A man escaped death TWICE in one day when he survived a high-speed crash as he went to tell his sister he was in remission from an aggressive form of cancer.
Michael Forsdyke, 30, had just been told he was in remission from testicular cancer which had spread to his lungs.
He was so relieved he set off on his motorbike to break the good news in person to his sister.
But on the way he was involved in an accident with a car and suffered a broken neck, back, collarbone, six broken ribs and a shattered pelvis.
He was rescued from the A20 in Ashford, Kent by air ambulance and given an emergency blood transfusion at the scene.
He then underwent pioneering treatment called Resuscitative Endovascular Balloon Occlusion of the Aorta (REBOA) at the Royal London Hospital.
Michael is believed to be the first trauma patient in the UK to have the treatment which involves a balloon being inflated inside major blood vessels to stop internal blood loss.
He said: “I’d received a letter from my oncologist that day saying the tumours had shrunk and I was in remission after three months of chemotherapy.
“I wanted to let my sister know so I thought I would give her the news in person. It was a nice sunny afternoon so I popped on my leathers and hopped on the bike.
“I can’t remember anything about the accident and my next memory was waking up on the ward about a month afterwards.”
Michael, a marketing account manager from Maidstone, Kent, spent three months in hospital.
He then needed another three months of recovery at home before he finally returned to work almost a year later.
Last week he was reunited with the air ambulance medics who gave him the emergency blood transfusions in July 2013.
He said: “All things considered, I shouldn’t have survived but the fact that I did is certainly thanks to the air ambulance and the team at the Royal London.
“If they hadn’t got to me in such a timely fashion and stabilized me by giving me the units of blood I would be dead.
“It’s been great to meet them and say thank you.
“Although I don’t know them I’ve been told about what they did and myself, my family and friends owe them a great deal of gratitude.”
Dr Steph Tilston said: “I’ve never seen anyone who looked so sick as he did, and looking so well now. He has made an amazing recovery.”
Kent, Surrey & Sussex Air Ambulance started carrying blood in February 2013 and has since carried out more than 200 transfusions.
Dr Magnus Nelson said: “It makes a massive difference having the ability to give blood transfusions.
“It buys time and in Michael’s case it bridged the gap and allowed us to get him to hospital alive.”
“It’s amazing to see Michael looking so well and it’s obviously been a fairly long journey for him to get back to health.”
Michael’s case was featured in BBC2 medical science documentary An Hour To Save Your Life.
