‘I’ve gotten unbelievably lucky.’
Those are the words of Ed O’Brien, the football fan from York who says he was given a ten per cent chance of survival after falling from a tree while watching his team Leeds United’s promition celebrations.
Ed was in a coma for six days after he landed onto concrete in Millennium Square during the club’s parade on 5 May.
He says the first responder paramedics and the team in Leeds General Infirmary saved his life.
And he also praised St James’s University Hospital, where he spent the last three weeks of a month in hospital.
In a heartfelt post on Facebook, Ed said: “Well, I’m very sorry to have worried you all…
“I’ve gotten unbelievably lucky, and this has the potential to be a very long and ‘soppy’ post, just want to say a proper thank you and try put in to words how much you’ve all done for me.”
A fundraising campaign has raised nearly £15,000. “Because of the amount raised, adaptations have been made to allow me to get out of hospital and back to my family,” he wrote.
That’s included the installation of a downstairs loo “as I can’t use both of my legs”.
“My mother and father have lost, by our standards, a good deal of money, having to take time off work and travel to and from Leeds every day, and this would have been incredibly difficult without all of your help.”
He said the “large amount left over after what we have absolutely needed” will be donated, “likely to the hospitals which have given me another chance”.
Ed, who went to Joseph Rowntree School, thanked his mum Stacey Barker and his father Carl O’Brien. “No matter how old you are, your parents will always be the first ones to get you out of whatever mess you get yourself in.
“The rest of my family has also dragged me through this more than they’ll ever know – I’ve always known I was incredibly lucky to have them all but this has taken it to another level.”
Thousands of people left messages of support for Ed, including the York band Skylights, and he thanked them all too.
Some people had left negative messages, criticising Ed for his actions. He also addressed those criticisms.
“To clear up, I wasn’t paralytic drunk/’drugged up’, and I’d never go out my way to cause problems – I was just being daft at the highest point of my life and a branch has snapped from underneath me.
“It’s still on me, and I’m not about to risk putting my closest people through something like that again.”
And he concluded: “This feels like the start of putting this behind me and to be here so soon makes me feel incredible.”