A single dad who lost all his limbs during a horrific scaffolding accident made a miraculous recovery so he could go home to be with his two young twin daughters. Now every time Jamie Mines reads little Savannah and Bella their favourite bedtime story, he does it with a lump of gratitude in his throat, the Mirror reports.
After a long battle, the quadruple amputee is finally able to cuddle and pick up his six-year-old girls again. The father, from Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire, received an incredible life-changing gift of a double hand transplant, which has transformed his life.
Jamie, who was nearly killed by 33,000 volts of electricity, said: "Life is so good since my transplant. I used to have to flick the book pages with my stumps, not any more. It was amazing putting my arms around my daughters again, properly cuddling them for the first time since the accident."
Life changed forever for Jamie on December 19, 2016, when he had just became a new dad to his five-month-old girls. He had been working at a scaffolding firm at the time and loved the hard outdoor labour aspect of his job after being a semi-professional footballer for 17 years.
He had been working on a five-metre rig at a site in Swindon and was lifting a sheet tin roof into place underneath power lines when disaster struck. The cables had been too close to him and suddenly 33,000 volts of electricity arced and surged through his body.
He said: "I remember it belting me inside and out. My arms were swelling massively, my legs bursting against my combat trousers. The pain was unbelievable.”
When paramedics arrived, the conditions were too foggy for him to be airlifted and a cherry picker and stretcher ferried Jamie to an ambulance and from there to hospital. Jamie said: “I thought, I’m going there and I’m going to die".
The next few days for Jamie were very hazy and he remembers and he had to deal with losing his right leg below the knee, his left foot - and later, that whole leg - and half of both his arms. Despite being miserable at first, the more he thought of his girls, he became determined to live for them, regardless if his limbs were there or not.
Jamie spent months in ICU and his children weren't allowed to come visit him until the day of their first birthday, seven months after he went into hospital. He said: "They remembered me! They called me Daddy, and were laid on my chest. It was amazing.”
Finally, with two prosthetic legs, two prosthetic arms, Jamie was well enough to go home to be with his family. However life as a father was very different now and Jamie who was now severely disabled, had two little lives depending on him.
His former firm, Boundary Scaffolding Ltd, had been fined £80,000 for the accident with its director receiving a six-month suspended sentence. The compensation Jamie received allowed him to be the best dad he could.
The dad sourced an email address for the pioneering Professor Simon Kay, who would lead the double-hand operation. This was the start of Jamie's extraordinary journey which would enable him to have two arms and hands again.
He received a phone call on March 29 last year to tell him he had a donor and at 6am the following morning he underwent his life changing operation.Ten hours later, Jamie was out of surgery, his new arms in casts and recalled the amazing high he felt when he woke up.
He said: “I think it must have been the drugs, a sort of walking dream but I saw my future and it was so bright and colourful. I was playing with the girls who were skipping around. It was euphoria.”
Jamie’s gratitude couldn’t wait that long to be expressed so he wrote an email instead to thank the the donor's family for their kindness and bravery after giving him their loved one's limbs which he said he is 'making good use' of.
He’s also had a big stopwatch tattooed onto one of his hands with the words ‘Nothing Is Forever’ as 'a reminder that everything can change in a moment.' A documentary on Jamie's journey - Saving Lives In Leeds - starts tonight (Wednesday) at 9pm on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer.
Don't miss the latest news from around Scotland and beyond - Sign up to our daily newsletter here .
