.

“Everything that can go wrong with Stephen, has gone wrong.”

Despite Sainsbury’s keeping his job open for two years and six months, Stephen departed the company.

Stephen flagged up a discomfort in his back, and struggled to sit at the checkout while working due to the back press on his spine, only lasting a few hours before the pain was too much to handle.

The Northants Telegraph contacted Sainsbury’s for a comment, but they declined.

Stephen’s mother also expressed a concern, saying that her son’s condition was ‘heartbreaking’.

She said: “It’s heartbreaking to see my son like this because I can't do anything for him.

“I feel useless, I feel as if I should be doing something to help.”

The surgery to install a DRG stimulator is sometimes completed in two stages, with the implantation of the stimulator wires completed before there is a trial period during which the wires are tested with an external stimulator battery.

The patient is consulted, and if the results are felt beneficial, then the permanent implanted battery is inserted.

The DRG stimulator was switched off in May 2022 in order to assess how Stephen would be without it if it were to be removed, and it was taken out by his request two months later.

Stephen added: “If I would have done the research or had been told about the complications, I wouldn't have had it done.

“Now I’m very weary of hospitals.”

The problems Stephen has been experiencing was initially isolated in his legs, and has now travelled into his back and the lower part of the spine. He has been using prescribed morphine every four hours for over two years to ease the pain, and he believes he ‘would be bedbound’ without it.

After being referred to the facility by Northampton General Hospital (NGH), John Radcliffe in Oxford insists that the symptoms that Stephen reported some months after the operation ‘do not have a plausible relationship with the stimulator surgery.’

Stephen was told by medical professionals that the removal of the DRG stimulator would likely result in the return of umbilical region pain and would not result in the improvement of his other symptoms, as these were ‘unconnected’ to the initial stimulator treatment.

DRG stimulation has become a medical way to treat chronic pain since it was first introduced in the mid-2010s, being used as an effective therapy for multiple chronic pain disorders.

John Radcliffe notes Stephen ‘developed a collection of other symptoms unrelated to the stimulator or the abdominal pain for which it was inserted.’

On this, the hospital was unable to determine a diagnosis or treatment for the widespread pain problem, and Stephen was referred back to NGH.