IT'S taken more than six years but Sean Fowler finally has his life back today.

IT'S taken more than six years but Sean Fowler finally has his life back today.

The 37-year-old was crushed by a crane in a horrific workplace accident but he refused to let the nightmare crush his spirit.

Despite an appalling prognosis the former solider fought back from the brink of death with the help of staff at Ipswich Hospital who became like a family to him during the eight months he spent there.

Today Mr Fowler said he desperately wanted to thank the dedicated medical staff who gave him a second chance at life.

“My pelvis was broken in three places and I had a torn urethra,” the dad-of-one said.

“I also lost about four pints of blood and blood was coming out of everywhere it could.

“My insides were torn up and I had to have about eight or nine operations - it really didn't look like I was going to make it.

“I never got the chance to say thank you properly to the emergency services and hospital and I owe them my life.

“The team at Ipswich Hospital became like a family to me, if it wasn't for them I don't think I would have ever have got through it - physically or emotionally.

“They kept my chin up throughout it all, even though it was worse than a nightmare come true. The pain was so bad it is truly impossible to explain. And I must have been hard work by screaming because of the pain.”

The accident at New Cut East, which is now the subject of a compensation battle, saw Mr Fowler crushed from the upper thighs to chest, with his insides squished together, a sensation he describes as someone putting a balloon inside his chest and pumping it up.

And once he was at Ipswich Hospital the nightmare continued when he developed a bone infection in his pelvis which meant pus constantly leaked out of his body while the infection ate away at his bone, muscle and flesh.

After spending eight months in Ipswich Hospital he needed two more operations, one at a specialist bone centre in Oxford, and another in London to allow him to use the toilet, before he could start slowly piecing his life together again and learning to walk.

Now Mr Fowler, who fought in Northern Ireland with the Royal Anglian Regiment during his time in the Army, has started a new job as a driver for National Car Hire.

He is still on pain killers and takes antidepressants to deal with the horrific memories and flashbacks, but relishes every small achievement as a new triumph.

He said: “I can only just tie my shoelaces again, before I needed to get someone else to do it for me.

“It was a nightmare learning to walk again but I had to keep going. I spent hours with the physiotherapist getting myself back on track.

“It really does have a happy ending now! I'm never going to be the same again but I have come further than I ever thought possible.”