Rusty Brown joins campaign after surviving horror crash

Man left for dead in hit-and-run joins campaign to help injury victims

Transcript

00:00How do you feel about what happened to you? Are you angry about it?

00:11When he lost control of the vehicle he was doing 106 in a 60.

00:15Yeah, it doesn't bear thinking about.

00:20So the amputation happened about a week later.

00:23The NHS had several attempts at creating a limb seismal for me.

00:28I couldn't walk further than a couple of minutes.

00:31The pain was excruciating. The fit was terrible.

00:35It just wasn't working for me.

00:36I was getting despondent. I was getting upset.

00:40The other insurance company were basically suggesting

00:45that it was nothing to do with them.

00:49Which for the first year made things very, very difficult

00:52because there was then the danger that actually I wasn't going to get any compensation.

00:57We're talking tens of thousands of pounds for some of the limbs

01:03that only have a finite life.

01:07I found a very, very good solicitor who's been absolutely amazing

01:12and he managed to arrange an interim payment.

01:15So I had my first private limb fitted in August and it was like chalk and cheese.

01:21The mobility was fantastic.

01:25I can't explain the difference it made.

01:27For me, it was the turning point.

01:29It was me showing myself that I could be the old me.

01:34And all that was because of the interim payment.

01:37The case in the end took just over three years to settle.

01:42And in that time, through the interim payments,

01:43we managed to get the first limb, the powered limb and to change to a safer house.

01:50That made the world of difference. It really did.

01:54If I hadn't been able to make the claim, I would still be on an NHS limb.

02:00I wouldn't have been able to work. I wouldn't have been able to move.

02:04It just wouldn't be possible that I would have been a shadow of the person I was.

02:09I am disabled and there are things that I struggle with on occasions.

02:13There are things I can't do on occasions, but more often than not, I'm able-bodied.

02:19That's how I try and see myself.

02:21And that has all been thanks to being able to get the support that I needed to make that happen.