A man had a miracle escape after he fell from a ladder and was impaled on spiked railings which missed a major artery – by a CENTIMETRE.
David Buckle, 64, was cutting ivy from a fir tree when the ladder twisted, sending him crashing 15ft backwards onto the railings on the edge of his garden.
Amazingly he managed to use his mobile to call 999 and the last thing he remembers is hearing doctors say he needed to be lifted within seconds if he was to be saved.
Retired teacher David was in an induced coma for two-and-a-half weeks and spent five weeks in hospital with three broken ribs, three broken vertebrae, a collapsed lung, liver damage and kidney problems.
Doctors said it was a miracle he survived after one of the spikes missed a major artery by just a centimetre.
David, from Tewkesbury, Glos., is now home recovering with his partner Jackie Henry, who was at work when the accident happened.
Speaking of the moment he fell, he said: “There was no pain whatsoever as my body went into shock but I realised I had problems.
“Luckily I had a mobile phone in my pocket and I managed to ring 999.
“They asked me for the postcode and then they kept asking me for the postcode. I think it was a way of keeping me talking.
“Then the last thing I can remember hearing before I woke up in hospital was a voice saying ‘No, we’ve got to do it now’.”
Firefighters lifted him off the railings, before he was a team from Midlands Air Ambulance flew him to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, on May 27.
The former supply teacher said he was “very lucky” that all of the emergency services reacted so quickly to save his life.
“I’m just so grateful that it all came together, especially bearing in mind that the firefighters are not full-time and the air ambulance is a charity,” he said.
“And I’m grateful that I’m alive and not in a wheelchair.”
He is due to meet the air ambulance team that helped him at its base in Strensham, near Tewkesbury, on Friday, to thank them.
