Willie’s recovery from freak accident
It was a freak accident that changed Willie Dowie’s life forever.
Driving on the old Roman road between Kinkell Bridge and the A9
in his open-top Westfield 7, he had
enjoyed a good day.
He had played golf that morning, just had the car MOT’d and was
looking forward to a few pints with his pals later on.
But in an instant, he was plunged into crushing pain when a roe deer leapt into the car, its hooves smashing into Willie’s ribcage and sending the fibreglass kit car into
a tree.
It would be 65 days before Willie was fully conscious again.
Since then his entire body has had to be rebuilt, he has had to learn to walk again and even today, almost four years on, is not 100 per cent of what he used to be.
In the darkest days lying on a hospital bed and coming off the pain medicine that had been pumped into his system, Willie even considered whether it was worth it.
But today, the Auchterarder man does not feel sorry for himself - he feels lucky, and grateful to all those who helped save his life.
“The way I look at it, there has
been good luck and bad luck,” the 63-year-old told the PA.
“The bad luck was being hit by
the deer, bouncing off the road and hitting the tree.
“But after that it was all good luck. “It was good luck that someone came to help me and then people turned up very quickly, like the ambulance and the air ambulance.
“Then, when I got to Ninewells, there were even more people willing to roll up their sleeves to help.
“You have to look at that rather than focus on the bad.”
It is an incredible outlook for a man who has endured so much.
Last month he was reunited with one of the Scotland’s Charity Air Ambulance paramedics who were on the scene to help that day.
It has prompted Willie to open up about his experience.
He remembers the lead up to the incident perfectly - a beautiful sunny
Sunday that was May 14, 2017.
But what happened afterwards is a bit of a blur.
“The deer came out of nowhere,” recalled Willie, an agricultural fencing contractor who is well used to driving Scotland’s rural roads. “There was nothing I could do. “I remember the crushing pain as the animal landed on me and remember hitting the banking and flying towards the tree. Then I just drifted in and out of consciousness in a world of pain - pain like I’ve never experienced before.
“I remember hearing sirens, soft voices and questions I couldn’t respond to. Then it all went black.”
Firefighters, ambulance crew, police and a specialist trauma team battled to save Willie at the roadside.
His life had been literally ebbing away despite the best efforts of the emergency services, who gave him multiple transfusions but could not stop the bleeding.
SCAA was scrambled to the scene and got him to Ninewells, where his family were told he only had a five
per cent chance of survival.
It would be over nine weeks before he woke up again.
Those days were terrifying for his wife Christine (59) and daughters Nicola (35) and Leigh (33), and Willie says the experience was much worse for them than him.
“My family was told I had a five per
cent chance of living, then a couple of weeks later they were told I might lose both my legs - it was them who had to go home every night and cry over that,” he said.
“My family had it worse than me, I didn’t know if I was alive or dead.”
Willie spent four months in hospital being “rebuilt”, with multiple operations to piece his broken body together again with plates, bolts and grafts.
“Every part of me was crushed, broken or damaged - from my collar bone to my ankles,” said Willie. “I couldn’t even lift a spoon to my mouth and I had to learn to walk again.”
Willie admitted there were days he thought of giving up, especially as the drugs that he was on were removed, leaving him to face a horrifying come down.
But once he started physio - and spurred on by those who had worked together to save him - things started to get better.
“I didn’t know what had happened to me, I was in a big collar because I had broken my neck,” he told the PA.
“That’s when I thought so many people had worked on me and for what reason? I thought I was just a burden on them.
“But once I got better and into a wheelchair and started taking physio, I thought ‘I will give this a go.’
“The enthusiasm and thought of those who were helping and had helped me really kickstarted me from there.”
Willie spent four months in hospital having various procedures carried out.
But he was eventually able to go home and, thanks to help from a friend who was able to modify his work space, get back to work.
He still walks with a limp and is waiting on a knee procedure which has been temporarily postponed due to COVID, but Willie accepts that with typical grace.
Four years on, he also approaches what happens to him with great humour, saying his keenness to get back to work was motivated by his dislike of daytime TV and how his
return to the golf course in a buggy prompted his pals to dub him “Nigel Mansell”.
And he even refused to rule out getting another sports car.
“I wouldn’t say I’d never drive [a car like that] again but it would probably be something a bit more robust,” he jokes.
“I’m still driving now, I don’t have a fear because it wasn’t my fault.
“I’m not quite 100 per cent but I’m very happy where I am. I can walk and I can get about.
“Don’t get me wrong, there are days when there is pain, but I’m able to keep working away.”
In January, Willie appeared on Radio Scotland’s ‘Our Lives with Michelle McManus’ show.
While there, he was reunited with Craig McDonald, a former SCAA paramedic who was one of the first
on the scene.
Craig told the show they had just cleared from another emergency when they were called to Willie’s accident.
His condition was classed as “time critical” and the air ambulance got him to Ninewells, flying at 120 nautical miles an hour in a straight line.
He also joked that Willie sounded a lot better than the last time he had seen him.
Willie is so grateful to SCAA and all the services who were sent to save him.
“I loved talking to him (Craig). I’d like to talk to them all.
“If it hadn’t been for the air ambulance, I would never have made it to Dundee.
“Craig said SCAA was just a small part of what happened, but to me and my family, they were a huge part.
“If they weren’t there then my daughters would not have a father and my wife would not have a husband.”
Willie is now enjoying life again and, along with his wife and daughters, has two grandsons to keep him busy - Nolan (6) and Calvin (4).
Calvin was born just before the accident and Willie was initially unable to remember his birth, but those memories came back.
Thinking about his life now, he says: “I feel really good, you’ve got to be happy with what you have.”
• To find out more about SCAA
and the work it does, go to https:// www.scaa.org.uk/
You can also stream the Our Lives with Michelle McManus show featuring Willie and Craig at https:// www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/ m000rly3 until Sunday, February 21.