Biker who ‘died’ three times vows to get back on the road

Surgeons said Leeds businessman Gary Brennan had more injuries than they had ever seen in a living person.

Now after 38 operations to mend his body, he is in a wheelchair but he aims to walk again – and get back in the saddle of a motorcycle.

The 52-year-old grandfather, from Kirkhills, Thorner, says he owes his life to the Yorkshire Air Ambulance, paramedics and the dedicated surgeons and nurses who rebuilt his shattered frame. Every few hours for days as life-saving procedures were undertaken, consultants prepared Gary’s family for the prospect he might die.

On February 28 last year Mr Brennan pulled away from a Leeds bikers’ meeting point. He was in the saddle of his powerful 1,100cc Ducati Hypermotard – unaware that in moments his life was to come close to ending and was about to change forever.

His bike and a car were in collision on the B1222 shortly after he left the Squires motorcyclist milk bar at Newthorpe near Sherburn in Elmet that Sunday.

The crash left Gary with more severe body trauma injuries than anyone has ever survived after being brought into Leeds Infirmary.

He was “confirmed” to be dead at the crash scene, but was resuscitated and flown in minutes, during the so-called first “Golden” survival hour, to the Infirmary’s helipad.

In the Trauma Room it was discovered that Gary had the most amazing catalogue of injuries that seemed must certainly result in death.

These included bleeding on his brain, a spine fractured in three places, a collapsed lung, two broken shoulder blades, numerous fractured ribs and a pelvis broken in five places.

He also suffered a crushed kidney, torn liver, a dislocated hip, his left thigh bone snapped in two and his knees broken in 16 places, and a badly bruised heart.

His heart stopped beating twice more and each time he was brought back from the dead.

His wife Shirley had been a pillion passenger with Gary that day and had been dropped off before he went out for another short ride. She was with guests when she realised Gary was late and feared something was wrong.

“I left three messages on his mobile and I knew that either he had had an accident or he was helping someone who had,” said Shirley.

Then the policeman knocked at the door.

“At first he asked: ‘Can you get a lift to the LGI’ but then something came over his radio and the officer said: ‘You need to come with us now’,” recalled Shirley.

“The police car was going down Easterly Road on the wrong side to get us there in time. I thought Gary would be dead when we got there,” said Shirley.

Their daughter Joanne, 28, was in Tenerife and had no prospect of getting back in time before her father died. The handset of a phone with Joanne on the other end was put to Gary’s ear in the hope he could hear a last farewell from his eldest child.

Gary was put into a drug-induced coma to keep him still to give his body a chance to stabilise and for life-saving surgery. He was in that coma on a ventilator for six weeks. His kidney was not working and had had to have stents inserted in his veins to stop blood clots.

The man leading the fight for Gary’s life was orthopaedic expert Prof Peter Giannoudis. But eventually, as dozens of operations were carried out, Gary was brought back from the brink of death and was moved to a High Dependency Ward where he remained for six weeks, before being switched to Trauma Ward 49.

Today he is in a wheelchair, but is able to get up on crutches to move around the ground floor lounge where a bed is temporarily located.

His left leg is fine, but more work is needed on his right leg which is in a hinged brace to hold it straight until more surgery can be done to stabilise it in his now much looser knee socket and restore his balance. Then he plans to throw away the wheelchair and the crutches.

He said: “It’s hard going some days. But I am so incredibly lucky. Without the wonderful air ambulance crew, Kate and Daz who got me alive to hospital and Prof ‘G’ and the other amazing doctors and nurses I would have been long gone.”

He has already settled on a sophisticated Can Am Spyder trike he plans to buy, to get him by until he can get back on board a new two-wheeled Ducati.