I'm 7/7's worst injured survivor & nearly died 3 times after bomber blew up train next to me – I'm facing fresh agony

The Sun

4 hours ago

JUST ten seconds after the suicide bomber caught Dan Biddle's eye he unzipped his bag - and blew up the train.
The catastrophic explosion severed both Dan's legs and filled the carriage with the stench of burning meat.
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Ripping through his body, the blast sprayed coins into his face like bullets, blinding him in one eye.
With the one eye he had left he looked around the wrecked train - the carnage he witnessed still haunts him decades on.
And now, as survivors prepare to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the 7/7 bombings the construction worker faces fresh agony.
Because while the great and the good will join survivors and families of the 52 dead at St Paul's Cathedral on July 7, Dan will not be one of them.
Despite being the most injured survivor of the London bombings, both he and the hero who saved his life have not been invited.
In the morning rush hour on July 7, 2005, four home-grown Islamic terrorists detonated suicide bombs on three Underground trains and a bus killing 52 commuters and wounding 748.
Dan, now 46, lost a spleen along with both legs and his left eye after a suicide bomb exploded next to him on a Tube train near Edgware Road station on that fateful morning.
A 20p piece, which punctured his leg like a bullet, remains lodged in his right thigh bone and the face and actions of bomber Mohammad Sidique Khan are permanently wedged in his tortured mind.
He only survived because brave former Army medic Adrian Heili ignored his own injuries to crawl under the mangled carriage to stop construction worker Dan bleeding to death.
The pair who are best of pals have supported each other through the horrors they have each endured in the last 20 years since fate brought them together amid the nightmare of Britain's first suicide bombing.
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Adrian and Dan were speaking to The Sun when they discovered that neither of them are among the invited guests who will attend a commemoration service on July 7, organised by the Mayor of London.
Dan says: 'That's crazy. I'm the worst injured survivor from all four attacks. It just shows the level of contempt that Adrian myself and others are treated with.
'It's not like they won't know who we are. I've been pretty vocal over the last 20 years about wanting a public inquiry and how bad the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority operates.'
Adrian, who won a Royal Humane Society award for his bravery in 7/7 adds: 'I've never been invited to any memorial day in the last 20 years.'
To mark the anniversary, Dan has written a book, Back from The Dead, telling the incredible story of how he survived not only the bombing but the demons that have haunted him for two decades.
'Died three times'
He says: 'I've died three times on an operating table and had the same number of goes at killing myself. Luckily, the doctors were brilliant at saving my life and I was crap at ending it.
'It's 20 years since the bombing and it's still as crystal clear in my head now as if it happened 30 seconds ago.'
It took just 10 seconds for construction site manager Dan's life to change for ever.
At 8.52am he was leaning against the Perspex partition at the front of the second carriage on the Tube train travelling from Edgware Road towards Paddington.
Suicide bomber Khan, 30, from Leeds, was on the seat the other side of the Perspex, just six inches away.
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Dan recalls: 'His rucksack was on his lap in line with my knees as I stood next to him. He looked up at me, quickly lowered his eyes, put his right hand through the zip in the top of his bag and exploded himself.
'When the bomb went off in a brilliant white flash an immense amount of heat hit me.
It's 20 years since the bombing and it's still as crystal clear in my head now as if it happened 30 seconds ago
'It was as if someone had pumped the carriage up to the maximum it could take and then sucked it out really quickly.
'The hand pole from the carriage speared my body before I bounced out of the train headfirst, hit the tunnel wall and landed in the crawlspace with a big chunk of metal on top of me. My arms and hands were alight and my face was burnt as well.
'Shredded and blown'
'The left leg was gone above the knee, the right leg was shredded and blown around 180 degrees. I was on my back but my toes dug into the ground.
'With one eye I had left, I saw bodies and body parts all around. There was a girl lying behind me. I could see the catastrophic injuries which had left her dead.
'Something was digging in my back. I pulled it out. It was a foot in a black brogue shoe. I just screamed for help in absolute fear and panic. I didn't think I would live and I'm not one of these people that's frightened of dying.
'But I was terrified of dying alone. I didn't want my dad to have to identify what was left because I could see the devastation that the blast had caused.'
Dan's piercing screams had been heard – by Adrian, who had been in the third carriage.
