Water-ski surgeon faces battle

Mr Lyons wants to return to surgery soon

Andrew Lyons is used to seeing surgery as a way to help reconstruct the bodies and lives of others.

But the 49-year-old surgeon is now facing his own battle to regain a normal life after a speedboat accident nearly led to the loss of his left arm.

And Mr Lyons says without the presence of mind of his 11-year-old son he could have died in the waters of Port d'Andratx, south of the Spanish island of Majorca.

The oral and facial surgeon, from Sevenoaks, Kent, now says he hopes to be performing surgery on others again at London's Guy's Hospital in as little as six months' time.

He told BBC Breakfast of the moments leading up to the traumatic accident.

I looked down and saw blood - it was like a scene from Jaws Andrew Lyons

"The boat lost power, I was dumped in the water... "I thought I was OK but I felt a huge blow on the side of me. It was like a 10ft baseball bat.

"When I came to, I floated upwards, my arm was floating at a different angle from the rest of my body.

"I looked down and saw blood. It was like a scene from Jaws."

Mr Lyons - who is right-handed - said a problem with the boat had led to his wife being thrown onto the deck and left concussed as the craft was spinning out of control.

Mr Lyons, 49, said son John's quick thinking in switching the boat's engine off and getting help had probably saved his life.

"I just said to them 'I'm going to die'.

"I looked at my injuries, I looked at my blood loss.

"It was warm salty water, there were no other boats around but John had the boat off and immediately after that he jumped in the water, saw he couldn't really do much to help me, but then he managed to see another boat coming in the other direction and flag it down."

The surgeon was pulled from the water by a group of students, taken to the shore and quickly taken to hospital for surgery that saved his arm.

And now just over a week after his accident he is already looking forward to regaining fully the use of his left arm and returning to helping cancer patients get their life back on track.

"If it was up to me I'd be back tomorrow. It could be as quick as three months, it could be as long as a year.

"I've made a pretty good recovery. I want my life back. I want to go back to operating, get back to my normal life, so I'll be striving to do that.

"My current goal is to get fit for my next anaesthetic."

Son John is unfazed by the praise for his quick-thinking after the accident, and a little coy about what he might do when he grows up.

But he added: "I might be a surgeon like my dad."