After an incident on his motorcycle, Craig sustained serious injuries and was not expected to survive. He was airlifted by Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance and spent 13 weeks in hospital.

It was a late April morning, dry with hazy sunshine and pleasant enough to sit outside. My biker friends from Yeovil had arrived early, so while waiting for the rest of the group, we did what bikers do best, drink tea, eat cake and put the world to rights. The group that day included a few experienced riders on bigger bikes and a handful of learners, fresh from their CBT (basic bike test), eager to gain experience in the safety of a group ride.

I remember arriving in West Bay, enjoyed more tea at the bike park, and then set off along the scenic coast road toward Abbotsbury. The road from West Bay to Weymouth is known and loved by motorcyclists far and wide. With its undulating gentle sweeping bends, sea on one side and rolling hills on the other, it’s a real pleasure. Having ridden it countless times, I knew every curve and dip by heart.

That day, the roads were dry, visibility was good, and traffic was light. The group rode at a steady pace, nurturing the beginners along. However, as we approached a slight bend near Swyre, the group became stretched out, and I found myself out of sight of the others.

In that moment something went badly wrong. I know not what, but the result was not pretty; a smashed-up bike on the roadside and a badly injured body in the hedgerow. I can vaguely remember lying there surrounded by people, then nothing for about four weeks.

Apart from bizarre hallucinations, that moment in time is a complete blank, so I rely on others to fill in the gaps. Jules and Nikki, strangers then, were first on scene, shortly followed by my fellow bikers April, Chris, and Jade who kindly share their accounts of what happened, for which I am really grateful.

Intensive care

My injuries were extensive: a ruptured pulmonary artery, flail chest with ten broken ribs, ruptured kidney, ruptured spleen, three fractured vertebrae, broken collarbone and a torn rotator cuff. Remarkably, I had no broken limbs, pelvis, or head injuries, indeed very little external to see.

I don’t know what miracles the air ambulance crew performed on the side of the road, but their experience and expertise told them to look deeper, realising I had serious internal injuries and bleeding. They made the decision to airlift me to the Major Trauma Centre at Southampton Hospital, which had the skills and facilities needed to treat my injuries. Only later did I discover the significance of this and a subsequent re-visit to the intensive care unit revealed a truly world-class facility.

I count myself lucky in many ways. Firstly, that I was riding with friends who provided initial care and summoned help. Secondly that response vehicles were close by. Thirdly that the air ambulance was available and brought the equivalent to an intensive care unit to the roadside, before flying me to one of the best hospitals in the region in a matter of minutes; I doubt I would have survived a journey by road.

At this point, the prognosis was not good. My wife was blue-lighted to Southampton and told to expect the worst. Family came from across the country to be there. But against the odds I hung on, sustained by life support machines that took over nearly all my bodily functions.

By day three, I was still critical but stable enough for surgery to fix my ribs and collapsed chest. It was a big operation and no-one knew if I would survive it, but I did. After four weeks, I was still fully sedated and on a ventilator, but off the dialysis machine. I was deemed well enough to be transferred to Yeovil Hospital, where at some point in the first week I woke up.

Road to recovery

By the time I regained some semblance of consciousness, my injuries were on the way to recovery. What I did not appreciate was the time it would take to recover from collateral damage caused by long hospitalisation and all the life-saving procedures I underwent both at the roadside and in hospital. By week 12, the team at Yeovil deemed I needed more regular ENT (ear, nose and throat) specialist support so I was transferred to Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton. It was only a brief stay of around a week and I was discharged home nearly 13 weeks after the accident.

To this day, nearly two years later, I still have partial vocal cord palsy and my digestive system, until quite recently, was in turmoil. Hospital visits continue, but thankfully they are becoming much rarer and I am grateful to be alive. I’ve been told many times that my recovery is a miracle and I should never have survived. I am eternally grateful to the doctors and nurses, care and support staff, and of course the air ambulance team, without whom it would all have ended on the roadside.

We collected over £500 in donations in advance from people who could not make it on the day but wanted to show their support. Many more donated online. We thought an achievable target was £2,000 but would have loved to raise £3,500 as we knew that this is the average cost of one mission, so to raise £4,598.31 was amazing and beyond our wildest dreams.

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View from the crew: Amy, Specialist Practitioner in Critical Care 

We met Craig on the day that happened to be our Coast to Coast Cycle Challenge. Critical Care Practitioners Mark, Josh and I were travelling in the Dorset Outreach Car to the event, when we were informed about Craig’s motorcycle collision. Usually, there is only one of us on the car, however it just so happened that on this day, there were three of us in the right place at the right time.

On our arrival, Craig was still in the hedge and even at this early point, it was clear that he had life-threatening injuries. He had multiple rib fractures, that were broken in multiple places (this is called a flail segment). His oxygen levels and blood pressure were very low and we suspected his lung had also collapsed. We also thought he was bleeding into his abdomen and losing a significant amount of blood.

We administered strong pain relief including morphine and ketamine, which enabled us to extricate him from the hedge and onto a stretcher, where we could continue our assessment and clinical care. Our management involved providing oxygen, inserting two cannulas into his veins, pain relief, sedation and blood product resuscitation prior to an anaesthetic.

The critical care team on the aircraft also attended the scene and we worked together to stabilise and resuscitate Craig. It was clear that he was bleeding internally and in total we administered all 12 units of our blood components throughout his pre-hospital journey. This is a significant amount of blood volume in the pre-hospital setting and not many services carry this amount.

Additionally, we needed to administer further drugs to support his blood pressure and perfusion. We delivered a pre-hospital emergency anaesthetic, followed by a surgical procedure called a thoracostomy to release pressure within his chest, which allowed the collapsed lung to reinflate. Despite all five of us working incredibly hard, he remained unstable and had a challenging and uncertain journey ahead.

The complexity of Craig’s injuries was even more apparent, when we received follow up that in addition to the major chest and abdominal injuries, he also had a vascular tear (dissection) injury to his pulmonary artery. This was so complex and rare to see this type of injury survive to hospital, that the major trauma centre needed to contact other specialists across the UK and Europe to make a plan.

Yet here I am, reflecting on this case and amazing outcome today. It was a long hospital stay but eventually Craig was discharged home, with I’m sure many challenges along the way, but what an incredible story of survival against all odds. This is why we do our job.

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Jules and April were first on scene…

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