‘I heard it snap' – Speedway star Tai Woffinden opens up on life-threatening crash and coma that was ‘worst thing ever'

The Sun

4 hours ago

LYING on the track in a tangled mess, Tai Woffinden admits the last thing he remembers is people crying at the extent of his injuries.
The five-times world champion blacked out minutes after the horror crash where he sustained over 15 BROKEN BONES following a high-speed pile-up in Krosno, Poland in late March.
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Great Britain ace Woffy, 34, was given an emergency helicopter airlift to hospital as fears grew over his survival because of chest injuries and a huge loss of blood.
He was then put in a medically induced coma after three lengthy major operations.
But two months after fighting for his life, Woffinden is now walking and eight weeks ahead in his gruelling recovery plan in rehab.
In his first interview since the incident, he reveals how he heard the femur bone in his leg snap on impact and that the first people on the scene were in tears on seeing his condition because his arms were 'pointing in the wrong direction'.
He admitted: 'I remember everything. In the race that I crashed I made a pretty decent start, so I blipped the throttle a little bit coming into the corner.
'The junior rider off gate one drove over the kerb, ran into the guy that was off gate two, who then collected me.
'As I got collected, as you normally do, you drop it on the side and slide towards the fence. And then while sliding across the track, my bike hit the APD (airfence) first, which lifted it up probably about a metre.
'And the moment I saw that lift, I just went, 'oh f***'. And then I hit the fence, I heard my femur snap.
'It's almost like if you're underwater and you snap a tree branch.
'I then was laid on the track. I remember looking up and seeing everybody around me. The team manager's face looked like he had seen a ghost.
Tai Woffinden walks for first time after coma as Speedway star reveals horror list of injuries after terrifying crash
'One person was crying looking at my body. My arms were pointing all in the wrong direction. My left shoulder was dislocated, pointing upwards.
'My right humerus was shattered at the bottom. My elbow was dislocated and my elbow was broken.
'I actually couldn't see my hands when I was laying on the track because they were both pointing up.
'So I'm sat there saying, 'give me some meds'. I was saying 'bol, bol, bol' which means pain in Polish just to make sure they knew what I was talking about.
'I don't know if I passed out from the amount of Fentanyl they'd given me or the amount of blood that I'd lost.'
Woffinden, Britain's greatest-ever rider, had a double compound right femur fracture, broken back, right humerus compound fracture, dislocated and smashed right elbow, 12 broken ribs,punctured lung, left broken shoulder blade and dislocated left shoulder.
He added: 'I remember the blades of the helicopter, the noise of it starting to take off. And then the next thing, I'm in a coma.
'There were so many injuries, I probably wouldn't have been able to be awake and deal with the injuries. One of the operations was 12 hours long and I had multiple blood transfusions.
'I thought a coma would have been a pleasant sleep. It was quite the opposite. It was the worst thing I'd ever experienced. It was quite scary at times. I was on sedatives and painkillers and antibiotics.
'I was hallucinating, I was dreaming and having nightmares. Normally you have a nightmare and you wake up. Well, I couldn't wake up.
'I dealt with some wild s***. I woke up from the coma, and everything that I'd dreamt, I believed it was real. And my wife Faye was like, 'mate, that didn't happen'. I was getting angry with Faye because she wasn't believing me.'
Woffinden refused to be drawn on what the future holds in speedway, his only focus is on full recovery from the huge toll of injuries.
He added: 'There's so many variables. We need to give it that extra month to heal and then have the CT scan so we can really see what's going on from all different angles.
'I might need another operation on my humerus in my arm because it was shattered in 27 places. If the metalwork hasn't helped it knit together, I'll need another op.
'I've done everything I possibly can. I've done four to five hours a day in rehab since I left the hospital. My progress is on another level.
'It's ridiculous. Where I'm at given the injuries is f*****g phenomenal.
'I would like to ride my bike again, whether that's competitive or not or just practice, who knows?
'But I just make micro personal goals to keep reaching. Only my recovery comes first.'