I AM VERY LUCKY
Agony as golf course keeper Stuart is pinned under ride-on mower for two hours but fence post stops skull being crushed
A DAD has told how he lay crushed beneath a ride-on mower for nearly two hours after it plummeted down a steep ravine. Stuart Griffiths is still recovering after breaking his pelvis and coccyx when the machine plummeted down a steep embankment and pinned him under it. The 44-year-old course keeper at Pitlochry and Blair Atholl golf clubs had been mowing grass when his ride- on mower tumbled down the slope. A well placed fence post stopped it entirely crushing him and fire engines and an air ambulance had to be drafted in to the twohour rescue. Stuart said: “I still don’t know how it happened. I got near the edge of an embankment and it just fell from me. It was crushing my legs, shoulder and the bottom half of my body.
“It was in a very precarious position about 1.5metres from the edge of a steep hill.
“But luckily a fence post was stopping the heavier part of it going on my head.
“I never in my life thought I’d be in that position and hopefully I never am again. “I am very lucky.” Despite being in agony, Stuart managed to phone his pal Greg Carruthers, a director at the course and a retained firefighter from the nearby station.
He said: “I usually keep my phone in my right pocket but that day it was in my left, so I could reach it and phone.
“Within five minutes, he had arrived and was keeping me calm.
“I don’t know why I thought to phone him when most people would have rang 999.
“The fire brigade came and looked but the medical staff couldn’t get near me so I wasn ’t allowed any pain relief.
“It was very painful and it felt like it was getting heavier but I was trying to keep focused.
“I was thinking of my wife Gillian and two daughters and my work and what could happen.
“I’m a relatively calm person but you do think about a lot when you’re there for so long.”
The fire brigade managed to hoist the machine inches from the ground and Stuart was eased out before he was airlifted to Ninewells Hospital in Dundee after the incident on June 25.
Stuart is now recovering with physiotherapy after undergoing operations and having pins and plates inserted into his pelvis.
The keen golfer hopes to return to work as soon as possible.
He added: “I’m lucky to have a job I love and have been doing since I was 17. If
I could go back tomorrow, I would. But we need to see how this goes. I would be looking to go back at some level next month.”
As a special thanks, Stuart has organised a charity four-ball raffle to raise funds for Scotland’s Charity Air Ambulance.
So far, his efforts have brought in more than £6000.
Stuart added: “My accident became quite well known in the golf world and I’ve been so impressed by people and courses coming forward with offers. It really is a good cause.”
A fundraising post from Stuart added: “I was lucky to escape with a broken pelvis and some minor cuts and bruises. After 13 days in hospital and successful surgery, I am at home making great progress and will make a full recovery.
“To say thank you for the amazing work the air ambulance does, I’ll be running a raffle of golf four-balls. All funds will go to the Scotland’s Charity Air Ambulance.”