Richard Rudd, a 43-year-old coach driver from Kidderminster, having heard that a friend had become a paraplegic after an accident, once told his family that he wouldn't want to be kept alive if that ever happened to him.Nine months ago he was riding his motor bike when he was in an accident with a car. He was thrown 20 feet, suffered severe spinal injuries and later developed a blood infection and a bout of pneumonia. He lay in hospital unable to move.
His family, convinced there was no way he would want to live with his injuries, agreed that his life support should be switched off.
Then Professor David Menon, of the neuro critical care unit at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, noticed that Richard - the father of two teenage girls - could move his eyes. It became clear that he was aware of what was happening and that he could answer questions by moving his eyes to the right or the left.
Asked several times if he wanted to continue to be treated, he clearly indicated that he did.
Although he is not expected to recover completely, he can already move his head a little, smile and make facial expressions.
What a person says when he is fit and well and how he feels when he is in a life threatening situation are two very different things.
Richard's father put it well. "We all sit round and talk in the pub or at work and say 'If this happened to me, turn the machine off.' It's all hypothetical and you don't know until it happens to yourself.
"But now Richard's in the situation where that's actually happened. It's real life - it's not pretend. He is in that situation.
"Making a living will could be detrimental to your own health. Imagine if you changed your mind and you couldn't communicate it.
"If that person can't decide for themselves, sometimes you feel you can decide for them. You probably have no right to do that.
"For my part, I'm glad he's alive."
Richard's moving story, Between Life and Death, filmed by the BBC, can be seen on YouTube. You can watch it by clicking here.
