Tourist ‘Lucky to Bee Two’ after Thai bike accident

After a motorcycle accident in Thailand a year ago, a man said that he is “lucky to survive” but “sheds a tear every day for his old life”.

55 -year -old Lee Francis, and wife Claire, came out of their bikes on the last day of their holiday in Krabi in the south of the country on 19 January 2024.

He said that before the accident, he remembers that he was telling his wife “we are dreaming”.

He spent 10 months in the hospital and said that an accident helmet saved his life, urged others to wear him.

The couple were meeting KT, the daughter of Mr. Francis, and due to handing back the bike just before the accident.

“This is a major challenge,” Mr. Francis said, which is from the Lalntwit Fordre, Rondada Sinon TAF.

“I shed a tear most of the days because this is disappointment and I sometimes feel that I just want my old life back.

“It is very difficult to accept and I should learn that life is now in wheelchair.

“This is a disadvantage for me, it’s as if I am mourning, but I realize that I am on a trip and I haven’t come up with my accident yet.”

Mr. Francis said that he was being helped with the support of a psychologist at Lando Hospital in Well, Glamorgan.

After the accident, Mr. Francis was taken and developed to Bangkok Phuket Hospital pulmonary embolism Which affects the treatment of his spine, which he fractured at three places.

He said that the surgeon told him that he was lucky to survive at night.

Employees spent a week struggling to save the life of Mr. Francis, but were unable to prevent them from becoming paralyzed below the waist.

“I am lucky to survive and this is the beginning of my new life and I think it will be better every day and every year.”

The couple were wearing both crash helmets, which they said that their lives were saved.

“We were just 10 minutes away from coming back to our villa and I told Claire, ‘We are living Dream Babes’ and then an accident occurred after 10 minutes, and it completely changed our lives.

“Local people in Thailand do not seem to wear a crash helmet on their bikes, you see a lot of youth without helmets and do not fit the helmets properly with tourists for a long time or many people think that it cools down Do not think, wear them but I know that my life is saved.

“It is important that people feel that they have to wear the right equipment and the helmet fits the right and they have insurance.”

Lee spent 10 months at Lando Hospital and came home only in October.

He has passed through intensive physiotherapy, where he built the strength of his upper body and spent time on the frame standing to align his body, as well as to undergo hydrotherapy.

Ms. Francis faced infiltration into accidents and deep friction on her face and body.

The couple was married in summer in 2022.

“Claire did not miss even a day, she meets me in the hospital every day and has a rock.

“He has returned his role from a wife a career and again who is very difficult, but he has taken it all on the board and even during his injuries.

“But we are stuck together as a family and we will meet together through it and that is an inspiration for me.”

Sri Francis is one of several Welsh tourists in recent years who have been killed or seriously injured in motorcycle accidents in Thailand.

28 -year -old earlier this month, Barry to Corey Bavis He died in an accident, while Adam Davis, from Deenus Cross in Pambrookshire, Boxing Day 2022 fractured his skull on Tao’s island,

Mr. Francis worked as a community professional doctor, but had to get medical retirement quickly.

He spent his career to help people live a live independent life, he has now held a similar package of care to help them.

He and his wife have adapted their home and are constructing an extension, which is being partially paid for the funds raised by the local community.

“The community has been absolutely spectacular that they are helping me pay for me for a wet room and bottom bed that will make things very easy for me.

“I am overwhelmed by the generosity of all those who have supported me.”

Last year, as part of his rehabilitation, Mr. Francis visited the Stoke Mandville Hospital in Buckinghamshire, the birthplace of the Paralympic movement.

He has also lived with neurological status, Torrett syndrome.

“I have always loved the game and it has always been an ointment for me in life from a very young age and I know that the game will fix me mentally again and I to feel it to other people I would like to inspire life after injury and this is the journey I am now. “