Man feared he would never walk again after cliff jump by Aviemore went horrifically wrong
A man feared he'd ‘never walk again’ after snapping his leg during a cliff jumping accident by Feshie Bridge.
Harris Hamilton was enjoying a day white-water tubing with his family on holiday in Aviemore in June, last year, when he jumped into the River Feshie.
Mr Hamilton, who was an optician working in Fraserburgh at the time, attempted to leap from a cliff into a pool of water.
But he stumbled on a cliff edge and crashed into a jagged rock face on the way down.
He knew the second he hit the water that something was very wrong.
“I knew instantly that I was in trouble as I hit the water,” said Mr Hamilton, then aged 28 and living in Peterhead.
“I felt my leg break as it smashed off the rock. As I plunged headfirst into the deep water, I worried I would never walk again.
“I fought my way to the surface and shouted – help, my leg, it’s snapped, it’s snapped.”
Family members, instructors and other bystanders on the bank had seen the accident unfold and witnessed the sickening crunch as Mr Hamilton hit the rocks, immediately rushing to help the injured swimmer and calling 999.
“People jumped into the water to help support me and pull me to the side of the pool, but the sides were too steep to get me out," he said.
"I was woozy and clammy and just wanted to drift off to sleep but people at my side were urging me to stay awake.
“I knew that my leg was smashed but could feel no pain. I was terrified I might never walk again.”
A multi-service response was quickly on scene, involving Scottish Fire and Rescue Service water rescue experts, Scottish Ambulance Service, Mountain Rescue and HM Coastguard.
With the situation requiring a fast response, Scotland's Charity Air Ambulance (SCAA) was also dispatched, carrying a specialist doctor-led trauma team.
“There seemed to be dozens of emergency service workers, all trying to find a way to get me out of the water without causing me serious harm,” recalled Mr Hamilton, who now lives in Edinburgh.
“I was in a wetsuit, but it felt like I had an extra leg joint halfway down my shin.”
Rescue teams waded in with medics giving Mr Hamilton pain relief, but cutting into his wetsuit revealed a bleeding open fracture, with medics immediately concerned with the potential for infection.
Blood flow to his foot was now compromised. They had to get him out of the water and into hospital care – fast.
“I had been floated on to a rescue raft and my leg put into a splint,” explained Mr Hamilton, “but there seemed no way out of the water.”
With steep rocky banks on either side and rapids downstream, rescuers had identified a possible exit downstream, and Mr Hamilton was floated to the spot where others joined in the effort of hoisting him up a two-foot slope on to a stretcher.
Meanwhile, SCAA had landed at the adjacent Cairngorm Glider Club airfield at Glenfeshie, allowing doctors and paramedics to reach Mr Hamilton as he was brought out of the water.
The teams worked together to help get his stretcher through the undergrowth to reach the helicopter, just minutes away.
“I was told the air ambulance was coming and I felt a huge sense of relief when SCAA arrived,” he said.
“They bring such reassurance and comfort and a sense that everything will be OK.
“I was a bit overwhelmed to be honest – all these people turned out for what was a silly mistake on my part.
"Everyone was absolutely wonderful and the teamwork to rescue me was just exceptional.”
“I was pretty out of it by then on painkillers but not so much that I didn’t realise the difference SCAA was making,” said Mr Hamilton.
“I had heard the chatter about infection and blood flow and, as I discovered later from the hospital doctors, SCAA’s speed and efficiency probably helped save my leg.”
At every stage, rescuers had safeguarded the nerves in Mr Hamilton’s leg – stabilising the limb and ensuring he reached hospital as quickly as possible.
The journey to Aberdeen's Major Trauma Centre, which would have taken two-and-a-half hours by road, was made by the air ambulance in just 35 minutes.
Mr Hamilton then received vital intravenous antibiotics, and underwent surgery to save his leg.
After two operations, one to insert a rod into his tibia, as well as stitches and skin grafts, Mr Hamilton is now expected to make a full recovery - and regain complete mobility in his injured leg.
“If the nerve had severed or the journey had taken hours by road, I could have had irreversible damage – perhaps even had to have my foot or lower leg amputated,” he said.
“I truly believe that without the care everyone showed at every stage – but primarily the doctor and paramedic team with SCAA and the speed of their airlift - I would have faced a very different outcome.”
“It’s been a lengthy process, but the prognosis is great.
“But I often think when I’m visited by the night terrors – what if?
“What if SCAA and her expert crew hadn’t been there that day?
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"I sometimes torture myself with that thought and I vow to do something in the future to raise funds and support the charity that was so crucial to my rescue.
"I want to help ensure SCAA is there for the next person and gives them the same care and opportunity to make a full recovery.
“SCAA is an invaluable service.
"I really don’t know what I would have done without them.
"It would have been a truly isolating and even scarier experience without them by my side during what was undoubtedly the most difficult time of my life.”
