Teenager Helen Wall was returning home from a day at the beach with friends in St Andrews when she had an accident which would change her life forever.
The then 16-year-old was heading to a friend’s house when the group she was with decided to climb onto the rooftops of buildings.
Reluctantly Helen followed and when she was on one of the rooftops in the town’s South Street, she stopped to take a call.
This resulted in her falling behind, so she made the fateful decision to jump off the building she was on to catch up.
But when she jumped, she fell through a skylight at the entrance to a hardware store – falling nine feet to the ground.
“The way that I jumped my left arm was out and glass caught the side of my arm and cut right through it,” she explains.
“My ankle was badly hurt, my knee went into my jaw and I broke six of my teeth.
“I also hit the back of my head really hard on the floor which knocked me out.
“My friends called an ambulance and they were telling the call handler that there was a lot of blood coming from my armpit.
“I had severed an artery in my arm.
“It was gushing blood.”
It was then a race against time to get Helen to hospital as her life hung in the balance.
And if it wasn’t for a lifesaving blood transfusion she had on the way, Helen would not have survived.
‘Be Our Blood’ campaign
This is why Helen, who is now 32, is backing The Courier’s Be Our Blood campaign.
We are asking people across Tayside, Fife and Stirling to register here and become a donor.
Every blood donation can save up to three lives, but currently less than 3% of eligible people in Scotland give blood.
The Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service needs 500 more people become a donor in our area this year.
Helen is just one example of the many lives which have been saved thanks to blood donors.
Here is her story.
What happened after Helen fell?
Today Helen lives in Invergowrie with her 17-month-old son Nicholas.
But while some of the details are hazy, she can still remember most of what happened when she had that terrifying fall 16 years ago.
The mum-of-one recalls struggling to see properly after she fell.
She rolled over onto her side but couldn’t get up.
“I keeled over on my left side and was curled up on the floor,” she says.
“I could feel the blood seeping into my hair and when I touched it, my hand was in a pool of blood.
“What happened is that I had severed the artery in my left arm as well as three of the nerves.
“So it was a significant injury.”
An ambulance arrived very quickly and Helen was lifted on board. From there she was blue-lighted to Ninewells Hospital in Dundee.
“The whole way to Ninewells the paramedic had his arm on my shoulder and was holding on to the artery to try and stop the blood loss.
“I kept passing out so didn’t remember the whole journey but I remember it was very high stress.”
Blood donations on the way to hospital
Because she was losing so much blood, a car carrying donated blood was sent out to meet the ambulance.
Helen explains: “The car had four units of O negative blood and the ambulance pulled over.
“I remember hearing the paramedic say I needed the blood straight away.
“We were on the last unit by the time we got to Ninewells.
“The paramedics didn’t think I was going to survive.
“I remember when we were at the Tay Bridge I came to and I heard one paramedic say to the other that it was likely I was going to die.
“But the other one said they had to give me a chance.”
On arrival at Ninewells, Helen was met by a junior doctor and a consultant who held on to her arm which she remembers being very painful.
And as she wasn’t breathing properly, she was intubated.
Helen recalls: “At this point a female doctor arrived and they had a quick discussion.
“I heard her say ‘three nerves and an artery there isn’t much left to save’.
Then the consultant said: ‘Look at how young she is – we have to try’.
“I don’t remember what I was thinking as I kept falling in and out of consciousness but I was aware.
“Then I was wheeled into surgery.”
What did Helen’s surgery involve?
Surgeons managed to get the bleeding under control quite quickly in the operating theatre at Ninewells.
They had to graft a vein from Helen’s leg into the artery in her arm.
Fortunately this was successful otherwise Helen would have lost the limb completely.
“After this was done the three nerves which were severed were aligned and sutured to help them re-grow,” she says.
“I couldn’t use my arm fully afterwards – it took around 18 months.”
Helen’s recovery
For the next six months Helen saw a physiotherapist to work on ligament damage in her arm and ankle.
And she saw a specialist hand therapist for three years after the operation to work on regaining movement.
“I know there are some people with that kind of injury who have ended up having amputations because they lose all function.
“I had no movement in my hand for about six months which was a significant challenge.
“The nerves grow back about an inch a month so I needed the new nerves to grow down into my forearm to get to my finger flexors.”
Learning to adapt
Helen always believed she would make a full recovery as long as she did the exercises she was given.
But she admits to finding it really hard when she realised she would never regain full use of her hand.
“It was difficult for me when I realised I wouldn’t get the full function back,” she says.
“It affects things you take for granted.
“Things like tying your shoelaces, zipping up a jacket, tying your hair back, opening packets or squeezing toothpaste onto your toothbrush.
“If you can’t use both your hands, you have to learn to adapt to how you do everything with just one which is hard.”
“I ended up losing use of the little muscles in my hand which move my fingers from side to side.
“I also don’t have full use of my thumb and I don’t have normal sensation in my arm either.”
Helen could have lost her arm
Today Helen, who works as a project manager with Scottish Water, is really grateful for those people who gave blood donations.
And while she has limitations, she realises the consequences could have been far worse.
She might have lost her arm completely or not have survived the fall.
“I would have died without having a blood transfusion – I wouldn’t have even made it to hospital without it.
“You have around eight units of blood in your body.
“And I got a total of 13 units.
“So I owe a massive thanks to those donors as well as the paramedics, doctors and surgeons who kept me alive.
“I am really grateful to everyone who was involved.”
She adds: “I would encourage anyone who is able to to give blood – I wouldn’t be here today without it.”
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