Pensioner fights for life after gate fall

The former electrical engineer in his 70’s was attempting to open the gate around 8am last Friday, when the incident happened. He was going to meet friends to go for his regular walk around Wallace Park when the freak accident occurred. He had just left his 16-year-old grandson to the train, then drove to the entrance close to the Belsize Road. Speaking to the Star the man’s wife told how he had pulled the bar across in an attempt to open the gate when it fell on top of him. It took several men to pull the gate from the man who was helped into the car and then taken home. His wife said that she was shocked to see her husband so badly injured and called the emergency services. He was then taken to hospital by ambulance where he was treated and he remained in intensive care yesterday (Thursday). He was found to be suffering from a range of injuries including a ruptured bladder, a broken left hip, badly fractured pelvis and broken ribs. “He was conscious and was talking to me but I knew that he was in a bad way,” said his wife. “He had a bladder repair operation on Friday evening but when he came round he got very agitated and upset which is so not like him. He was put into an induced coma. He has since had a hip replacement too. “He has increasingly gone downhill in the hospital and is lying in intensive care at the moment. I just don’t know how it happened. It is just terrible. We had heard that the gate had been in bad repair for a long time but the gate or something but there was no indication. “The man who took him home did so in good faith. I don’t think he knew just how badly injured he was. It was very good of him to take him home. “We all feel very annoyed over the whole incident. We just want him to get better. “My husband is lying in intensive care at the moment and all he was wanting to do was to get into the park. “If that had been a young child or something we would have been looking at something a lot more serious. There is no doubt that the child would have been killed. “I think people should be made aware of this. I just want my husband to get better. He is really not well and I just want him home and be better. “He is a very fit man. I hope that he gets over this allright. I know that age is not on his side.”