Jim Ashworth-Beaumont

It's quite satisfying.

Well, it was the end of the first lockdown and COVID and I took the chance to take a couple of weeks leave.

I got stuck into my training for the triathlon and on this particular day, I'd done a run, I'd done a swim and then third training session of the day, a quick cycle up to Crystal Palace from where I live in Greenwich and ended up at the side of a lorry.

Didn't think much of it.

I'd been in that position a thousand times before and

But on this particular occasion, the vehicle moved sideways and I got trapped between the pavement and the trailer of the vehicle.

And at that point, I had nowhere to go, really.

I went under the trailer.

I don't think the expectation from the teams that I've talked to at the hospital was that I'd live.

Right.

So I'd had very severe crush injuries and burns, lost the arm.

Went through surgery, stabilisation, put into a reduced coma, went into multi-organ failure.

It didn't look very good for a while.

Yeah, I ran conscious during the accident and for about 20 minutes afterwards.

And I resigned myself to the fact that I was going to die.

So when I became aware again, I was convinced that I was dead and went through these strange scenarios, perhaps drug-induced, influenced by things going on around me in the ward.

But for me, they're very real kind of experiences.

One scenario was where I crashed in a plane and was buried for a couple of thousand years and then was brought back again and sat before a jury who would decide whether I was going to live or die or not.

And there was a period of reasoning, should I live or should I die?

And I'm really not quite sure what the process meant.