A CAR crash victim who suffered horrific injuries which left him in a coma says that drinking four cans of lager saved his life.
Kyle Whyte, 21, of Scott Close, Oswald-twistle, was close to death when a car mounted the pavement where he was walking and trapped him against a nursery school wall.
But the fluid from the lager he had just downed stopped him dying of shock and helped compensate for the massive loss of blood.
However, he was left with a fractured skull, eye sockets, jaw, nose, cheeks, neck, ribs, knees and shins, and sustained internal head injuries.
He was put into a medical coma for four days while surgeons attached metal plates to his bones to aid healing.
The lucky-to-be-alive telesales operator joked: "If I have any more metal put in me I’ll be starring in the next Terminator film."
He added: "I never thought lager would save my life. This was one time drinking was good for me."
Kyle and his cousin Dale Hussey, of Glouces-ter Avenue, Accrington, were walking along Tennyson Avenue, Oswa-ldtwistle, near the Early Start Nursery late on Friday 25 April when a car jumped a kerb and hit them.
The impact caused Kyle to bounce off the vehicle’s bonnet before becoming trapped bet-ween the car and the wall.
Despite being injured hmself, Dale, 21, said he was only focused on finding Kyle.
He said: "I saw the car hit him but he was pushed through the wall of the nursery and I couldn’t see him. I could hear him screaming but couldn’t find him."
He called Kyle’s fiancee Roisin Moss, also 21, and she rushed to the scene. By the time she got there residents had come out to help.
Roisin said: "When I finally got through, the skin on his head was peeled off and I could see his skull. One of the women from across the road brought a towel out and I held it to his head."
She waited with him until paramedics arri-ved.
Roisin, who works as a teaching assistant at Oswaldtwistle School, said: "The trip to the hospital is all a blur. My parents and his parents waited with me while he was being treated. It was horrible."
Kyle remained in the intensive care unit for two weeks before being transferred to another ward for another two.
Last week he was able to return home where he is being cared for by Roisin.
She said: "He is beginning to return to his normal self and is getting better every day."
Kyle, who may need further operations to correct some of the damage to his face, said: "I have no memory of the accident or being in the intensive care unit but I know I am lucky to be here."
A police spokesman said the driver of the car had been interviewed but not arrested and investigations were continuing.
