Kettering roofer left with 'shark bite' wound after horrific disc cutter accident

A roofer from Kettering was airlifted to hospital after a horror accident which saw a disc cutter slice THROUGH his leg.

James Turner, 33, was fortunate not to lose the use of a leg after the incident on top of a 12-storey block of flats in Northampton in March.

The heavy duty power tool started to judder as he was cutting through the old roof surface - and as James tried to control it it shot up, kicked back and cut through his left leg.

James said: "The wound looked like I had been bitten by a shark.”

Blood was spurting out of a deep gash at the back of his upper thigh and James called out to the other roofers who were working nearby.

A quick-thinking colleague made a tourniquet out of a high-vis vest to stop the bleeding as much as possible and a group of men carried James to the external lift which took him down to ground level, where he was laid down in the car park until the ambulance arrived.

He said: “I was in shock and my initial reaction was to run away but as soon as I put weight on my injured leg it crumbled beneath me like jelly.

"I put my hand down to feel what I had done and it went right into the hole in my leg."

Due to the seriousness of his injuries it was crucial to get James to the nearest major trauma hospital as quickly as possible.

He was taken by land ambulance to the school playing fields where the helicopter had landed and then flown to University Hospital Coventry, 33 miles away by road, in just 10 minutes.

Fortunately, despite the tool cutting down to the bone and through the hamstring and tendons, the main nerve between his spine and leg was intact.

If that had been cut he has been told that he could have lost the use of his leg.

After a CT scan to check his injuries, James underwent an operation to repair the damage and after three days in hospital, he was discharged with a leg brace which he had to wear for eight weeks.

He returned to light duties at work for a while but is now in the process of setting up his own business.

And he owes everything to the Warwickshire and Northamptonshire Air Ambulance crew - having known he would get the best possible care when they arrived.

He said: “With the greatest of respect to the other people there, I immediately knew I was in safe hands when the air ambulance crew came.

"They were so on point, so professional. Their critical care training made such a difference.

“They knew exactly what they were doing. They gave me drugs which reduced the pain and relaxed me."

Missions like the one to help James aren't possible without donations from the public as it doesn't get Government funding.

Each rescue mission costs about £1,700 but the charity needs support and will be launching brand new life-saving helicopters early next year.

James added: “When I found out that the local air ambulance doesn’t get any funding from the Government for its daily missions, I was amazed.

"I couldn’t understand it. It blows my mind that it is a charity. I organised a direct debit to support them straight away."

To support its lifesaving work, visit www.theairambulanceservice.org.uk or call 0300 3045 999.

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