Harris H Story

“I felt my leg break as it smashed off the rock. As I plunged headfirst into the deep water, I worried I would never walk again.”

Harris leapt from the rocky outcrop on the River Feshie near Aviemore after a day’s white-water tubing with his family. He should have cleared the rocks easily as he plunged into the deep water, but a cliff edge stumble saw him crash into the jagged rockface on the way down.

“I knew instantly that I was in trouble as I hit the water,” he said. “I fought my way to the surface and shouted – help, my leg, it’s snapped, it’s snapped.”

Family members, instructors and other bystanders on the bank had seen the accident unfold and witnessed the sickening crunch as Harris impacted against the rocks, immediately rushing to help the injured swimmer and calling 999.

“People jumped into the water to help support me and pull me to the side of the pool, but the sides were too steep to get me out. I was woozy and clammy and just wanted to drift off to sleep but people at my side were urging me to stay awake.

“I knew that my leg was smashed but could feel no pain. I was terrified I might never walk again.”

A multi-service response was quickly on scene, involving Scottish Fire and Rescue Service water rescue experts, Scottish Ambulance Service, Mountain Rescue and HM Coastguard. And the need for speed saw Scotland’s Charity Air Ambulance (SCAA) scrambled with a specialist doctor-led trauma team.

“There seemed to be dozens of emergency service workers, all trying to find a way to get me out of the water without causing me serious harm,” recalled Harris. “I was in a wetsuit, but it felt like I had an extra leg joint halfway down my shin.”

Rescue teams waded in with medics giving Harris pain relief, but cutting into his wetsuit revealed a bleeding open fracture. Concern for Harris then included infection. Blood flow to his foot was now compromised. They had to get him out of the water and into hospital care – fast.

“I had been floated on to a rescue raft and my leg put into a splint,” explained Harris, “but there seemed no way out of the water.”

With steep rocky banks on either side and rapids downstream, rescuers had identified a possible exit downstream, and Harris was floated to the spot where others joined in the effort of hoisting him up a two-foot slope on to a stretcher.

Meanwhile, SCAA had landed at the adjacent glider club airfield, allowing doctors and paramedics to reach Harris as he was brought out of the water.

“I was told the air ambulance was coming and I felt a huge sense of relief when SCAA arrived,” he said. “They bring such reassurance and comfort and a sense that everything will be OK.

“I was a bit overwhelmed to be honest – all these people turned out for what was a silly mistake on my part. Everyone was absolutely wonderful and the teamwork to rescue me was just exceptional.”

Plenty of willing hands helped stretcher Harris through steep undergrowth to a waiting road ambulance on the forest track for the quick transfer to the helicopter waiting just minutes away.

“I was pretty out of it by then on painkillers but not so much that I didn’t realise the difference SCAA was making,” said Harris. “I had heard the chatter about infection and blood flow and, as I discovered later from the hospital doctors, SCAA’s speed and efficiency probably helped save my leg.”

At every stage, rescuers had safeguarded the nerves in Harris’s leg – stabilising the limb and ensuring he reached hospital as quickly as possible.

“If the nerve had severed or the journey had taken hours by road, I could have had irreversible damage – perhaps even had to have my foot or lower leg amputated,” he said. “I truly believe that without the care everyone showed at every stage – but primarily the doctor and paramedic team with SCAA and the speed of their airlift - I would have faced a very different outcome.”

SCAA turned what would have been a two-and-a-half-hour road journey into a 35-minute helicopter flight to ensure Harris received vital intravenous antibiotics and limb-saving surgery at Aberdeen’s Major Trauma Centre in the fastest possible time.

Following two operations, the insertion of a rod into his tibia, stitches and skin grafts, Harris is expected to make a full recovery with full mobility in his injured leg.

“It’s been a lengthy process, but the prognosis is great,” he said. “But I often think when I’m visited by the night terrors – what if?

“What if SCAA and her expert crew hadn’t been there that day? I sometimes torture myself with that thought and I vow to do something in the future to raise funds and support the charity that was so crucial to my rescue. I want to help ensure SCAA is there for the next person and gives them the same care and opportunity to make a full recovery.

“SCAA is an invaluable service. I really don’t know what I would have done without them. It would have been a truly isolating and even scarier experience without them by my side during what was undoubtedly the most difficult time of my life.”