Camper breaks 112 bones after falling off cliff he pitched tent on
A CAMPER shattered 112 bones after he pitched his tent on the edge of a 120ft cliff – and then fell off it.
Steven Hill, 42, believes he is the ‘luckiest man alive’ after suffering severe spinal injuries and a punctured lung in the fall.
He had pitched his tent close to the top of a sheer drop so he could take in the view at Gallanach, near Oban, Argyll.
Mr Hill, a painter and decorator, dozed off after stepping outside his tent to roll a cigarette.
When he awoke, he stumbled in the disorientating darkness and tumbled over the edge. He lay unconscious at the bottom for four hours.
When he came to, he struggled to stand, and took 40 minutes to crawl to the nearest road where he spent two hours trying to attract attention.
The first driver he attempted to flag down simply ignored him and sailed by.
He thought two passing cyclists had also ignored him but then overheard them phoning for an ambulance. Paramedics took him to Lorn and Islands Hospital, Oban, but his injuries were so severe he was quickly airlifted to the Queen Elizabeth National Spinal Injuries Unit in Glasgow.
He spent several weeks in hospital and is now recovering at home after doctors fixed his shattered spine using titanium rods, bolts and screws.
Reliving his brush with death, Mr Hill, from Bearsden, Dunbartonshire, said: ‘I’m the luckiest man alive. I had never been in an accident in my life before this. People can’t believe how lucky I was. I was conscious the whole way down until impact.’
Mr Hill lived in Oban for around 20 years and came to love the cliff at Gallanach.
He often visited the remote spot to relax and enjoy the scenery. Of his most recent, traumatic stay he said: ‘I fell asleep on the grass. I woke up ratty and was scrabbling around.
‘The next thing I knew I had the sensation of increasing velocity. I could feel myself brushing against things.’
Doctors were amazed at the number of bones he broke but, despite the injuries to his spine, he did not suffer paralysis.
He was fitted with a brace around his torso and a metal cage called a ‘halo’ to support his head while his spine recovers.
Mr Hill said people cannot believe what happened when he tells them about his bone-breaking plunge.
He added: ‘I’ve had guys calling me Robocop. I just tell them it’s too sore to laugh.’