Harold Price relearns to walk after breaking his neck

Harold Price, 82, a retired engineer from Griffithstown in Wales, relearned to walk after breaking the fifth vertebra in his neck and spending months in hospital. He had been told he would not walk again but, with physiotherapist Sam Miggins at the Morrello Clinic in Newport, he has regained mobility.

Price was riding a restored motorbike in June 2021 when a friend pulled out in front of him at about 10mph; he remembers his head snapping back into his helmet before he blacked out. The injury caused compression of his spinal cord and he spent months in hospital. Back home he first used a wheeled lifting frame a friend devised 'on the back of a fag packet' and in 2022 met Miggins after an engineer mentioned the Morrello Clinic while his house was being adapted.

Miggins told him 'I’ll get you to walk' and he began twice-weekly sessions on an active-passive bike, with resistance training, stretching and supported walking. Progress was slow: it took six months to use an upright walker, and he now walks 400m up and down the road outside the clinic with a Zimmer, can walk short distances at home with a frame, and has stopped suffering severe spasms. He returns to hospital once a year for a medication review; at one such visit a doctor said, 'Well, Mr Price, you proved us wrong,' to which Price replied, 'It’s because of Sam,' and the doctor said, 'It’s not down to Sam, it’s down to you.'

Key Topics

Health, Harold Price, Griffithstown, Newport, Sam Miggins, Morrello Clinic