'I lost seven pints of blood'

By Jane Elliott
Health reporter, BBC News

Tess is full of praise for her surgeon

When Tess Morris walked into the patio door of her holiday apartment her injuries were so severe that she nearly bled to death.

The accident in Gran Canaria severed her main blood vessels and nerves in one arm, causing her to lose 70% of the blood in her body.

"My family thought I was going to die. I can't remember much about it, but there was blood everywhere.

"Some people tied a towel around the cut to try and stop the blood, but it kept bleeding until I got to hospital. The cut was so severe I lost seven pints of blood," the 44-year-old mother-of-one said.

Doctors on the holiday island patched her up and gave her a blood transfusion before sending her home to the UK for treatment.

However, they warned her she might never use her arm again.

'Horrendous'

Back in the UK, she had a 10-hour operation at her local hospital, the Northern General in Sheffield, where doctors fought to save movement in her limb.

They say I will never gain 100% movement, but I could get a crude grip so that I can carry a shopping bag Tess Morris

Mark Hobson, consultant plastic surgeon, said his team had to repair all the major nerves in Tess's arm.

The operation involved bridging the gaps with new grafts - the nerves used in these grafts were taken from Tess's legs.

The blood vessel damage was also repaired by the team.

"Tess was brought into my clinic after a horrendous injury that was potentially fatal," he said.

"She had lost a lot of blood as she divided the major blood vessels to her left arm as well as all the major nerves.

"Without the nerves being repaired and replaced, the arm would have been flaccid below the shoulder."

'Modest achievements'

Mr Hobson said he was very pleased to see how well Tess was progressing after the operation but said her arm would never be back to normal.

"Unfortunately, she will never have complete normal function in the arm, but we have been able to get back some elbow and wrist control and she can now grip things with sensation," he said.

Mr Hobson made movement possible

"Such modest achievements make a huge difference to a patient's life, simple things such as feeding yourself in a restaurant let alone dressing yourself are invaluable."

Meanwhile Tess, who had the accident in February last year, said she is enjoying the incremental improvements.

"It has been slow progress," admitted Tess.

"I did not have movement at all until last summer when I started getting a bit of muscle movement back at the top of the arm.

"Now I can lift my arm and put weight on it, but I still can't pick anything up at the moment.

"They say I will never gain 100% movement, but I could get a crude grip so that I can carry a shopping bag.

"My muscles are just getting stronger all the time and the physio is helping me improve my strength.

"It is absolutely amazing to be able to dress and wash myself and now I can now utilise my left arm everything is a bonus

"When it was just a floppy arm at the side of me I was not able to move bundles of washing just simple things."

Tess has also been able to go back to her job at the hospital, where she works as a manager.

"I have an adapted car and at work I do a lot of typing so they gave me a voice recognition computer.

"The progress I've made with the help from the hospital staff has been great.

"They really took the time to understand how I was feeling and helped me fully understand what was happening at each stage of the treatment."

Tess, who has a 13 year-old son, also stressed that the support from the hospital's staff, who helped her come to terms with the trauma and psychological effects of the accident, was superb.

"The hospital put in place such a good network of support staff to help me not only physically recover but also mentally, as I did feel quite low after the accident," she said.

"Their help was really important for me and my family to come to terms with the effects of the accident. They have been wonderful."