AddThis SmartLayers

Daily columnist recovering at home after freak accident

A regional daily’s long-standing racing columnist has begun the long road to recovery after being left in intensive care following a freak accident while cutting grass.

Tom O’Ryan, left, who writes a daily column for The Press in York, was left with serious injuries after being hit in the back by a flying fence post at his home near Malton at the end of May.

He had a successful operation at Hull Royal Infirmary to pin his pelvis and work on crushed vertebrae and has now returned home, where he is being cared for by his partner Wendy.

Following Tom’s accident, The Press decided to use PA copy for his racing column and is is not yet known when he will be able to return to work.

Tom, who also works for other media including the Racing Post, told the paper: “Every day is just a tiny bit better than the last, and it’s wonderful being back home after three weeks in hospital.

“Unfortunately I have developed a blood clot in my groin which is something of a setback, but I am being treated for that now with warfarin.

“The accident itself seems absolutely surreal, to be honest. It’s more than a month after it happened now and I still can’t say that it feels like it was real. I feels like it was me acting in a film, a horror film. It was like getting hit by a runaway train.

“The good news now is that the surgery is over and I’m taking it one day at a time.”

Tom needs to wear a body brace throughout the day and will have to use a wheelchair for the next six weeks.

He is due to return to hospital at the end of July for X-rays on his spine and pelvis.

Tom said he had received 150 cards of support and was overwhelmed by the kindness he had been showed since the incident, which happened when when tape became tangled in cutters attached to a tractor, which he was using to cut grass.