A fisherman hit by a freak wave before being smashed against the rocks looked down at his leg only to see the grisly sight of his thigh bone poking out. Jeremy Francis desperately cried for help for more than an hour as waves crashed all around him- fearing that he would bleed to death or be swept out to sea.
The 61-year-old, who is an experienced fisherman, found himself in the precarious situation after going angling on his own to his favourite beauty spot in Worm's Head, Rhossili, Swansea.
After the wind was knocked out of him by a large wave, he said he noticed something that looked like a stick poking out of his leg. However, when he went to touch it and realised that his leg was floppy like a rag-doll the seriousness of the situation soon dawned on him.
Jeremy said: "Another wave came over, then another, then another. The gulley was filling up and draining, trying to take me with it. It was like a washing machine. I thought my time had come."
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Crying out for help, he found himself stuck in a gully as waves kept crashing towards him. As the gully continued to fill up and drain away again with each wave, his bleeding and broken leg began floating in the blood-filled pool of water beneath him.
Jeremy managed to crawl further along to try and get away from the waves but was still stuck with no-one to help him - fearing that he would bleed out from his fractured leg.
An hour had passed and Jeremy virtually gave up hope when a man suddenly appeared on the top of the bank by the old coastguard station. The jogger had heard his cries and made it to the edge of the grass bank to see what was causing the commotion. Jeremy told him not to climb down as it was dangerous and to call the emergency services instead as a bone was sticking out of his leg.
But in a twist of luck, it turned out that the jogger was actually a doctor from a surgery in Pontarddulais and he went to the coastguard watch to get help. It was 20 minutes before the doctor and a coastguard reached the stricken and shocked fisherman.
The three of them waited for a coastguard helicopter to arrive. At first they were told one was arriving from west Wales. But half and hour passed, with Jeremy's leg still bleeding badly, and the helicopter was nowhere to be seen. Another call came in, the first helicopter had been cancelled and another one would arrive from North Devon in 40 minutes.
He said: "I was soaking wet obviously and I was getting really cold. I said to the doctor, 'You've got to get my legs out of this water' because I was shivering so much I could hardly breathe properly. Four or five coastguards came and put me on a stretcher. They never moved me anywhere but they cut all my clothes off and wrapped me up until the helicopter came."
One younger coastguard, who passed his colleague a bag, turned his head away from Jeremy to avoid looking at the bone which was jutting out.
Jeremy, who has fished at Worm's Head for 30 years, said the waves seemed to build up out of nowhere long after high water and also soaked the doctor and coastguard who stayed with him for over an hour after the "freak wave".
"I've been trying to work it out in my head. I know the tide, I know the wind direction. I know when to go fishing. But obviously, I don't know enough. Mother nature tells you doesn't it," he added.
Around two-and-a half-hours after the wave had swept him off the rocks, the helicopter finally appeared and he was airlifted before being transferred to an ambulance parked nearby.
Jeremy was then taken straight to Morriston Hospital where doctors operated on his nasty wound. In the following week, he had two more operations on his leg and was kept in hospital for another week to recover.
As the primary carer of his 94 year-old father, who is blind and has dementia, Jeremy said he has been relying on his two brothers to help out but said it has been difficult as he still cannot walk properly. Now undergoing physio, he said he hopes to recover so he can still fish in his favourite spot.
On how the freak accident has changed his outlook on life, he said: "It's made me think about looking after myself more and not just other people. There's things I should do for myself, like, getting a new pair of glasses and getting my teeth sorted. Just looking after myself basically."
Jeremy added that the staff at Morriston Hospital had been fantastic and his family have tried to contact the doctor who initially found him on that fateful day on September 14 to say thank you but have not had any luck. He wants to visit the coastguard office when he recovers and thank the coastguard in person for rescuing him that day.
A spokesperson for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency said at the time: "His Majesty’s Coastguard sent the Coastguard helicopter based at Newquay and Rhossili Coastguard Rescue Team to help the Welsh Ambulance Service just after 10am on Wednesday, September 14.
"A man had suffered injuries on the causeway at Worms Head. He was picked up by the Coastguard helicopter and passed into the care of the ambulance service. Mumbles Coastguard Rescue Team also attended to help prepare a helicopter landing site."
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