Ben - lucky to live to tell the tale

10:20am Thursday 8th May 2008

THE BROMSGROVE teenager who fell 100ft off a mountain top in Wales, says he is lucky to be alive.

Ben Halley, from Fallowfields Close, cheated death when he fell off Tryfan in Snowdonia, smashing into a rock edge on the way down before landing on a ledge which broke his fall.

Mountain fall survivor speaks of his ordeal

It took rescuers six hours to get Ben down and to hospital with multiple injuries to his head and body. Just before he was rushed into surgery he was told his chances of survival were not high.

Ben said: "I asked the doctor if I was going to be alright, but he admitted I might not pull through."

His mother, Joanne Green, said: "It was the most terrible time of my life. We were shown into a special room and told Ben might die. His dad and grandmother were with me and we were all devastated and in tears."

He had a broken collar bone, broken ribs and a damaged spleen, which was removed in an emergency operation which was successful, although he was on a life support machine and in intensive care for days.

Ben had climbed the same mountain several times before, and so had the mountaineering uncle and his two friends who were with him.

The 16-year-old from North Bromsgrove High School said: "It's a scrambling mountain and I reached the top first because that's how I like to do it. I think I might have blacked out because of the oxygen levels, because before I knew it I was falling.

"I relaxed because I knew there was nothing I could do, then afterwards just kept going in and out of consciousness. I remember they put me in a kind of box like a coffin to lower me down the mountain then winch me into the helicopter.

"I am so grateful for all those who helped to save my life, from my uncle and his friends who kept me going until rescuers arrived, to paramedics and eventually the surgeons in the hospital."

Mrs Green said: "We have been absolutely overwhelmed with cards and good wishes from the people of Bromsgrove, who I would also like to thank.

"Now Ben is back home he has resolved never to climb mountains again. Instead he said he will stick to fishing.

"He's also decided to knuckle down to his GCSE revision and hopes to become a bricklayer when he leaves school."

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HOW THE DRAMA UNFOLDED.

9.30am - Ben falls off Trefan in Snowdonia, and uncle and friends shin down to reach him on the ledge after calling the emergency services from a mobile phone.

10.30am - The first person arrives from the Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue team and gives Ben first aid, but the wind was so fierce a RAF helicoper could not fly near enough to winch him to hospital.

11.15am The team then stretcher him 1,000ft down the mountainside which takes them about six hours. Then just seven minutes to fly Ben to Bangor.

5.15pm - Ben arrives at hospital at about the same time as his family.

8.15pm - Undergoes major surgery.

11.15 pm - Major surgery over.

Midnight - Ben is transferred to Glan Clwyd Hospital at Bodelwyddan for intensive care. His mother, father and grandmother stay at the hospital and take shifts to be at Ben's bedside for the next six days until he returned to Bromsgrove last Friday.

EDITORS CHOICE