A former Chester City footballer who was left permanently brain damaged after a 60ft motorway flyover fall is astonishing doctors with his recovery.
Neil Carroll, 27, was a victim of conman taxi driver Michael Taylor who swapped the drunk 25-year-old’s cash card for a fake, memorised his PIN number and abandoned him.
As the former Chester City midfielder wandered off, eventually plunging from the Rocket flyover, Taylor was down the road, plundering his bank account for £250.
Neil, from Huyton, a cavity wall insulator, who was signed to Liverpool Football Club’s academy as a child, playing alongside stars like Jay Spearing, was left wheelchair-bound and needing 24-hour care, unable to move, walk or talk.
But despite the injuries - which 80% of people are not expected to survive while others are left in a permanent vegetative state - Neil is making huge progress in his recovery.
Neil lives in a specially-modified home fitted with ramps and hoists, with partner Kathryn Dyer, his girlfriend before the accident, together with a round-the-clock carer.
He no longer needs a stomach pipe to feed himself, which medics presumed would be permanent, and eats the same meals as his family, using a fork and able to lift his arm at the dinner table.
He is now also using an alphabet board to communicate and has started to attempt to speak - saying the first letter of the word ‘mum’.
Mum Cathy, 45, who has dedicated herself to supporting Neil said: “Recently, we went to Neil’s GP, who hadn’t seen him for a long time.
“Neil typed out ‘Thank you’ on his alphabet board and then put his hand out to shake the doctor’s hand.
“He was amazed.”
In the run-up to Christmas, she launched a fundraising appeal to get funds for her son to attend speech therapy sessions, which is not available on the NHS.
Nearly all of Neil’s treatment is funded privately by his family.
The fundraising raised over the £1,000 target within just a few days, and was so successful, his family has started a new appeal as more people have suggested they want to contribute.
Neil also attends three sessions a week at a neuro therapy centre in Burscough.
Cathy, who also has a daughter called Jess, 20, and Maggie, nine, added: “Neil still needs 24-hour care, but there are real signs are that he’s beginning to heal.
“The progress he’s made is massive.”
Carroll joined Chester City as a junior and progressed to sign a professional contract in 2007.
He made his solitary Football League appearance in a 2–1 win at Macclesfield Town on September 29, 2007, starting the game in midfield. He was loaned to Leigh RMI in 2008 before being released at the end of the 2007-08 season and moving into Welsh football with Caernarfon Town.
Taxi driver Taylor, who lived in Buckingham Road, Tuebrook, was jailed for eight months in 2013 after admitting three counts of theft and 15 counts of fraud involving trying to get cash from bank machines.
Liverpool Crown Court heard he would demand access to drunken passengers’ wallets, claiming he didn’t believe they had money for a fare, and switch their cash card with one belonging to another of his victims knowing they were too drunk to notice.
He would then march them to a cash machine and watch as they entered the pin with the wrong card and later use their card and pin to access their account.
In July, 2012, the cabbie performed the con-trick on Neil, swapping his card for a bogus one, making him think he had no money to get home.
CCTV showed the taxi driving off leaving Neil on East Prescot Road walking in the direction of the Rocket flyover talking on his mobile phone, arranging to get home.
He was found lying in the car park of Broad Green station under the flyover - a cash card from a previous victim of Taylor was in his pocket.
To help the family, visit https://crowdfunding.justgiving.com/cathy-carroll-1
