Rugby player defies odds after crash

Joe Sandford prepares to celebrate Christmas after a remarkable recovery from a car crash in July. Doctors said he would die or at best live without being able to walk or talk again.

Prognosis was bleak with doctors saying he would be unable to walk or talk

A young British rugby talent whose family were told he would likely die after a car crash in New Zealand is now walking, talking and vowing to play rugby again next season.

Joe Sandford, 22, is thought to have fallen asleep at the wheel when the car he was driving crashed in Northland this year.

Joe was in New Zealand playing for Bay of Plenty's Rangataua Rugby and Sports Club on a scholarship from Mount Maunganui's Inside Running Academy when the crash happened in July.

The then 21-year-old had been in New Zealand since April and was living at the Mount, using his free time to sightsee.

He set out early on July 3 to drive the 440km to the Bay of Islands and sustained critical head injuries in the crash, as well as a fractured pelvis, ruptured spleen and a broken vertebra.

His prognosis was initially bleak with doctors telling his family that he would likely die and at best live unable to walk or talk, and with "no coherence at all".

Joe is now at home in England and spoke to the Bay of Plenty Times via Skype as his family gathered for Christmas. He recounts the news doctors gave his parents when they arrived in New Zealand two days after the crash.

"[The first one said,] 'He's going to die' and the second one said, 'He might live but the chance of him being a normal human being again is zero'," Joe says.

The smiley Sandford shows little sign of the horrific injuries he suffered, other than having slightly slow speech.

He credits his remarkable recovery to determination and the quality of medical care he received in New Zealand.

He was initially treated at Auckland City Hospital, where he was placed in an induced coma while his parents, Steve Sandford and Jane Snow, rushed from their home in Mayfield, East Sussex, to mount a bedside vigil.

After five weeks, Joe defied doctors' predictions by waking from the coma, having spent his July 14 birthday unconscious.

"My first words were not particularly coherent but that's not the point," he says with a laugh.

"I don't remember anything from 24 hours before [the crash] until mid-August."

He has no recollection of regaining consciousness or being discharged from hospital on August 8. "My first memory is when my friends came to visit me in the rehab centre."

Joe was transferred to the ABI Rehabilitation centre in Ranui, West Auckland, and he recalls "sitting around and talking nonsense" with his New Zealand rugby friends.

He was in a wheelchair and still needed help to sit upright, but that was quick to change, explains his father, Steve, who joins the Skype interview.

"Joe's sense of balance was affected but, at the point that his sense of balance returned, he went from bed to wheelchair to walking with a stick to walking pretty much unaided in about 10 days," Steve says.

Joe Sandford playing rugby in Britain before his crash.

The elder Sandford first spoke to the Bay of Plenty Times 10 days after his son's crash.

He, his wife and Joe's sister, Georgina, had been told to expect a combination of mental and physical impairment for Joe, and Steve spoke of the family's devastation.

Now, he credits his son's survival and return to near-perfect health to his "incredible fitness and remarkable mental attitude", as well as "the enormous skill" of Auckland City Hospital surgeons and nurses.

"I think that's probably why we're now about to have a Christmas that we can enjoy rather than a Christmas we have to endure," Steve says.

Steve also praises the care at ABI Rehabilitation, saying it was "absolutely first-class".

Joe says he is particularly grateful to the therapists there, admitting he has worked hard to regain his speech.

It was slurred at the start and sounded like he was drunk, he says.

His remarkable progress saw him able to return home to Britain on October 19.

He continues to see a speech and language therapist and a neuro-psychologist, but says he is back to normal apart from not being able to drive for two years.

"I'm going to the gym four times a week, and I'll be playing rugby again as of next season."

His dad intervenes and says they will be seeking medical advice before that happens.

"But certainly Joe's aim is to get back playing rugby as soon as he can," Steve adds.

Joe Sandford wants to return to playing for his home club, Heathfield and Waldron, which he says has given him immense support and is the reason he can afford rehabilitation treatments in Britain.

He would also like to return to New Zealand in the future but "not drive like that again".

"Yeah," Steve agrees.

"Maybe let somebody else do the driving."

Crash reports concluded that Joe likely fell asleep after his car was seen to drift across the road by another driver. Tests for drugs and alcohol proved negative.

Joe was volunteer coaching at Tauranga's Bethlehem College before the crash and his father says the school's Jill Morrison helped find him and his wife a place to stay near Auckland so they could visit their son in hospital every day. Steve wished to thank her as well as their hosts, Greg and Barb Ingham of Karaka, Mike Rogers and Kent Hale of the Inside Running Academy, emergency services in Whangarei, "the entire staff at the neurological and critical care ward at Auckland City Hospital", and the ABI Rehabilitation team.

There were others too numerous to name, Steve saying the support the family received in New Zealand during their ordeal was remarkable.

"One of the things you can be really proud of in New Zealand is the professionalism and care of your emergency services, of the hospital and also the rehab services."

Asked if he believes his son's recovery is a miracle, Steve Sandford pauses for a second.

"Shall I just say, there was so much positive energy being offered up ... I think the only people who weren't out rooting for Joe were the Jedis."