A driver who woke up from ten days in a coma after a horror crash has revealed how he met the love of his life in hospital.
Civil engineer Richard Jones, 34, from Tenby, Pembrokeshire, was lucky to be alive after having his right leg amputated from his crash injuries in February 2020.
He met nurse Michaela Jayne, 31, in a happy twist of fate while she was selling cakes for charity at the hospital.
The couple are now excited to celebrate their first Christmas with their eight-month-old son Dougie.
It is a happy ending for Richard, who could easily have been killed in the crash; a passer-by managed to stem the bleeding after he suffered a broken hip, pelvis, a ruptured spleen and kidney and liver failure.
Civil engineer Richard Jones (pictured with his partner Michaela and son Dougie), 34, from Tenby, Pembrokeshire, was lucky to be alive after having his right leg amputated from his crash injuries in February 2020
He met nurse Michaela Jayne (pictured with their son), 31, in a happy twist of fate while she was selling cakes for charity at the hospital
Richard was airlifted to Morriston Hospital in Swansea, South Wales, where he stayed for up to two months – including ten days in a coma.
Richard said: ‘Michaela was on on a day off with two other nurses – they were selling cakes for the Dementia UK charity. It pretty much went on from there really.
‘I met her in hospital but I didn’t speak to her for quite a few weeks afterwards. When I got home I spoke to my sister about it and I just text her and we got chatting.’
He continued: ‘Because I was an amputee – and being in the situation I was in at the time – I was worried about meeting someone who would accept me for the way I am. But she’s been incredible.’
Richard suffered horrific injuries in the crash when driving a truck near Johnstown, Carmarthenshire, in February 2020, while working for a firm in the nearby MoD base.
Richard was airlifted to Morriston Hospital in Swansea, South Wales, where he stayed for up to two months – including ten days in a coma
Richard is now backing the Wales Air Ambulance Charity’s Christmas Miracle campaign after reuniting with medics who saved him
He said: ‘I don’t have a clue how the accident happened. What police have told me is that I’d taken the slip road and hit the barrier and the barrier had sent me up into a road sign.
‘On my left side I shattered my left hip, I broke part of my pelvis, my femur had come out of both sides of my leg, I snapped by posterior cruciate ligament in my knee, and I had multiple fractures down the lower part of the left leg.
‘Then on top of all of that I had kidney and liver failure, a ruptured spleen, brain damage, and just cuts everywhere.’
Richard says an ex-Army medic managed to stem the bleeding with two tourniquets around his lower limbs at the scene.
Dr Bob Tipping and critical care practitioner Marc Allen arrived in an air ambulance to give Richard six units of blood at the roadside.
Richard added: ‘For me my Christmas miracle is my life. My feelings towards Christmas have certainly changed since the accident. ‘As much as you try not to you do find yourself wondering: ‘What if?.’ It will be an extra special occasion for me and my family this year and celebrating my son Dougie’s (pictured) first Christmas.’
Richard has now had to learn to walk with a prosthetic limb – and now gives peer support to others with limb amputations.
He said: ‘It’s been been a hard journey. I’m still under review with the specialists two and a half years later.
‘I’m only now starting to walk with one stick around the house unaided. My long-term plan is to walk unaided everywhere but at the moment it’s limited to the house and garden.’
He added: ‘If I hadn’t had the accident we probably would never have met. I don’t take anything for granted like I used to.’
Richard is now backing the Wales Air Ambulance Charity’s Christmas Miracle campaign after reuniting with medics who saved him.
He added: ‘For me my Christmas miracle is my life. My feelings towards Christmas have certainly changed since the accident.
‘As much as you try not to you do find yourself wondering: ‘What if?.’ It will be an extra special occasion for me and my family this year and celebrating my son Dougie’s first Christmas.’
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