Father paralysed after falling off bucking bronco while on ‘lad’s holiday’

A man who had been out drinking to
celebrate his birthday in Portugal is unlikely to ever walk again after falling from a bucking bronco.


Bruce Ford, 49, from County Durham, was in Albufeira when he spotted the ride at a bar.
After just two seconds he fell from it and
landed on his neck, leaving him paralysed.
Bruce said: ‘The bouncers picked me up
and sat me on a chair but I just fell straight
off.
‘My friends called an ambulance and the
neurosurgeon operated the same night to put a metal plate in my neck.’

The Sunderland fan, from County Durham,
broke the fourth and fifth vertebrae in his
neck and he was resuscitated twice.
He spent two weeks in a Portuguese intensive care unit before he was
finally transported back to the UK.
He said: ‘It was very difficult for the first few weeks. The Portuguese doctors were just trying to keep me alive so I could be sent home.
‘They looked after me but the language
barrier was there. I was trying to get home as quickly as possible.’
The dad-of-two remembers very little of the
night but remembers telling his friends he
couldn’t feel his legs immediately after the
accident.
He is now exploring legal options as he feels
the safety padding around the bull was
inadequate.
Bruce, who has a 14- year-old son and two
teen step-children, will be on the spinal ward of a Glasgow hospital for at least another month. He said: ‘I’m officially paralysed below the elbow.
‘I can move my legs but there is no power in
them so it’s unlikely I’ll ever walk again.
‘And I have limited mobility in my left arm
now too. There may be progress over the
next year or two but the doctors aren’t
expecting me to walk.
‘I’m in denial. I’m still convinced I will be
dancing out of here.
‘It’s a hard thing to face but at the end of the
day I don’t have a choice so I have to get on
with it.’
Engaged to Louise Nicholls, who has been his ‘rock’, Bruce is still planning to marry in the summer.
His friends are now planning a cycle ride
from Glasgow to Sunderland to raise money
for the spinal unit in the Scottish city.