Hospital fundraiser reunited with medics who helped save his life
Hospital fundraiser reunited with medics who helped save his life
26 May 2017
Storm Warner was pulled from his burning car and rushed to St Mary’s Hospital after colliding with a recovery truck on the M1 in June last year.
The 22-year-old was then transferred to Hammersmith Hospital where he underwent emergency surgery on his liver and spent a month in a coma.
It was a miraculous escape for Storm, who also suffered a punctured lung, a fractured hip, a broken ankle and several broken ribs in the crash. Doctors told him he was lucky to be alive.
Less than a year after the crash, Storm completed a sponsored solo skydive to say thank you to staff at St Mary’s and Hammersmith who provided outstanding care during his recovery.
Now he has been reunited with the ambulance team who were first on the scene and treated him just a few metres from the burning vehicle.
Storm met paramedics from the East of England Ambulance Service at their station in Hemel Hempstead.
He said: “I asked everyone, what gift do you bring? How do you thank someone for saving your life? You can’t.”Storm remembers nothing of the crash, which happened in the early hours of the morning as he drove back home to Dunstable after visiting friends in North London.
Despite warnings from doctors that he would be in a wheelchair for several months, Storm was walking with the aid of crutches within weeks.
He said he owed his life to the lightning fast response of the ambulance team, the life-saving surgery carried out by experts at Hammersmith Hospital and the attentive care of nurses who helped him recover at St Mary’s.
He added: “I feel like all the money I’ve paid into the NHS has paid off in one go. I’m never going to complain about paying my National Insurance again.
“A friend told me he thought I was gone and it still hasn’t sunk in that I’m here. I appreciate how lucky I’ve been.”
Storm is still collecting donations for his skydive and hopes to raise a total of around £1,400 for the charity.
Ian Lush, Chief Executive of Imperial Health Charity, said: “It was a heart-warming moment to see Storm reunited with the medics who saved his life a year ago and I am delighted that he has chosen to show his thanks by raising money for Imperial Health Charity.
“Storm’s story demonstrates how we must never take for granted the extraordinary work that our healthcare professionals carry out on a daily basis and I hope it will inspire others to help us support NHS staff on the front line.”