The former military medic had blood pouring down his face and a dislocated shoulder but instead of fleeing he stepped over several charred bodies and headed towards Dan's cries for help.
Not knowing where the electric track was still live, Adrian crawled under the carriage through pools of blood to get to Dan.
Dan says: 'All my bad luck ended after the bomb had gone off because I was found by probably the most ideal person that could have found me in that tunnel that day.
'In the space of 30 seconds to a minute I came face-to-face with the worst that humanity had, in the scumbag that did this to us, and then the very best. Not for one moment did Adrian think to himself 'I could get killed here'.'
The 44-year-old South African who had served on four tours in Kosovo, told Dan 'Don't worry, I've been in this situation before. I'll get you out'.
Adrian, who was working as bodyguard back then, pushed his hand into what was left of Dan's leg, pinched the gaping femoral artery shut to stop his life ebbing away.
Such was the chaos of 7/7 that Adrian asked for a first aid kit to be brought to Dan as he lay in the tunnel but when he opened the wooden box the only thing in it was an onion.
After 40 minutes, help arrived and as Dan was loaded into an ambulance Adrian vowed 'It doesn't matter where you go, I'll find you'. It would be three months before they were reunited.
Incredibly Dan still carries photos on his phone of his injuries when he arrived at St Mary's hospital, Paddington.
He says: 'I looked like somebody who had been put through a chipper. Doctors found £7.40 in cash embedded in my body. The 20p piece is still there
'I died three times in the operating theatre.
In the space of 30 seconds to a minute I came face-to-face with the worst that humanity had, in the scumbag that did this to us, and then the very best
'I have a scar on my chest where they opened me up and a surgeon put her magic fingers into my chest and manually pumped my heart.
'All the machines said I was well dead but the surgeon never stopped massaging my heart. At 15 minutes they are obliged to make it official that I'm a goner.
'The hands-on doctor had nine seconds left when my heart began beating on its own. I woke up eight weeks later.'
Over the years Dan and Adrian - who appear in the four-part Netflix series Attack on London: Hunting the 7/7 bombers from July 1 - have become mates linked by the horrors they witnessed in the tunnel.
Dan says: 'Amazing medical care put my body back together.
'My mind is as broken'
'But my mind's just as broken now as it was 20 years ago because there are some things that are so enormous that your brain can't process it.
'I'm sure it's the same for Adrian. We don't remember our trauma without reliving it.
'Sirens are a massive trigger because when Adrian and the paramedics carried me out of the station the noise of sirens was everywhere.
'I smell burnt meat. I'm not in a restaurant, I'm back on the floor of that tunnel after I've seen somebody burn to death. That doesn't go away. People say time's a great healer - it's a load of cr*p.
I'm living the life sentence that the bloke that did this to me should be serving
'What time does is it teaches you the mechanisms to manage the impact of the trauma. It doesn't lessen the frequency of the flashbacks and the night terrors.'
Dan suffers from complex PTSD and after 20 years Mohammed Khan the bomber still haunts his mind daily.
Both men also suffer guilt, Dan for surviving when so many died, Adrian – who went back into the tunnel 12 times – wondering if could have saved more lives.
Ten years ago this month, Dan married the love of his life, wife Gem, near their home in South Wales and Adrian was delighted to be there.
Adrian, who now runs a specialist tunnelling company, tells Dan: 'I might have fixed your body and kept you alive but Gem definitely fixed your heart and your mind.'
Dan, who runs his own company helping disabled people find work, does not know what the next 20 years hold. Because of what his body has gone through he cannot get life insurance or a mortgage.
He says: 'If I drop dead tomorrow, Gem has got nothing.
'Khan robbed me of not just my legs, my eye, my spleen and my sanity. He robbed me of being able to provide a secure future for my wife through no fault of my own.
'I'm living the life sentence that the bloke that did this to me should be serving.'
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Call for public inquiry
FOR 20 years, pals Dan Biddle and Adrian Heili have campaigned for a public inquiry into the 7/7 bombings.
Dan says: 'It was the first Islamist extremist terrorist attack and the first suicide attack on UK soil.
'How much did MI5, MI6 and counter-terrorism units know about the four bombers - Khan, Germaine Lindsay, Shezad Tanweer and Hassib Hussein.
'I believe they identified them quicker than I was identified.
'Rightly we had public inquiries into the Manchester Arena attack, the Grenfell fire and the shooting of John Charles Menezes.
'So, what makes 7/7 different? Because the blame sits with the government.'
Adrian adds: 'If you sweep it under the carpet for 20 years it festers and people become more doubtful of government if they are not if they're not getting the answers.
'We just don't want it to be forgotten.'