18 Feb 2025
In October 2023, eight pedestrians were taken to hospital after a Range Rover came off the road, crashing into a bus stop where they were standing. One of those pedestrians was David.
With multiple casualties, various emergency services were dispatched, including eight London Ambulance Service (LAS) crews, three incident response officers, two advanced paramedics, two emergency planning officers, a command support team and members of LAS’s hazardous area response team (HART). London’s Air Ambulance’s advanced trauma team was also dispatched in a rapid response car, as was another neighbouring county’s air ambulance team.
On arrival, working together with the other responders, our team very quickly assessed each of the patients to determine which of them was the most seriously injured and therefore required their attention. David was one of the sickest.
He was very pale, barely able to respond and his breathing was very laboured. His blood pressure was not recordable and his heart rate was extremely fast.
The team suspected that David’s concerning injuries were collapsed lungs and a life-threatening pelvic injury. They gave David some strong painkillers and together with the LAS crews, concurrently gave him a blood transfusion, applied a pelvic binder to help stabilise his pelvis and administered a general anaesthetic to take over his breathing by connecting him to a ventilator. They performed two surgical incisions on either side of his chest to treat his collapsed lungs and then accompanied him to the nearest major trauma centre.
David had sustained multiple broken ribs and part of his abdomen had been forced into his diaphragm due to the impact. He was taken into emergency surgery to address this. It wasn’t until more than 12 hours later that David’s mum, Gillian, learned of the accident.
“David’s university called me to tell me that he was in hospital. I didn’t initially imagine that it could be anything serious, but when I asked him if David was okay, he told me David was in a critical condition. I was completely stunned.”
Gillian was then contacted by the hospital and directed to where David was, again with the emphasis that his injuries were critical and there was no guarantee he would survive.
“While my sister drove me to the hospital, all I could think was ‘Don’t die before I get there. Just hold on.’”
On arrival, Gillian found David out of surgery, with a ventilator breathing for him.
“I sat beside him and held his hand. He was very cold to the touch, pale and hooked up to a lot of equipment. It was a lot to take in.”
As suspected, David’s pelvis had been severely fractured and required further surgery, which occurred the following day.
“I breathed a sigh of relief that day, the operation had gone well. Although he was still intubated, he had colour in his cheeks and his hands were warm.
“That was only day two though, day two of a massively long journey.”
David remained in a coma for 11 days, during which he underwent another surgery on his pelvis and had various chest infections. On the first attempt at removing his breathing tube, David did not wake up as expected and had to be reintubated.
The next day, Gillian received a call from one of the hospital’s nurses: ‘David has asked me to call you – he wants to know when you’re coming to visit.’
“That was amazing! He was suddenly awake and with us and he knew where he was. He still had the breathing tube, but he could write little notes and we could communicate. That was a huge relief. But yet again, just the beginning of this journey.”
From the intensive care unit, David went to the major trauma ward. Then in mid-December he was transferred to Gillian’s local hospital in Oxford. On 30 January 2024, David came home to stay with Gillian.
“That was very scary. It was an emotional moment, leaving the hospital, but the transition from him being in hospital to coming home under my care felt like a huge responsibility. It was a big leap into the unknown and I wasn’t actually sure how I was going to be able to cope.”
David was still suffering from a lot of nerve pain due to his fractured and asymmetric pelvis, so his mobility was significantly restricted. After reviewing his progress and scans, in May 2024 the surgeons decided there were no more pelvic surgeries available due to scar tissue and risk of further nerve damage.
“Although that was a disappointment, we found the finality to be a relief. Now we knew the way forward was intense therapy – David needed to work with what he had.”
Therefore, at the beginning of June, David began weekly boarding at a rehabilitation facility.
David underwent intense occupational therapy, hydrotherapy, physiotherapy, nerve stimulation, psychotherapy and more – an exhaustive timetable. “He would come home at the weekends very tired, he wasn’t left mentally with much room for anything else.”
However, David’s determination has resulted in an incredible recovery, and he is still striving to do more.
“He started rehabilitation mainly confined to a wheelchair and able to use crutches very slowly,” said Gillian. “In November 2024, he left rehab, walking confidently with the use of only one hiking pole.
“He has just gone through surgery on his urethra, as that had been severed in the incident. Once he’s recovered from that, David is going to focus on getting fit.
“The long-term plan is to use 2025 to exercise, do some part-time work and get to a state both physically and mentally where he is able to return to university in September and continue his architecture studies. That will be a very emotional day!”
Reflecting on the over-a-year-long journey that Gillian and her son have endured, she said:
“Initially you’re not aware of the extent of the impact it’s going to have on your life. I don’t think it sunk in how bad it was, how long this journey was going to be, for a very long time.
“When you’re in it, you just have to take every day as it comes. I was so grateful he was alive, I was doing anything I could to help him feel a bit better. But of course, there were some really tough times, we had to go through a grieving process and there were plenty of tears.
“When David gets a bit low, I ask him what he would say to a friend if this had happened to them instead. His answer is always ‘I would tell them not to be so hard on yourself, you’re doing really well and it’s going to be okay. It’s okay to feel how you’re feeling.’ I think what we’ve both learnt through this is to be kind to yourself.”
With one of the services attending to David being a charity, Gillian wanted to give something back. With a friend, she completed a triathlon in June 2024 and raised over £5,700 for London’s Air Ambulance Charity.
“I had heard of the air ambulance service before, but I hadn’t realised it was a charity. That’s crazy to me considering it’s such an essential service.
“I am unbelievably grateful that they were there on scene with David and that they arrived so quickly. I hope the money we raised will help them be there for someone else’s child.”
We’re really grateful to Gillian for sharing her mother’s perspective of trauma and hope anyone at the beginning of their recovery journey can take inspiration from David – “you’re going to get through it, take every day as it comes. There will be bad days and good days but don’t give up and don’t lose hope.”
In 2024, we also shared a mother’s experience of a traumatic brain injury, if you’re interested you can read it here.