A farmer has revealed how a metal tractor spike punctured his lung - narrowly missing his heart.

Dennis Bowman, 69, was working on a tractor at his farm near Kirkoswald when the freak accident happened.

Incredibly, Dennis - described as a stoical "typical Cumbrian farmer" - was able to pull the spike out of his chest and walk to his nearby farmhouse.

Her has shared his story to highlight the lifesaving work of the Great North Air Ambulance that came to his aid.

The tractor's heavy metal arm, tipped with three two-feet long metal bale spikes, had suddenly collapsed onto him, piercing his chest, breaking ribs and puncturing one of his lungs.

At the farmhouse, he then called his wife Barbara, 79, who rang an ambulance and also got a friend to take Dennis to the doctors' surgery in nearby Kirkoswald.

Within minutes, the Great North Air Ambulance had arrived, and as Penrith based Dr Theo Weston and a paramedic administered emergency treatment Dennis was flown to the Royal Victoria Infirmary (RVI) in Newcastle for specialist treatment.

Now fully recovered, Dennis said he wanted to share his experience because he was so impressed by the care he was given.

"I was just doing a bit of maintenance on the tractor, working on my own in the farmyard," said Dennis, whose 160 acre farm is a few miles from Renwick village, east of Penrith.

"I dropped some fence posts on to the tractor's loader, and it just tipped over towards me. It just didn't stop coming. It's a fairly heavy thing, and it just knocked me down.

"I was down on my knees, and I remember having to push the loader off me, but the spike point still had hold of my clothes. Then I saw the spike coming out of my chest.

"I didn't know what to think - and I couldn't work out how it could have happened. There was blood coming out of the hole so I knew it was worse than a sticking plaster job."

Somehow, the grandfather of nine struggled to his feet.

"I'm glad I got up when I did. If I hadn’t, I’m not sure I'd have been able to after a couple of minutes. It wasn't like I'd been stabbed. It was like I'd been hit by something extremely heavy - something really hard.

"I could hardly breathe."

After walking the 30 yards to his farmhouse, Dennis phoned Barbara.

He said: "She was on the yon side of Penrith, looking after the grandchildren, and I told her what had happened.

"She said she'd call an ambulance."

Despite knowing that he had a gaping hole in his chest, Dennis refused to panic. "I just knew it wasn't good," he said.

As well as dialing 999, Barbara called Dennis's friend Paul Stobart, who drove to the farm and then took him straight to the doctor's surgery in Kirkoswald, a 10 minute drive away.

The doctors there were astonished when Dennis walked to ask for help, despite the seriousness of his chest injury.

An ambulance crew and the doctor who met him there called in the Langwathby based GNAAS team, who landed in a nearby playing field within minutes of getting the call.

The whole was captured on camera by a film crew working for the More4 series Emergency Helicopter Medics.

Their footage shows Dr Weston treating Dennis, and quizzing him about the pain in his chest. Asked how bad it was on a scale of one to 10, the farmer replied: "About 4."

Dr Weston also administered morphine for pain, and used an ultrasound scanner on Dennis's chest, confirming that the spike had indeed pierced his lung and caused a collapse.

Dennis continued: "Dr Weston came in and knew immediately what he was doing. He took charge, and said they were taking me to Newcastle."

The journey to the RVI, a major trauma centre, took around 15 minutes - less than half the time of a road journey to Carlisle's Cumberland Infirmary. Thankfully, the tractor spike missed Dennis's major organs.

He said: "It hit me slightly to the side. If it had hit me in the middle and got my heart, it wold have been the end of the story. I went into hospital on the Friday and was out by the Monday.

"I never thought I'd need an air ambulance, and I hope I never need them again. But having seen what they do, I can't fault them.

“People don’t realise just how much difference the air ambulance makes.

“The staff at the hospital were brilliant as well. There was a whole team waiting for me and I was being scanned in just a few minutes. I can’t thank them all enough.”

Within a week of coming out of hospital, Dennis was back doing light work around the farm, with neighbours stepping in to help with more labour-intensive jobs.

Dr Weston said the horrific injury suffered by Mr Bowman was a good illustration of why the GNNAS service is so vitally important to Cumbria - and in particular its remoter areas.

He said: "With significant wounds such as this one that penetrate the chest there is the potential for damage to the heart and lungs and those sort of patients need to be in a specialist hospital which can deal with that sort of injury.
Dennis Bowman with wife Barbara

"It needs to be a major trauma centre.

"If the prong had hit his heart, or a major blood vessel, then he would certainly have been in a critical condition. He would have needed open heart surgery."

The principle behind GNAAs is that the service brings the skills and competence of a hospital A&E Department to the patient, allowing for certain life-saving procedures to be done far sooner. The helicopter also gets the patient to a specialist medical centre in a fraction of the time a road ambulance would take.

Such treatments - which paramedics are unable to provide - include giving blood transfusions, and putting patients into an induced coma.

Referring to Mr Bowman's reaction to his accident, Dr Weston said: "He coped amazingly well. He's a typical Cumbrian farmer, and incredibly stoical and strong.

"He was playing down his injury quite significantly.

"He clearly did have some pain in his chest, though he may not have been fully aware of the potential for things to go wrong. We knew that the spike had punctured his chest, very close to his heart."

During Emergency Helicopter Medics that features Dennis, Dr Weston spoke of how he was inspired to work for GNAAS by his late father, who was instrumental in introducing rapid response doctors into Cumbria.

He said: "Dennis certainly reminds me of my father: a determined, strong
Dr Theo Weston character, not wanting any fuss, but there are times when they just need to be taken care of."

Speaking during the programme, Dr Weston added: "I don't think Dennis realised quite what a close call he has had. If the spike had been a millimetre or two either way and had punctured a blood vessel or even his heart, it could have been a completely different story."

As a charity, GNAAS must raise around £5m every year to survive. To help, visit www.gnaas.com