Man spent four months ‘between life and death’ and left paralysed for life after life-changing ‘mistake’
A man became paralysed for life after being involved in a horrific collision which cost two other men their lives and left him in a coma for four months.
Greg Sumner had decided to go out for a 'knees up' on 7 October, 2012, as he had a court date looming after getting into a fight while drunk.
On the way back home he and his mate Vincent Atkinson were 'bladdered' and doing over 90mph in a 40 zone, with Greg in the passenger seat and his friend driving the car.
They had a head-on collision with another driver, Richard Park, Greg told The Sun, and of the three men involved in the crash, only Greg survived.
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The other two men were killed almost instantly at the site of the crash.
His neck and back were broken, and he suffered severe head injuries to the point that when the hospital called in his brother to identify him it had to be done with a tattoo on his arm.
For the next four months Greg was in a coma, and he explained that his heart stopped four times while his liver and one of his lungs also failed.
He said he 'hovered between life and death', and doctors tried twice to bring him out of his coma but his 'body reacted so violently' that they had to sedate him again.
The third time was the charm, but when Greg awoke to see his family gathered around his bed he found that his 'body wouldn't respond'.
Greg's story previously featured in The Secret World of Boy Racers UNTOLD on Channel 4, where he said one of the hardest things about being paralysed was raising his children without being able to hug them.
"Trying to be a father without picking them up for a little cuddle when I want, that will rip me to pieces as long as I breathe," he told the documentary of something that would affect him forever.
"People don't ever consider the severe impact of it going wrong until it's too late. I was early 20s when it happened.
"Driving quick was regular. It was normal."
He said that while you didn't want to be the person to say 'slow down', Greg said that the consequences of the crash were that two men were dead and four children would grow up without their dads while he was paralysed for life.
Joe Harker