A man living with a halo ring screwed into his skull after falling over a garden fence says it's an "absolute nightmare" but he's "blessed" to be still be alive.
Dave Saffin, from Monmouthshire, Wales, had visited a friend’s garden on February 1 when he tripped over the fence while walking backwards and now he’s spent the last month living with a ring screwed into his skull to hold his head, neck and spine in place.
“It’s an absolute nightmare, there is so much pressure on my head,”he told Wales Online.
"The hospital staff have given me a tool kit and screwdriver to make sure the halo is tight enough every day.
“It’s even more awkward to live in than I imagined.
"I’ve been left so frustrated on many nights because it’s so difficult to sleep with it on. The sleep deprivation is probably the worst thing.
“That and feeling like my head is being crushed.”
Dave suffered a freak accident when he fell over landing on his back, "my chest was literally touching my nose".
He was told he had a 20% chance of recovery, and an 80 per cent chance he's be paralysed or dead.
He said: “They [paramedics] rushed me to hospital, where I was told I’d snapped the C2 vertebrae in my neck - which is known as a hangman’s fracture.
“I was told I had a 20 per cent chance of recovery, and there was an 80 per cent chance I’d either be paralysed or dead.”
Dave, who is a car mechanic and hasn’t worked since the accident, says that after five weeks of trying “soft collars” to fix his spine, the unbearable pain continued and his father paid for him to see a specialist at St Joseph’s Hospital in Newport.
Dave attributes his recovery so far to “a bit of luck” and going to the gym since he was a young man.
“I do think if I hadn’t done that and my neck muscles were weaker, I probably would be dead or paralysed,” he said.
“I feel blessed. I’ve used well over my nine lives, and it’s probably time to calm down now.”
Throughout his recovery he’s kept followers updated on social media, even posting his first haircut this year on his page.
