‘I fell in the pool and I think I was dead for twelve and a half minutes
SCUBA INSTRUCTOR’S FREAK ACCIDENT
LESS than two months ago, Northumberland scuba instructor Gareth Crouth was in a dire state in a US hospital after a freak accident saw him suffer a stroke before almost drowning in a friend’s swimming pool.
In hospital he had a second stroke and even temporarily lost his vision.
Remarkably, on August 4 he returned to Blyth and he’s walking, talking and able to look after himself. By December, he even hopes to be scuba diving again.
Gareth, 42, suffered his injuries while visiting a friend in Kentucky in midjune. He told the Sunday Sun: “What happened was I had a stroke and then fell into the pool.
“I think what happened is a few days earlier I slipped while excavating a pool and I think that’s where the first fracture in my neck was from.
“The day it all happened was just the day the blood clot decided to travel to my brain.
“I fell in the pool and I think I was dead for twelve and a half minutes. My friend Perry Thompson resuscitated me.
“I suffered a second stroke in hospital and that’s when my vision went.”
He had been helicoptered to hospital, and doctors discovered he had broken his neck as he fell into the pool.
Gareth moved to Northumberland from South Africa with his family at the age of 18.
He has worked managing bars and restaurants on Tyneside and went to both Newcastle and Northumbria Universities.
However, having lived an incredibly active lifestyle, he changed tack – becoming an MMA fighter before teaching scuba diving in exotic locals including the British Virgin Islands and off the Greek coast.
His family, including sister Lauren-lee, parents Heather and Tony and brother Anthony, raised more than £10,000 to bring him home from hospital in the US and to cover medical bills. Gareth thanked Sunday Sun readers for their support.
He added: “I was able to walk out of the hospital four weeks later, thanks to the care and concern of everyone here. The article previously written was amazing, it definitely helped so much to get me back to the UK, which I greatly appreciate.”
Gareth’s rapid recovery has befuddled his doctors. “I’m doing well. I’m walking and talking – and able to feed and clothe myself. My vision has returned,” he said.
“Essentially I left the US on the 4th. A prognosis now is a bit difficult, because they didn’t expect me to even get out of hospital so quickly. After what I went through often it can take up to two years before you can look after yourself.
“My doctors are incredibly impressed with my recovery so far – walking, talking.
“After such an accident, apparently it’s a medical marvel.”
Gareth is now looking to the future and getting back to doing what he loves. He said: “For certain I will dive again. I’m hoping to be back at work by the end of the year that’s a bit short notice but with determination I believe it’s possible.
“I have always believed life is never happening to me, it’s happening for me.”