In August last year Steve Hicks, from Margate, started his day like any other – he had breakfast with his family and then set out to help a friend with a job on a barn roof.
But the self-employed carpenter, who also carried out handy man work, was to have his life changed when he plunged through the roof and fell to the concrete floor below.
The dad-of-three suffered a fracture to his lower spine and broke all the ribs on his right-hand side.
He said: “My ladders and crawl boards were all safely tied in. I had run out of the repair tape for the cracks in the corrugated sheets so I went off to get some more and a sandwich as it was lunchtime.
“I came back and I remember talking to my friend’s granddaughter and then there is nothing until I woke up in King’s Colle Hospital in London.”
The 42-year-old had stepped off a crawl board and gone through the roof, landing 21 ft below on the one part of the floor that wasn’t covered with equipment.
He said: “I recall, somewhat inaccurately, laying on the hard, cold concrete floor inside the barn, I can’t say that I felt any pain at all, I seem to remember it was dark, like midnight kind of dark outside, but that’s not possible it was peak summer and it could have only been 3.30pm.
“I’d picked the only spot of the roof to fall through where there was no equipment or machinery to land on, impaling myself, and I’ve not gone headfirst on to the concrete either, both of which would most likely have resulted in my death.”
Steve was taken to hospital and from there flown to King’s College by the Kent Sussex and Surrey Air Ambulance.
He was taken to the High Dependency Unit after emergency spinal surgery to put in metal rods and screws but two days later had a reaction to the anaesthetic causing his temperature to skyrocket.
He said: “They had to put me in an induced coma and use ice baths to reduce the temperature.”
Two weeks later, Steve suffered from a severe spinal infection and had to undergo more surgery for the area to be cleaned.
He said: “My wife Chanelle was coming to visit with the kids and the duty staff nurse had this plan to help me get up and dressed so that I could borrow a wheelchair and go for a breath of fresh air outside the hospital.
“I was going to have my breakfast and then get ready, in the 15 minutes it took me to consume my bowl of cornflakes and drink my cup of tea, I lost all functions that I had below my injury level, I couldn’t move my legs like I could less than 20 minutes before.
“There was some panic amongst the staff and I was whipped off downstairs in minutes for an MRI scan.
“I went down the following morning for more emergency surgery, this time for them to open up the same wound site as before and clean out the infection.”
Three weeks later there were still problems with the wound and it was thought that Steve’s immune system was attacking the metal work around his spine.
This meant a third operation to remove the metal now that the spinal bones had started to heal.
Eventually Steve was discharged from Kings College and transferred to Kent & Canterbury neurological department to start rehabilitation and two weeks later Steve was moved to the National Spinal Injuries Centre at Stoke Mandeville Hospital.
Therapy at Stoke Mandeville
Steve has been at Stoke Mandeville since November 13 and is receiving physio, occupational therapy, hydro-therapy and other rehab work as well as sessions teaching skills on how to cope with day to day life following spinal injury.
His right leg is paralysed and it is not yet known whether movement will return.
He said: “I’m slowly coming to terms with the fact the spinal cord damage I have done has partially paralysed my right leg.
“I’ve got months more rehabilitation in front of me here and at home and I may or may not ever gain enough function of my leg again to enable me to walk short distances.
“My focuses now are my rehabilitation plan to get home and what needs to be done at home so that my environment is safe and practical.
“The patient {run} education classes here offer you skills and information you need to carry on with life. They have lived it so they know how it works and that it is not the end of the world, you can come out the other side, although obviously different.”
Going home and a fundraiser
Steve is hoping to go home on March 20 but has to have adaptations to his home. Most of these will be paid for through a Disabled Facilities Grant but there are other items the family will need to pay for, such as a profiling bed – designed to support those with mobility issues.
Steve said: “I’m hoping to raise enough money for it to be a double bed, for me and the wife it will be the first time in more than six months we have been able to spend the night together.”
Initially Steve’s front room will be turned into a micro environment but it is hoped to get a stairlift installed alongside other practical items such as grab rails.
Steve is fundraising to help buy the bed and extra items, with a portion of any money raise going to spinal injury charity Aspire which provides support for those injured and their families as well as offering services at Stoke Mandeville.
He said the thing he is most looking forward to is being with his wife Chanelle and his children (pictured above) Crystal, 19 and currently at university, Saffron, 15, and William, 12, adding: “I’ve not been able to lay on the bed with my wife and just have a hug in nearly six months.
“I’m on the autistic spectrum so what I like to do most is spend time with my family.”
Chanelle said it has been “a rollercoaster of emotions” but she will be glad to have Steve home.
She added: “I visit as much as I can but still miss him, he’s literally the other half of me.”
Find Steve’s fundraising page by clicking here
Aspire
Every two hours someone in the UK is paralysed by a spinal cord injury. It can happen to anyone at any time and no one is prepared for how it will change their life. Aspire is a national charity that provides practical help, supporting spinal cord injured people from injury to independence.
