A 53-year-old dad of two miraculously survived after falling from a roof and breaking almost every bone in his body.
Retired roofer Ian Locke, was helping his friend fit an antenna at his house in Wythenshawe, Manchester when the nightmare unfolded on Sept. 17 last year.
As he walked on the rooftop he started sliding backward and in a desperate attempt to save himself from falling he tried flipping over but it was already too late.
Locke plummeted 30ft and smashed straight into the ground, breaking nearly every bone in his body, and was left temporarily paralyzed.
"I tried flipping myself over but it happened that fast," Locke told the Manchester Evening News.
"The next minute I was in the back of his garden with my arm snapped in two places."
"When I landed on the floor, I told my mate I couldn’t feel my legs. I was that confused, I didn’t know where I was."
"I knew I had a problem because I couldn’t move."
Locke's friend called emergency services but was told an ambulance wouldn't reach them for an hour and 40 minutes.
Meanwhile, Locke started bleeding from the mouth profusely.
An air ambulance was immediately dispatched to the scene and Locke was airlifted to Manchester Royal Infirmary.
As he underwent several blood transfusions, surgeons told his family to prepare for the worst.
He spent eight weeks in a coma.
He continued: "The surgeon told my family I was going to die. My daughter was in the room – she saved my life."
"The only reason she was in the room was because I was dying. She gave me a kiss bye-bye and I said, ‘I’m not going nowhere. I’m like a machine’."
"She told I wasn’t going to die. When I was in a coma, I had some terrible dreams coming in and out of consciousness."
"I kept seeing things and the things I kept seeing played on my mind. I was watching this big dream myself."
"My brain was totally frazzled from the cocktail of drugs I was on. I didn’t know what day it was."
Locke broke his hand, his back in four places and his arm in two places with a bone sticking out through his skin by his shoulder and wrist.
He also shattered his pelvis in 30 places, broke his ribs, and pierced his transplanted lung.
"I’ve defied the odds. I’m going to love every moment when I get out," he said.
"I’m not going to sit there sulking because I can’t go out or stand up in my own living room. I’m going to cherish every moment."
![Ian Locke](https://d.latintimes.com/en/full/504128/ian-locke.png?w=736&f=8ec5f61eb611e2b152e272621ccae5ea)
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