Almost two years after a crash at St Peters Road left Manston motorbike enthusiast Jordan Collins with a horrific catalogue of injuries, he is organising a family fun event to raise funds for the air ambulance and thank its crew for saving his life.
The former Pilgrims Hospice kitchen assistant, aged 24 at the time of the collision between his Yamaha bike and a car, was airlifted to Kings College hospital in London suffering fractures to his right shoulder, spine, ribs, skull, face and left leg.
He had punctured both lungs, lacerated his liver and kidneys, had temporary nerve damage to his right eye and sustained brain damage.
The former Marlowe student suffered cardiac arrests and had 10 units of blood transfused by the air ambulance team. Medics did not think he would survive.
Mum Shayla Raine said: “The police came and picked me up and they said they were sorry if they did not get me there in time. They pretty much told me he wasn’t going to make it; it was down to his will to survive.
“The air ambulance saved his life, without them he wouldn’t be here.”
Jordan was in a coma for four weeks and in and out of intensive care with multiple infections and sepsis.
In total, he spent 13 months in hospital. He had been discharged to return home during that time but became so ill he ended up back in intensive care.
Shayla said: “He was in Kings from July 27 until October and then discharged because they thought he wasn’t eating because he wasn’t at home.
“He was home for a week and vomited all week, so I took him back to hospital and they gave him IV for three days.
“They sent him home and he had severe vomiting again and ended up in intensive care at Margate.
“They found his calcium level was 4.2, a level that was likely he’d have a heart attack at any moment.”
Jordan went back into intensive care and then was transferred to a private hospital in London where it was discovered his pituitary gland was damaged so he no longer produced the natural hormones or steroids that a body needs.
Shayla, who is a nurse, said: “It was why he wasn’t getting better and he was not eating. He went down from 17 stone to about nine stone.
“Once they found the damage to the pituitary gland, in about a week he stood up for the first time since the crash, he started eating and then he began intensive therapy to get him walking again.”
Sadly, because Jordan had been in and out of intensive care and too ill for surgery for an extended period, he had developed drop foot and rebuilding his leg would have taken multiple operations. Last June his lower left leg, below the knee, had to be amputated.
Shayla said: “He couldn’t have coped with the surgeries and with his brain damage he became very much dependent on me.”
Jordan underwent a series of therapies and treatments at the Cleveland hospital and was eventually discharged in August last year.
While at the private hospital he had a prosthetic limb fitted and was walking for short spells of time but in January this year he had a fall and broke the femur in his left leg, above the amputation.
This meant Jordan couldn’t wear the prosthetic and therapy had to be halted. He has now had an individualised limb built by Dorset Orthopaedics in Egham with a leg corset and brace so weight goes on his hip rather than the knee.
Shayla said: “Everything has had to be done privately because these services just aren’t available on the NHS.”
Despite still being in recovery, the 26-year-old is determined to give back and is hoping his charity event in July will be a success.
Shayla said: “He wants to give back to the air ambulance which saved his life and organising this is also good stimulation.
“Before he was going to work and riding his motorbike every day – his life was all about motorbikes- but he doesn’t have that now, it is like a loss of his identity.
“He also loved to cook but he is not able to go in the kitchen because of his mobility restrictions at the moment.
“Jordan would give you the shirt off his back, he is too kind for his own good. He has always loved being with me or his dad and just loves family. He got very focused on work after leaving college and did all sorts, building work, kitchen work at the hospice and deliveries for British Heart Foundation.
“He’s on the autistic spectrum, the lower end, but as he got older he seemed to grow out of it. Now, since the accident, it is ten-fold.
“(Because of the pituitary damage) he is on about 25 different medications a day to replace natural hormone functions (such as metabolism, growth, and stress response).
“This event will raise awareness of the air ambulance and help keep Jordan occupied and give him something to look forward to.
“The air ambulance was so good to us, they were phoning me to check on Jordan because they don’t usually get to hear the outcomes and I could call them any time if I needed to talk.”
The charity event will be held at Westwood Manor between noon and 4pm on July 26 – two years on from the crash.
It will feature stalls, fete games, a production company teaching and then performing K Pop, a raffle with numerous prizes including a helicopter flight ad a £100 voucher and more.
Shayla said: “It has grown but we did not want to go too big for our first event. If it goes well Jordan wants to do yearly events for different charities, such as brain injury and lower limb charities.
“We’ve also made a logo for ‘Jordan’s trauma to triumph’ and hope to get that name out there.”
As well as arranging the charity day, Jordan will be reuniting on July 5 with the doctor and Kent Surrey Sussex air ambulance pilot who helped to save his life.
Keep up with Jordan’s progress and find the event page on Jordan’s Trauma to Triumph by clicking here
The Air Ambulance Charity Kent Surrey Sussex (KSS), is a team of skilled, sector-leading experts responding to over 3,100 incidents annually across Kent, Surrey, and Sussex.
The helicopters are flying emergency rooms with specialised doctors, paramedics and treatment to those who need it most.
But the service does not receive day-to-day government funding and operates as an independent charity, relying on public donations for approximately 91% of its total income to cover its daily life-saving missions.
Find out about the charity at: https://aakss.org.uk/
