A TEENAGER from Chester is getting on his bike to raise funds for the hospital team that saved his life.
Alex Halliwell-Dykes, 15, aims to ride the 26-mile Great Manchester Cycle on Bank Holiday Monday, to raise cash for the Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Charitable Funds.
Ironically, it was a BMX bike accident in September last year that resulted in the Chester Catholic High School student undergoing life-saving surgery at the hospital and spending a subsequent two months on the children's ward.
The accident, at Westminster Park, resulted in Alex severing a major artery and the main vein in his left thigh, just six months after he had undergone life-saving surgery in Austria following a skiing accident which had ruptured his bladder.
He said: “The surgeons repaired the artery by tying off the main vein in my leg and using it to repair the artery. In short, that operation saved my life as I had already lost a lot of blood.”
During the four days Alex was unconscious, doctors noticed that his lower leg was becoming extremely swollen, something known as Compartment Syndrome.
Alex explains: “This is when the compartments in your muscles swell up as they have been starved of oxygen meaning my leg could eventually die. The doctors operated immediately, performing a double faciotomy on my lower leg.”
A faciotomy is a surgical procedure that cuts away the fascia (thin connective tissue covering, or separating, the muscles and internal organs of the body) to relieve tension or pressure.
A skin graft followed and Alex remained at the Countess until November.
He said: “I remember lying in my bed telling my Dad that I would walk down the stairs on Christmas morning without crutches and he looked at me sceptically. But I did it.”
The accident-prone youngster, the eldest of three boys from Queen’s Park, was told by doctors that he would probably never play football again. Despite having nerve damage in his foot meaning he cannot move HIS left ankle very much, he is back on the field playing for Vicars Cross.
Alex added: “I put my recovery down to not just the miracles of medicine and expertise of the surgeons but to the help and support I have had since my accident - from Alex the physiotherapist, Carolyn the tissue viability nurse and Helen the nurse on the ward who'd always come rushing to me when I pressed my buzzer despite being heavily pregnant.
“When I was in my hospital bed I vowed that I would get back on my bike and do something to raise money for the children's ward, and this is what I would like to do.”
Alex hopes to complete race on June 4 in under two hours.
Mum Lesley Halliwell said: “Alex continues to receive excellent care and ongoing support from a range of specialist doctors at the Countess including plastic surgery, the vascular team and orthopaedics.
“His training is going really well and he has already beaten his fundraising target of £500. Everyone has been so generous and the fantastic messages of support from his family and friends has been quite overwhelming.”
To sponsor Alex visit www.justgiving.com/AlexHD
