Family of man who made ‘miraculous’ recovery after horror crash launch fundraiser to thank NHS in Sheffield

Ian Rickels was involved in a collision with a car on December 9 last year and spent 43 days in hospital.

He was tended to by an air ambulance crew at the scene of the crash in his hometown of Chesterfield and rushed to Sheffield’s Northern General Hospital.

The 67-year-old sustained a catastrophic brain injury and also broke his neck, nine ribs, a shoulder blade and his jaw, fractured his skull and punctured his lung.

His wife Jill and son Harry were told he would not survive the night and they should call Ian’s other sons and wider family to come to the hospital to say their goodbyes.

Harry Rickels said: “We got there to A&E and they took me and my mum straight into the family room and just said, sorry your dad has been hit by a car and he has sustained a catastrophic head injury, he is not going to survive, there is no operation we can do, there is nothing we can do.”

“I’m sat there with my mum thinking 45 minutes to an hour ago I was picking up a sandwich in Morrisons and now I’m being told that my dad’s about to die.”

Luckily, doctors at the Northern General decided to put Mr Rickels in an induced coma to try to give him a chance of survival.

The retired teacher was in an induced coma for five days while his family did everything they could to wake him.

“They say the last thing that goes is your hearing,” said Harry, who is a primary school assistant headteacher.

“We were playing some of his favourite music just to see if we could spark some sort of emotion. We were playing the dog barking because his whole life revolves around his dog.”

Several days after the chemicals keeping Mr Rickels in a coma were withdrawn, he began to show slow signs of progress, first flicking the fingers on his right hand and then managing to open his eyes.

“On the 28th of December my mum went up to go and see him and he was sat up and they’d taken his tube out,” Harry said.

“When she went to say goodbye to him she took her mask down and all her PPE that she’d got on and went to go and kiss him on the forehead, and he pursed his lips. So she gave him a kiss on his lips, and the nurse who was there cried. She just said she couldn’t believe it.”

Ian was then transferred to the Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield where the family were no longer able to visit due to Covid-19 protocols in place at the time.

Despite this, Ian continued to make remarkable progress and was soon able to walk and have short conversations with his family via Facetime.

The retired teacher was transferred after two weeks to Chesterfield and North Derbyshire Hospital dementia ward so he could be closer to his family.

Harry said: “I phoned the hospital to ask can we walk to the window and wave and can we take the dog just to up his spirits a bit?

“The nurse said we are hoping we can send him home today. We hadn’t seen him for two weeks and only two and a half weeks ago he’d just been taken out of a coma. My mum rushed out to Lidl to get him his favourite tea and everything.”

Less than two weeks after Mr Rickels had taken his first steps since sustaining his injuries, he was able to come home.

Harry said: “After a couple of minutes, my dad just walked round the corner with two bags in his hand and said ‘hiya’. I couldn’t believe it, and I still can’t believe it now. It’s

miraculous.”

Since then, Ian’s remarkable recovery has continued apace. He celebrated his 67th birthday last week and has managed to walk seven and a half miles.

He has also been able to get to know his grandson Teddy, who was born just a few months before the life-changing crash.

Ian told how he wanted to do whatever he could to say ‘thank you to everyone who has helped to save my life’.

His three sons and his eldest son Harry’s partner Jasmine, aged 31, will be doing a 10k run in May to raise money for the NHS and Air Ambulance service.

Jasmine said: “We just want to help other families that are going through the same thing, because we wouldn’t wish it on anyone.”

The family have set up a Gofundme page which has already raised nearly £3,000 since being set up a few days ago, eclipsing their original target.

“We thought £500 was a big target but we might just scrape it together by May with people chucking a fiver here. Then it just took off,” said Jasmine.

The family hope the fundraiser can mainly benefit families who have been affected by brain injuries like Ian.

“We are here to try and spread hope,” said Harry.

“It can happen to anybody. The fact that we’ve got him and he is remarkably normal is all we could have ever wished for and more.”

Anyone who wishes to donate to the Rickels’ family fundraiser can visit: https://www.gofundme.com/f/38fkw4-help-brain-injury-patients.