Doctors: it’s a miracle Rob survived accident
MOTORCYCLIST SUFFERS THREE HEART ATTACKS ON WAY TO HOSPITAL AFTER ACCIDENT IN HORESWOOD
A CAMPILE man, who is fighting for his life having been seriously injured in a crash in Horeswood in April, has been described as lucky to be alive.
Father-of-two Robin (Rob) Lambert, 32, suffered three heart attacks on Wednesday, April 19, when he fell from his bike at around 5 p.m., breaking his pelvis, right shoulder, arm and injuring his right lung. His wife Amanda said: ‘He was in a sedated coma as his body had to get used to the weaker lung he has. He has been taken off the sedation and has responded, but we still don’t know what neurological damage has been done from the blood loss and the cardiac arrests. Doctors need him to be fully awake before they test him. They are not sure if the sight is affected. Every day is a new step for us and we have hope so hopefully he will make a full recovery.’
Rob was on the way Tramore on his motorcycle to meet friends for a spin when the accident occurred on the Campile road. Amanda was contacted and arrived on the scene quickly. ‘When I got to Rob I immediately thought he had fallen off the bike. There was no car there but it turned out that the car had been moved. Rob was conscious so people thought he wasn’t badly injured but he started to deteriorate on the way to Wexford General Hospital. He had a cardiac arrest and was treated there and had to get resusciated. An emergency CT scan was carried out and doctors discovered that the right side of his lung had burst. They gave him a blood transfusion but what was going in was coming back out and I was told there was no hope for him.’
An air amublance was requested but none was available so Rob was taken via ambulance by garda escort to Dublin.
‘He had more two cardiac arrests. The doctors couldn’t stop the internal bleeding. I called the whole family. I was driving up not knowing if he was dead or alive in the ambulance. We arrived at the Mater where he was immediately taken to surgery. The first surgery didn’t work as the blood couldn’t clot.’
Rob underwent a second, 11 hour surgery. ‘ They stopped the bleeding. He had lost 40 units of blood in the transplant. Thankfully he doesn’t need a lung transplant.’ Amanda said some motorists who came upon the accident might have thought her husband was not injured as he was conscious and breathing. She is appealing to anyone who witnessed the crash to contact gardaí on 051 426030, saying Rob is very lucky to be alive. ‘He is coming along. The doctors in Dublin said he is a miracle. They said if he had made it to hospital ten minutes later he wouldn’t have survived.’
Amanda and Rob were married last September. ‘We were married in Tipperay last September. We eloped with our children.’
Amanda praised the surgery team at the Mater Hospital, saying without them her husband and the father of her children, Emma, 8 and Shane, 5, would no longer be alive. ‘He had three cardiac arrests and has been on dialysis for his kidney. He is so lucky to be alive,’ Amanda said.