A fatal crash
17 year old Steven Thorpe was travelling in a Rover with two friends when a stray horse ran into the path of the car in front of them. The resulting accident left his friend, 18 year old Matthew Jones, dead while Steven suffered serious injuries to his face, head and arm. Two days later, he was declared brain dead.
A spokesman for University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust commented that “the injury to Steven’s brain was extremely critical and several CT scans of the head showed almost irreversible damage.”
Left with no choice
A total of four specialists declared that the 17 year old Steven was brain dead. The doctors then told his parents that they wanted to take Steven off life support. “You need to start thinking about organ donations”, one of them said.
Those words gave 51 year old Mr Thorpe, Steven’s father, renewed energy. If had agreed with all the specialists, Steven would have been taken off the life support machine “in seconds”. However Mr Thorpe refused to give up, he and the rest of the family still believed that Steven was still alive, and believed that he reacted to some of the words they had said.
Mr Thorpe contacted private GP Julia Piper, known for her work in traditional and alternative medicines, who then asked a neurosurgeon she knew to visit Steven at University Hospital in Coventry.
In an incredible turn of events, the neurosurgeon concluded that Steven was not brain dead and that there was still a slim chance of recovery. Doctors then agreed to work towards bringing Steven out of his chemically-induced coma to see if he could survive. Miraculously, two weeks later, Steven woke up.
The father who never gave up
While Steven has lost the use of his left arm and has undergone extensive reconstructive surgery to his face, including having his nose rebuilt and an artificial eye socket made, he considers survival as a “full recovery”.
Steven has immense gratitude towards his “stubborn” father. He said, “my father believed I was alive and he was correct… hopefully it can help people see that you should never give up”.