A man sustained 'car crash' injuries and couldn't move from the floor for 14 hours after tripping over his new pet cat.
Chris Rowley, 59, broke nine ribs, fractured his spine, cracked his skull and was left with a bleed on the brain after the accident. The professional musician was discovered by his partner, who had returned from work the next morning, lying in a pool of blood with the hairless sphynx sat on his chest.
Chris' kitten, Eric Morecambe, had jumped up and latched onto his leg - but as he tried to move out of the way, he slipped down the stairs and sustained catastrophic injuries. He was hospitalised for two weeks after the incident, which took place on Sunday, October 23 - and doesn't expect to be back on his feet for another year.
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Speaking to the Mirror, Chris Rowley, from Countesthorpe, Leicestershire, said: "We have a sphinx, it's like a hairless cat, it's only a baby. I can't remember much, just falling fast - it was quick and it was over within seconds, then I was at the bottom.
"I was pretty much there for the best part of 14 hours, my partner works nights and it happened early to late evening and there was no one else in the house. My phone was dead - I couldn't get up, I physically couldn't get up - it's the hardest sensation - it's almost like claustrophobia, you can't get out, you can't physically get anywhere or do anything."
Jackie, a care worker in a children's home, who found her gravely injured partner, said that she had to leave the room as he was being treated as his screams were too harrowing to hear. She told the Mirror: "I normally get home at about 8.30am but that day I got held back and I didn't get back til about 10, and I opened the door and heard him screaming and saw the blood.
"He was saying, 'Oh you're home, help, help'. By this time he'd dragged himself onto the landing. I'd seen all the blood and I thought, 'Oh my God' and I ran up to him - I saw him, took one look, and dialled 999. I've got to say they were here within minutes, they were fantastic.
"I think I went into shock, when the paramedics came I left them to it because I couldn't stand the screaming. We didn't know how bad his injuries were at this time, they had to really drug him up to move him."
Recalling the event, Chris said: "It jumped onto my leg and I lost my footing, it was just playing. It took a bit of a chunk out my leg then I lost my footing and went down 14 stairs and ended up at the bottom. I was massively injured, we're still finding out the extent of the injuries now - I had a fractured skull, a broken bone in the neck, two fractures in the spine, nine broken ribs, and each rib has multiple fractures, and then I had a bit of blood in the lungs.
"We have to go back to the hospital next week to see if they need to put a drain in, to get rid of the blood that's left over. Then it's just a matter of a long recovery.
"The cat's absolutely fine," he said. "The cat's adorable and he's only young - I don't take any umbrage to that, it's just one of them things - it could have happened any way. The cat was still stamping on my chest while the paramedics were there which was causing a lot of pain, he'd been doing it all night wherever I was.
"I can't explain the pain. I realised I'd cut my head as well, I didn't know how much I'd cut it until I saw the blood and later on they told me about the other injuries I had. I was in the major trauma unit and Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham.
"They took me to Leicester Royal Infirmary first but when they found out the extent of my injuries they took me to Nottingham as that's for major trauma. I had an epidural to keep me sedated. They say it will be six to 12 months until I'm back on my feet, I'm on a trial now because of the seizures, I won't be great for another 12 months I'd have thought."
Chris has worked all his life as a professional musician, touring the world and performing on cruise ships as the singer in many bands, including Young Guns and the Halfpipes. But all that came to an end due to the pandemic and Chris had to retrain, and he followed in the footsteps of his wife, Jackie Millerchip, 57, to become a carer.
But then, just after starting his new career, Chris was hospitalised due to the incident with Eric. He said: "I've worked once in the past three and a half years and I got no help from the Government whatsoever. I started a new job in caring for kids and I'd only been there six weeks and I was getting back on my feet moneywise then I had this fall.
"Now I can only get just under £40 a month of help from the Government. It was a great life up until Covid. We're not sure how it's going to go, I'm the vocalist so I need to get back to full breath and everything."
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help Jackie and Chris as they struggle through his recovery, if you would like to donate please click here.
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