‘Hero’ daughter saved dad in 70mph m-way seizure
AMAN has praised his ‘hero’ daughter after he had a seizure while driving in the fast lane of a busy motorway.
She managed to pull the van across five lanes of traffic and miraculously avoided any fatalities with both Michael Bamford and his daughter walking away unscathed despite the car flipping onto its side.
Understandably, Michael, 67, was still very shaken up by the incident on the M62.
He is now encouraging others, particularly men, to reach out and talk to their friends and family if they need help.
On the afternoon of September 13, Michael was driving home to Rochdale from the Trafford Centre alongside his daughter Gillian Sidell, 43 – a teacher at Meanwood Primary School – when he had a seizure while travelling at 70mph.
“My daughter realised there was something wrong because I was unresponsive,” he said.
“It was one of them where the adrenaline must have kicked in - she immediately put the hazard lights on and grabbed the steering wheel. She couldn’t slow the car down because I had my foot on the accelerator.
“I was totally out of it. She reached over me and grabbed the steering wheel, pulling us across five lanes of motorway, and we hit the hard shoulder.
“I don’t know she managed not to hit anything on a busy motorway on a Friday afternoon. There could have been a multiple vehicle pile-up and maybe some fatalities as well.”
Michael, who lives in Firgrove, had to be cut out of the vehicle, which ended up on its side, and came round in Salford Royal Hospital - he later learned he had had another seizure while unconscious.
He has found himself deeply affected by the crash.
“She’s a hero,” he said of his daughter. “She saved my life, there’s no doubt about it. Had I been on my own, god knows what would have happened.
“I just couldn’t believe I wasn’t physically injured. I felt so lucky - as lucky as anybody could be.
“People tell you you’ve dodged a bullet or had someone upstairs looking out for you - it didn’t make me feel any better. I just got to the point where, instead of feeling euphoric and lucky, I just felt so emotional all the time.”
The father-of-four found himself breaking down in tears and couldn’t understand why.
A former manager of a printing company, Michael has run the Reuse Littleborough charity, which helps new mothers, for the last four years.
It was only when he reached out to the charity’s members online that he began to feel better – thanks to a “massive response” from well-wishers and just knowing that people cared.
“I felt so much better and that’s without talking to a counsellor, which I will do,” he said.
“I have been letting people know how I feel and telling them there are just places where you can go and that as a man you bottle things can’t up.
“It’s made a massive difference to me just talking about it. I can’t believe how much better I feel now.”
He also praised the work being done by the new Safe Haven facility, in Rochdale Infirmary, which was launched last week as a place to go for out of hours (5pm-8am) mental health support.
Run by a team of qualified and experienced mental health nurses and support workers, the facility is for people aged 18 and over who are experiencing a mental health crisis.