Walk home led to nightmare accident

12:30pm Thursday 3rd December 2009
By Faye Dickson

A RAGLAN man says he is lucky to be alive after being hit by a car as he walked home following a night out.

Mikey Carver, 21, from Great Oak, suffered a broken leg, injuries to his head and neck, and bruised ribs when he was knocked over on the B4598 near Clytha on November 25.

He spent five nights at Abergavenny’s Nevill Hall Hospital and had his leg pinned, but is now at home recovering.

Although he will be unable to walk for at least six weeks, he said he feels lucky to be alive.

Mr Carver does not remember much about the accident, because he was knocked unconscious and did not wake up until he was in hospital, but police told his mother, Lois, 44, that he had gone through the car’s windscreen.

The accident was a major setback for Mr Carver, who spent seven years in a wheelchair with a degenerative hip disease and was due to have a hip replacement within the next few months.

He was diagnosed with Perthes disease at the age of nine, putting an end to his rugby dreams and preventing him from attending Croesyceilog Comprehensive School because it did not have wheelchair access.

Mr Carver, who until then had played prop for Llanyrafon Primary School and Cwmbran Rugby Club, was devastated when doctors told him he would never be able to play sport again because a lack of blood in his thigh bone was causing his hip joint to collapse.

He started using a wheelchair and was tutored at home for six months, but later joined Fairwater Comprehensive School.

When he was 16, he spent six months learning to walk again with the help of a physiotherapist.

He needed a hip replacement, but doctors wanted to wait until he was fully grown, so they delayed the operation until he turned 21.

Mr Carver celebrated his 21st birthday last month and met with doctors to discuss the operation a week before the accident.

He does not know how long it will now be delayed for and is frustrated by the setback.

"I really wanted to get it over and done with," he said.

Mr Carver said he will be unable to go to work, as an administration assistant at a C&M Plant in Pontypool, for around two months while he recovers.