Redcar Coastguard volunteer shares story of being left paralysed after horrific motorbike crash

Despite losing all sensation in his legs, Sam Weston, from Guisborough, still feels he was 'lucky' to escape with his life after the collision with a van on Yearby Bank as he was returning from a shift at the Coastguard station in Redcar.

He broke his back, neck and pelvis in the crash in July 2019, and spent six months in James Cook University Hospital.

Mr Watson has hazy, broken memories of the crash - but can recall the moment just before the impact.

He said: “I was thinking of something along the lines of 'this isn’t going well' only worded differently.mI knew as soon I woke up in intensive care eight days later that I was paralysed.

“I didn’t know it was permanent at that point - all the signs pointed to it but we were still quite hopeful.”

The police believed Sam managed to slow down to 20mph before the impact.

“I was very lucky because the lady behind me in her car was an ex-critical care nurse who immediately jumped out to help.

“She didn’t listen to me when I was telling her to take my helmet off - luckily she didn’t because it would have been so much worse.”

Familiar faces from Redcar fire station were also heading back from Guisborough at the time of his collision and came across the accident scene.

“They were 30 seconds away - I knew them all because the Coastguard is based in the same room.”

“There was somebody looking out for me that day. I just got incredibly lucky. I shouldn’t be here by all accounts - I had a cardiac arrest a few days later in ITU.

“It’s one of those things which happens - it could happen to anyone. You never think it’ll happen to you but when it does, you have options.

“You can let it beat you and let it ruin your life, or you can learn to live with your new life, accept what you’ve got and be grateful for what you have.”

Mr Weston still has the use of his arms and gets about in a wheelchair.

He and his fiancée Sarah, told South Tees NHS Trust leaders about his seven month stay in hospital and how staff had, on the whole, helped his recovery.

“I’ve a little girl at home who’s been a huge driving force to carry on with life as best I can and I’m back in work now,” said Mr Watson.

Before the accident, he worked at James Cook on the neurosurgery ward as an apprentice before working as an ambulance technician for the British Red Cross contracted to the North East Ambulance Service.

He’s also had a spell working in the Co-op and at Saltburn cliff lift.

He told the board that seeing the hospital from the other side was an 'eye-opener' - hailing staff for their incredible efforts.

“I’ve had so many positive experiences and couldn’t say a single bad word about any of the rehab team, the physios and OTs (occupational therapists) - anybody who looked after me.

“There are very few few people who put a bit of a negative spin on my stay and experience but, thankfully, I have got better.

“I’m in the bracket of I’m never going to recover - there’s always a chance but it’s not going to happen.

“This is my life now and to get me to this point I’ve had a lot of help.

“I’ll be eternally grateful for that as I wouldn’t be able to come here today if it wasn’t for the work people in the hospital had done.”

Mr Watson spent eight days in a medically induced coma after his accident before eventually moving onto a spinal injuries unit and onto a ward for rehab.

He was discharged in February and has been working with his family to get his life back together since.

Asked what the hospital could do better, he told the board how having bins which weren’t pedal operated could help those in wheelchairs.

And staff being more aware of long-term patients was also flagged up.

“Staff can see you as part of the furniture when you’ve been there as long as four or five months. You start to become less of a patient and more of a job. That’s the biggest thing that I’ve found extremely difficult to deal with.

“By the end of my stay I found that if I was to ask for something I would wait - but someone who’d been there five minutes would have it straight away.

“That isn’t necessarily anyone’s conscious choice, or a conscious, biased decision they are making. It’s just one of those things which seems to happen.

“Having a bigger awareness of that - especially for staff who work on long-stay wards - would make a really positive difference.”

But he also heaped praise on the hospital’s award-winning therapeutic care team and it’s band of volunteers.

“Having people on hand who’ve had similar experiences to yourself who want to be there to help you through as unpaid staff is an incredible thing, and a huge testament to how brilliant this place really is.”

,r Watson asked Sarah to marry him last Christmas during his stay in hospital and they have a four-year-old daughter, Amelia Grace.

He said he was still in touch with his former Coastguard colleagues who’d 'looked after him big-style' since his accident.

He is also volunteering himself with the hosptial’s therapeutic care team.

“I genuinely can say I wouldn’t be alive today if I didn’t have the people around me that I do. When you’ve been to hospital it’s like a driving test. They get you to the point where you can live on your own and survive.

“When you go out on your own you learn how to drive and when you come out of hospital, you learn how to live. When I was in hospital, Sarah got our new house set up, she decorated, made adjustments and got everything sorted for me.

“She’s been absolutely incredible. My mam and stepdad have been great - they’ve built a gym for me in their garage to help build my strength back up.

“My dad has looked after us and taken us out for meals when we’ve been allowed - the general support has been fantastic.”