Steven Thorpe brain dead
Steven was rushed to hospital for emergency surgery.
Steven, then 17, was put in a coma but doctors believed he would never recover when they could not detect any brain activity.
They asked his parents to consider donating his organs but Steven’s dad begged medics to reconsider and enlisted private GP Julia Piper to examine his son.
Dr Piper agreed Steven had a chance of recovery and got doctors to agree to fresh tests, which found faint brain waves after all.
NHS chiefs agreed to bring the lad out of his coma to see if he could survive unaided — and he has since stunned them by making a remarkable recovery.Speaking about it for the first time, Steven — now 21 — from Kenilworth, Warwicks, said: “My father believed I was still there.
“I think the doctors wanted to give me three days on the life support machine and the following day they said they wanted to turn it off.
“The words they used to my parents were, ‘You need to start thinking about organ donations.’
“I think that’s what gave my dad energy, he thought ‘No way’.
“If my parents hadn’t asked for the second opinion, and if Julia hadn’t been there, I wouldn’t be here today.”Steven was released from University Hospital Coventry within five weeks of waking from his coma.
Since then he has had four operations to reconstruct his mangled face — including surgery to rebuild his nose and create an artificial eye socket.
He also has physiotherapy sessions to improve the movement in his left arm, which was badly injured in the smash.
Steven added: “As far as I am concerned, living is a full recovery. From how I was to how I am now, I think it’s a miracle.
“I drive to work every day, I don’t think anything is holding me back.
“Hopefully it can help people see that you should never give up. My father believed I was alive - and he was correct.”Dr Piper said of her diagnosis: “Doctors said he wasn’t going to live but the parents felt there was flickers of response and it wasn’t just wishful thinking.
“It’s an inspirational story about never giving up. Steven’s a remarkable young man and his recovery has been astonishing.”
In a statement, University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust said: “The injury to Steven’s brain was extremely critical and several CT scans of the head showed almost irreversible damage.
“It is extremely rare that a patient with such extensive trauma to the brain should survive. Steven is truly a unique case.”
"I was out of hospital seven weeks later," Mr Thorpe said.
An NHS spokesperson said his case was "unique" because a brain rarely survived "such excessive trauma".
Mr Thorpe, from Kenilworth, Warwickshire, had been travelling home from Leamington in February 2008 when the vehicle he was in was involved in a collision with two other cars and a horse that had run loose on the A452.One man died and the horse was fatally injured in the incident.
Mr Thorpe was taken to University Hospital in Coventry where he says doctors put him into an induced coma, and performed a craniotomy to help alleviate any swelling on his brain.
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It's very worrying to think that...more than one specialist has written me off pretty much and I am lucky to be here really due to having a second opinion”
Steven Thorpe
The 21-year-old said medical staff gave up hope of any recovery after two days, but his parents refused to believe they had lost him.
"When they sat around the bed they had the feeling I was there and some words they said to me I reacted to," Mr Thorpe said.
"It wasn't that they'd get a kick or a swing of the arm - there would be something that flickered.
"If my parents hadn't asked for the second opinion, and if Julia hadn't been there, I wouldn't be here."
Dr Julia Piper, a GP who runs a private practice in Leicester, had been recommended to Mr Thorpe's father by a work colleague and agreed with the family.
"She believed in them and listened," he said. "Perhaps the NHS should have listened."
Dr Piper said when she was seeking further advice she was told by fellow professionals that Mr Thorpe's parents should accept the fact that four doctors had claimed he was brain dead. She eventually got a positive verdict from a neurologist.She said: "I had this strong feeling that this wasn't right and then eventually I got someone else to look at him and of course it proved to have been the right thing to have done.
Mr Thorpe was involved in an accident on the A452 in Warwickshire
"One feels this may happen more often. We don't have any figures but I think it's important to always ask and if you're not sure about something to push as hard as you can.
"As with all human beings, we can sometimes have procedures in place and they sometimes fail. We need to understand why they're failing."
Mr Thorpe said it took two weeks for him to wake from the coma. He said he was "disappointed" with the NHS but insisted there was "no problem".
However, he added: "It's very worrying to think that...more than one specialist has written me off pretty much and I am lucky to be here really due to having a second opinion."
In a statement, University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust said: "The injury to Steven's brain was extremely critical and several CT scans of the head showed almost irreversible damage.
"It is extremely rare that a patient with having suffered such extensive trauma to the brain should survive.
"However, critical care and other specialist teams continued to support his systems through his critical period and we were delighted to see Steve recover and make progress against all the odds.
"He is truly a unique case."
More than four years on from his accident, Mr Thorpe continues to have treatment relating to his injuries. He has already had four operations to reconstruct his face and is receiving physiotherapy to help him get some use of his left arm.
He is also studying an accountancy course at a college in Coventry.
Mr Thorpe said: "I don't think my outlook's changed. I'm a very driven person. I'm living to succeed in life.
"I think there's still another operation to come. I don't know when they'll end but they're not affecting me."
He was declared brain dead by four doctors following a car crash which claimed the life of his friend Matthew Jones when he was 17. Doctors said there was nothing they could do to save him and were about to turn off his life support machine when his dad begged doctors for another opinion.
Steven, now 21, from Kenilworth, Warwickshire was placed in a chemically-induced coma following the crash. Doctors said he would never recover, but his dad begged doctors to reconsider and enlisted private GP Julia Piper to examine him again after being convinced that their son could recover.
Doctors at University Hospital in Coventry agreed to let a neurologist re-examine him and, astonishingly, he detected faint brain waves indicating Steven had a slim chance of making a recovery.
Steven was brought out of his coma and he has stunned doctors by making a full recovery. In fact, Steven was discharged from hospital just five weeks later.
Steven, who is now a trainee accountant, says: "My father believed I was still there. He expressed his views to Julia Piper and I think she listened very closely to what my dad had said.
"My impression is maybe the hospital weren't very happy that my father wanted a second opinion. I think the doctors wanted to give me three days on the life support machine and the following day they said they wanted to turn it off.Steven says he is determined not to dwell on the past, and the car accident that killed his friend, caused by a collision with two other cars and a loose horse.
"As far as I am concerned, living is a full recovery. From how I was to how I am now, I think it's a miracle. I drive to work every day, I don't think anything is holding me back. There's no point dwelling on it, I just pull my socks up and get on with it.
'Hopefully it can help people see that you should never give up. I've had so much positive feedback about it. If you believe it then follow it, that's the motto. My father believed I was alive - and he was correct.
"It's hard for me to even ask my parents about what happened. They do cooperate with me because they want me to understand it all but they don't want to be reminded about it."
Dr Piper, who runs a private practice in Leicester, said: "They had doctors saying he wasn't going to live but the parents felt there was flickers of response and it wasn't just wishful thinking.
iSince waking from his coma, Steven has had four operations to reconstruct his face - including having his nose rebuilt and an artificial eye socket made. He also has physiotherapy session to improve the movement in his left arm, which was badly injured in the road smash.
In a statement, University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust said: 'The injury to Steven's brain was extremely critical and several CT scans of the head showed almost irreversible damage. It is extremely rare that a patient having suffered such extensive trauma to the brain should survive.
"However, critical care and other specialist teams continued to support his systems through his critical period and we were delighted to see Steven recover and make progress against all the odds.
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