by Tejas Mehta
5 November 2010
An RAF officer broke his neck in an accident but kept fulfilling his duties – for almost an entire year.
Senior Officer Stephen Brunell failed to realise the severity of the injury for months, until eventually seeking medical attention, reports the Telegraph.
He had been driving to meet colleagues while serving near Kabul, in Afghanistan, when a suspicious van with its lights switched off headed for them. Believing it to be a Taliban attack vehicle, Officer Brunell and his colleague jumped out of their moving car, but had failed to notice a 12-foot ditch next to the road, which had been masked by heavy snow.
The non commissioned logistics officer, who is from South Wales, was hurt in his plunge but was convinced his injury was no more than a pulled muscle.
It was only upon receiving medical attention some time later that he was told by astonished doctors that he had almost severed his spinal cord after cracking a vertebra.