'Chest, ribs, arms, they are all broken but that's not what worries me'

Published on Wednesday 23 December 2009 21:41

MAJOR Bernard Broad has a Christmas wish most people would take for granted.

Lying on his hospital bed at Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham, the 43-year-old explains how 25 December could be the day he learns whether he can be fully mobile again.

He was due to undergo exploratory surgery yesterday after cheating death three weeks ago in a bomb blast as he travelled in an armoured vehicle in Nad-e-Ali, Afghanistan.

The father of two, an infantryman since his teenage years, said his greatest fear was losing the ability to walk.

Flanked at his bedside by his wife Jan and daughter Amy, 16, he said during physiotherapy treatment: "My biggest fear is my feet. Being an 'infanteer', I've spent half my career on my feet.

"I do have concerns. The hospital's been very good explaining things to me but again, being a comprehensive school boy, the actual understanding of what they are saying compared to the simplicity of 'will I still walk' is still a bit grey."

His left heel, blackened and disfigured in the improvised explosive device (IED) blast, is of particular concern.

He added: "It's been blown up and 'fragged' which, apparently, is really bad.

"I remember very little, from the actual incident to when I finally woke up in Birmingham.

"I just thought I was still there – I saw my dad and said, 'What are you doing in Afghanistan?'

"It all happened phenomenally quickly. From injury to getting back, you are just in a different world.

"I was saying, 'Where's me gun, where's me gun?' – and that was a week and a half later."

Maj Broad, of the Grenadier Guards, who is from Manchester, has suffered countless injuries during 27 years with British services. And he put on a brave face as he underwent physiotherapy for his latest wounds.

Explaining his other injuries, he added: "The right foot which isn't a big drama, that's also broken.

"Going up the body, it's all breaks. I've got a broken right leg which they stuck a plate in and sewed up, which is fantastic.

"Chest, ribs, arms, they're all broken but that's not what worries me. It's the feet – I'm an infanteer – that's what I'm about."

Christmas – as it does for more than 20 other soldiers due to be on the ward at Selly Oak – remains on hold.

However, the volume of Christmas presents sent for injured troops at Selly Oak Hospital has been so overwhelming that military chiefs asked the public to stop sending them.

Major Ian Cheesman, officer in charge of patient support services, said the wave of support for wounded soldiers was touching.

He said the hospital had received "hundreds and hundreds" of gifts, from bottles of whisky to DVD players, since November.

Maj Cheesman added: "We've asked people not to bring presents in because we have literally been inundated – we've got more than we could cope with. We would encourage people to send money to charity."

Patients unable to go home for Christmas will receive "gunfire" on Christmas morning, he said, before explaining that this is when "officers go round with a Thermos of tea with a bit of rum in it to wake the guys up".