“Without you, I wouldn’t be here!” - Crash survivor Richard Jones has issued a heartfelt plea for others to donate blood.
After a near-fatal car crash in Carmarthen, in 2020, Richard - who lived and worked in Tenby at the time - lost a significant amount of blood and needed 100 units in total to survive.
This National Blood Donor Week (which runs from June 8 to 14), he’s saying thank you to the donors who saved his life and calling on others to give blood with the Welsh Blood Service.
In 2020, Richard was driving when his truck hit a barrier on the way into Carmarthen, causing it to flip, leaving him in need of urgent medical attention.
Thanks to the quick actions of a passer-by, a former Army medic, helped Richard by applying two makeshift tourniquets, reducing the bleeding. Other members of the public helped to keep him conscious until Wales Air Ambulance arrived.
Medics immediately administered six units of blood at the roadside, stabilising him enough to be transferred to Morriston Hospital, Swansea.
Richard spent ten days in a coma and sustained extensive injuries, including a shattered hip, multiple fractures, a torn posterior cruciate ligament, and severe trauma to both legs.
His right leg was later amputated above the knee due to a severed artery. Over the following weeks, he underwent nine major surgeries and required a further 94 units of blood.
Richard says the kindness of strangers, both at the scene and from blood donors across Wales, is the reason he’s alive today.
To find out more and book a blood donation, visit: www.wbs.wales/NBDW26
