Medical miracle praises Great North Ambulance

Jul 11 2010 by Rob Pattinson, Sunday Sun

STEP by step, medical miracle Warren Brown edges his way to recovery. . .

The 17-year-old was "smashed to pieces" when he was catapulted through the sunroof of a car as it flipped out of control on a North road.

Medics had to fit the sixth-former with a metal clamp to hold his face together after he was flung from his pal’s Mini during the horror smash, near Derwent Reservoir.

As the car careered crazily out of control it flipped over four times throwing Warren into a nearby bush.

The force of the impact shattered parts of his skull, smashed his nose, fractured his eye socket, caved in the roof of his mouth, and dislocated his jaw so badly medics described it as "blowing in the wind".

The talented footballer, once a star of Hartlepool United’s youth academy, was also speared by a branch which went through his right buttock.

His right thighbone suffered a compound fracture where the bone was snapped so badly it pierced the skin and stuck out through his trousers.

But somehow medics have patched the teenager back together again.

Now never-say-die Warren and his family, of Oxhill, near Stanley, County Durham, have praised the air medics and hospital doctors they believe performed miracles to put him back together again.

Unconscious for six days the teenager woke up in Newcastle General Hospital convinced only minutes had passed since the smash which nearly claimed his life, on May 16.

The keen sportsman had been travelling back from a football game at Slaley Hall in the front passenger seat of a friend’s car when it lost control on a side road, close to the A68, in Northumberland.

His pals looked on in horror as he was ejected through the open sunroof, then burst into tears when they saw him lying lifeless in a bush, convinced he was dead.

Frightened to move him, one of the lads found the courage to hold his hand until help arrived.

A local farmer cradled the injured teenager in his arms, lifting him on to a tractor trailer and gently towing him to the waiting Air Ambulance.

Warren said: "I just remember taking off my seatbelt so I could bend down and take my football boots off, that’s it, there’s nothing after that.

"Next I just remember waking up in hospital, it was like only a couple of minutes had passed. I didn’t know where I was, or what had happened, I saw this nurse I didn’t know and just cried, it was so traumatic. I didn’t know my friends were OK at that stage.

"Looking at my injuries I know how lucky I am to still be alive."