Philip Jones
 |
Share this story with your favourite social / bookmarking site. |
Type of Incident: RTA
Date of Incident: March 26, 2009
Time: 3.20pm
Location: Redhill,
Red spells
danger and for keen cyclist Philip Jones the scene of his accident could not
have been more apt.
The
50-year-old quantity surveyor was enjoying a day off work and decided to ride
his mountain bike from Redhill to
But as he
circled a roundabout outside Donyngs Recreation Centre in
Mechanics
from a nearby motor garage raced to the scene and helped jack the car off
Philip who was crushed underneath the Renault Clio’s gearbox.
The Surrey
Air Ambulance landed in an adjacent school field and airlifted Philip to the
On a coma
scale of three to 15, Phillip was at the most serious level of unconsciousness
and has been left with permanent brain damage.
Wife
Sandra, 49, and children Adam, 23, Hannah, 20, and Joe, 16, rallied round him
as he spent 13 days in hospital.
He said: “I
can’t remember the days before or after the accident so in a strange way it’s
almost like talking about someone else.
“The first
thing I recall is waking up in hospital and thinking, ‘I’m alive, I’ve got two
arms and legs’.
“It was
only then that I understood the enormity of what I had been through. I had a
helmet on so that is another reason that I’m probably still around.
“I had the
entire weight of the car on me so I had reduced oxygen for about 15 minutes
until the helicopter got there.”
It took the
crew of the MD902 helicopter just eight minutes to get to Philip and a further
15 to fly him to reach hospital.
Philip went
on: “The medics had to perform a very tricky procedure so that made me
appreciate that it was not just a case of picking me off the road.
“They took
me to the Royal London and that really is the crème de la crème of facilities.
“I’m just
glad that they were there and I’m in one piece. I’m convinced I wouldn’t be
otherwise.
“My memory
and processing skills are very bad, that’s the biggest impact that the accident
has had on me.
“Out of
respect for my wife I didn’t get back on my bike until she said it was OK for
me to and I tend not to like going round roundabouts on my bike now.”
Philip was
so compelled to say thank you to the crew that saved his life that he and
fellow members of
He added:
“At the moment, I’m just trying to sort out whether I will go back to work. It
was nice to have last summer off but I hope I don’t use the helicopter again.
“I’m just
grateful they were there that day because by the look of things, I don’t know
what my chances would have been without it.”
