Farmer thanks medics who saved his life

Arthur Blamey is the picture of a healthy and fit farmer enjoying the summer. The only clue to what he has gone through is a certain slowness of movement.

Only four months ago Arthur, 70, was struck by a falling horse ramp on his farm, Collytown near Bere Alston.

He sustained 22 fractures, broken ribs, cracked vertebrae, a shattered pelvis and a punctured lung.

He needed ten screws – one ten inches long – extending from back to front and side to side and at various angles to hold his pelvis together.

Yet he has amazed doctors, who call him the bionic man, with his swift recovery.

That traumatic day, April 24, began when the hydraulic lift on the horse box Arthur had just mended dropped on his chest, sliding down his body and trapping him by his feet.

His wife Alyson heard him call out and rushed to his aid in the farmyard. She called 999 and the Cornwall Air Ambulance, two fire engines, land ambulances, paramedics and police attended.

Alyson, who helps their daughter Chamaine run a mini-Shetland pony stud at the farm, said: “I’m used to responding to animal emergencies and went into automatic response mode. I had to stop Arthur moving while he was trapped. There were so many emergency service crews, they took up the whole yard.

“Arthur needed so many medical staff looking after him that he was taken by land ambulance instead of a small helicopter and there was no room for me, so I was taken to Derriford by police car. He’s so lucky to have such amazing care. We can’t thank everyone enough.”

Arthur was told not to expect to walk until at least Christmas, but amazingly he is now back driving around the farm.

He said: “I don’t remember much about the accident itself and the aftermath. But I do know that the emergency services were fantastic and so were the Derriford Hospital staff who looked after me in A&E and in the intensive care unit. I’d like to thank them all and the staff at Tavistock Hospital where I was for a few weeks for recovery and rehab.”

He added: “The surgeon was a specialist in pelvis surgery and he said that if I had another accident, there was not enough intact bone on which to operate and fit any more metal.

“I’m amazed at how clever he was. I’m handy enough in my workshop and could do something similar to what he’s done on my workbench – but to do it all inside a living person is just beyond belief. I’m so grateful to him. I don’t know what would’ve happened to me otherwise. I certainly wouldn’t be walking around now.”

Arthur’s son-in-law Pete Daniel organised a tractor run on behalf of the Devonshire Royal Freemasons (of which Arthur is a member) in mid-August on the Bere Peninsula to raise funds for the Cornwall and Devon Air Ambulance services in thanks for Arthur’s care. More than 40 tractors came from throughout the region to take part.