A dad nearly lost one of his hands while creating the ultimate lockdown garden play area for his children.
Adam Brookes, 41, started the £7,000 project in May last year and spent almost six months transforming the entire garden with a climbing frame, monkey bars, mud kitchen, playhouse, rock wall and decked seating area.
The project manager worked from home in Stone, Staffordshire, during lockdown and when he was free in the evenings or at weekends he took care of his project to create a dream garden for his wife Joanna and their children Reuben, ten, Theodora, six, and Rafferty, four.
But one day, Adam's saw hit a knot in the wood while building the decking which bounced back into his hand, tearing through his protective gloves and slicing through two arteries.
The man was injured and was forced to delay the project by several months.
Adam then made a full recovery, but his daughter Theodora fell and broke her arm, so the play area was out of limits for several more weeks.
Adam said had almost completed the project when he was hurt last summer and had to be rushed to hospital by ambulance.
The determined dad said: “I was down to the last stages of cutting the decking boards with my chop saw when my saw hit a knot in the wood and kicked back - it got my hand quicker than the guard could get down.
“It cut straight through my protective gloves and hand and I lost a lot of blood quite quickly.
“I held my hand in a fist and didn’t look at it - I didn’t even know if all my fingers were still there.
“I went faint and had to lie in the recovery position and shout for Joanna.”
Adam had cut his left hand in between his thumb and finger, just missing the bone and severing two nerves.
The day after arriving at the hospital, he was transferred to a hand specialist in Newcastle for an emergency operation to sew the nerves back together.
Adam had to have physio for months because he could not feel the tip of his thumb and couldn not grip very well - but has now regained the use and movement of his thumb.
He now often wears a one-digit glove knitted by his mum to keep the thumb warm because of circulation problems caused by the nerve damage.
But that did not stop him completing the garden for his family to enjoy.
Adam said: “I was very lucky, it could have been a lot worse.”
But when the play area was almost finished, six-year-old Theodora broke her arm and the garden project had to be delayed once again.
Joanna said: “We were walking down a steep hill and she just went too quickly and fell.
“You could tell straight away her arm was broken, it looked like a boomerang.
“She had to have surgery to straighten the bone and then was in a plaster cast for four weeks so she couldn’t really use the play area at first.
“But once she built her confidence she was climbing the rock wall one-handed.
"We can’t thank the wonderful NHS enough for looking after them both, especially given the current difficult times.”
After these two serious injuries and operations, the family finally have their dream garden all finished in time for summer.
The children are especially excited about the mud kitchen in their very own adventure playground.
Mum said: “They love playing in the mud - they did a Great British Bake off with mud and they’ll make three course meals with drinks from mud as well, it’s great for their imagination."
The whole project is even more impressive since it was DIY dad Adam’s first attempt at anything of that scale.
Joanna said: “He has no experience of doing anything like that - he just got some tools, watched some videos and learnt as he went along.
“He did design drawings and even made a cardboard model of what the kids wanted.
“He did it pretty much all by himself except for paying to get the astroturf fitted and the kids painted the fences - but they probably got more paint on their shoes than anywhere else!”
Now the family are looking forward to enjoying the whole garden together this summer.
Wife Joanna, 34, said: "Last year the garden was a building site, with wood and furniture everywhere.
“We can’t wait to have a disaster-free summer to enjoy it.
"Adam worked so hard on the project and the kids love it - but I'm glad to see the back of the electric saws and building work."
