A man who went for a cigarette on a night out, woke up paralysed in a ditch hours later.
Dan Woodall, 26, a former electrician, suffered a drunken blackout 18 months ago and now cannot walk or work, and depends on a carer to help him carry out everyday tasks.
Despite initially being given just a 0.5 per cent chance of ever walking again, Mr Woodall is making remarkable progress after embarking on a pioneering treatment that applies electrical stimulation to the legs, known as Neurokinex, which was backed by the late American actor and quadriplegic Christopher Reeve. The star became a household name after playing Superman in the 1980s.
Mr Woodall, from Rainham, Kent, said: ‘The goal is to walk again.
‘In June, an MRI scan showed that my spinal cord is going round the injury.
‘The surgeon said he had never seen this before and we don’t know yet what it will mean for me in the future. But if anyone can make it happen, Neurokinex can.’
Dan Woodall went for a cigarette on a night out and woke up paralysed in a ditch hours later
‘I thought it was the end’
Mr Woodall visited the nightclub Strawberry Moons in Maidstone, Kent, in June 2016, but woke up around 5:30am in a ditch near a Sainsbury’s a couple of hundred yards away.
When he woke up Mr Woodall said his legs ‘felt dead and floppy’, and he was in pain.
He managed to get the attention of a man walking home from a night shift and was rushed to hospital, where he was told he had just a 0.5 per cent chance of ever walking again.
He said: ‘No one actually knows what happened and I can’t remember anything.
‘I went out for a couple of beers, I was only drinking Desperados – I haven’t touched them since – and I had a drunken blackout.
‘I’ll never get my memory of exactly what happened back, but I remember going into the last nightclub and ordering a beer and that’s it.
‘I bought a Subway which I don’t remember, I only know that from checking my bank statement.
‘The police couldn’t see me on any of the CCTV but the next thing I remember is waking up in a ditch.
He said: ‘I woke up and didn’t know where I was, but I was in a bush and I was trying to stand up but I couldn’t move; I couldn’t even sit up.
‘That’s when I knew that was it and I thought it was the end, but luckily someone walked past and heard me shouting for help, and they came down and rang the ambulance.’
Mr Woodall was given a 0.5 per cent of ever walking again but is making remarkable progress
‘The goal is to walk again’
Mr Woodall has started a treatment, known as Neurokinex, that has made him able to wriggle his toes and regain movement in his legs.
He said: ‘The treatment is having an effect but it’s a lot of hard work.
‘I have electrical stimulation for an hour a week, where they put volts in between my muscles to contract them.
‘I have to do a lot of physio and tell myself I can do it, and it’s working wonders at the moment.
‘They’d never say I’ll walk again – they can’t say that because they don’t want to give me false hope – but in the amount of time I’ve been doing it, they’ve been surprised at what I’ve achieved.’
Mr Woodall has managed to achieve results in less than a year, despite most studies showing Neurokinex takes around two years to have an effect.
He said: ‘My short-term goal is to be able to stand up with aids and then build on this to stand without them.
‘Long term, of course, the goal is to walk again.
‘Nobody knows how far I can get in restoring strength, sensation or movement.’
‘Its pulled everyone closer together’
After he was found in the ditch, Mr Woodall spent five weeks at St George’s Hospital in Tooting, south London, where his condition deteriorated.
He suffered septicaemia, E-coli and spinal fluid to the brain, as well as losing five stone in weight, including muscle in his legs.
Mr Woodall was then transferred to Stanmore Orthopaedic Centre, where he was told about Neurokinex.
He now attends a clinic near Gatwick twice a week, and relies on his girlfriend Kayleigh Hutchinson and friend Danny Lowman to help with his recovery.
Mr Woodall said: ‘In June, an MRI scan showed that my spinal cord is going round the injury.
‘The surgeon said he had never seen this before and we don’t know yet what it will mean for me in the future. But if anyone can make it happen, Neurokinex can.’
His family and friends, including his mother Lorraine Sweeney, who has helped to raise money for the £70 sessions, have been very supportive.
Mr Woodall said: ‘My mate Danny is my carer, and he comes around every day for a couple of hours to help me out – he’s a massive help.
‘I think its really pulled everyone closer together as a family.’