In November 2022 I was working on my smallholding in West Sussex, using a tractor to move a piece of equipment called a topper, which is used for cutting grass.
It’s powered from the tractor engine via a rotating shaft called a Power Take Off or PTO.
I turned the tractor off and disengaged the PTO so there was no power going from the tractor into it. But because it is so highly geared, the shaft was still turning round.
As I leaned over it, my glove became caught in the rotating shaft, causing a devastating injury that almost severed my arm. I knew immediately that the situation was extremely serious, but strangely I felt very little pain at first.
I was at the bottom of the field, as far away from the house as I could be. My wife Juliet was indoors doing the ironing. She came running across the muddy field with no shoes on.
She looked at me, ripped her apron string off and put a tourniquet around my bicep to stop the blood. She then dialled 999 and described what had happened.
I started getting really sleepy. I told Juliet that I just wanted to close my eyes and go to sleep. She said: “Don’t you dare! Look at me; breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth, in through your nose, out through your mouth. So, I focussed on her and did exactly what she said. I’m a compliant husband.
Then the cavalry arrived, in the form of the crew from Air Ambulance Charity Kent Surrey Sussex. I now know they were Rob, Jon and Fraser, although I couldn’t see Fraser as he knelt down behind me.
I remember Fraser telling me their priority was to save my life, but I’d had a life-changing accident, and they might have to remove what was left of my arm. He asked if I was okay with that, and I told him just to do whatever they had to do.
He told me he was going to give me some ketamine and that I wouldn’t remember a thing. He’s right, I have no further recollection of being in the field, or how they freed me from the tractor.
Dr Rob Greenhalgh from KSS explains what happened next:
“We were dispatched by Rapid Response Vehicle as our helicopters were offline because of the weather. The only information we had was that we were going to a 52-year-old man whose arm was trapped in farm machinery and had been almost severed. We knew it was a serious incident.
“When we arrived, we found colleagues from South East Coast Ambulance Service and the fire service trying to work out how to save Paul’s arm, which was trapped in the machinery and freeing him required careful coordination between the emergency services.
“Someone from the fire service knew how to reverse the mechanism and unwind the arm. We could see Paul had suffered a very serious injury. We assessed him, came up with a plan and did what we had to do.
“This was a classic example of different teams coming together to help the patient: the fire service, the technical rescue team, the ambulance service and KSS. It was a great example of inter-agency working.
“We sedated him and then reversed the prop shaft to get his arm out. We packaged him up and put his arm into alignment so that it looked like an arm. We then got some vascular access so that we could give him some further painkillers and some antibiotics to stop it all getting infected. Then we accompanied him to hospital in the land ambulance.
“He’s made a remarkable recovery, and I think we can partly attribute that to the care that he received from KSS at the scene which helped give his arm the best possible chance of recovery.”
I was in intensive care for a few days, and left hospital 12 days after I was admitted. One of the nice things I remember is that Dr Rob Greenhalgh came to visit me in intensive care after dropping off another patient at the hospital. That was quite emotional, but it was so nice to see him and thank him. After being released from hospital we went to each of the emergency services involved to say thank you, including KSS.
Before my accident I knew about air ambulances but, like most of the population, I thought they were funded through the NHS.
I’m keen to raise awareness that KSS is not part of the NHS, that it’s a charity that relies on public support and, as I can testify, any of us might need it at any time. I live in a small village in West Sussex, and I think KSS have landed there at least five times over the last few years.
Three and a half years later I am alive and I have an arm. I’ve now had my final surgery on the arm. If it wasn’t for Rob, Fraser and Jon from KSS and the other emergency services who came to our house that day, Jules wouldn’t have a husband, Izzy and Oliver wouldn’t have a dad. I’m so grateful to everyone who helped that day.
Learn more about our other Trustees on our Trustees page.
