British Telecom engineer Malcolm Tripp has spoken of the moment he regained consciousness to find a garden fork imbedded in his left leg.

Mr Tripp, 60, of Bouverie Drive, Market Lavington, spent five days in hospital after being airlifted by Wiltshire Air Ambulance to hospital in Bristol.

This week, as he continues to recover at home, he said: “I had a little black out and when I woke up my first thought was to check for broken bones.

“Everything seemed to still be moving but then I realised the fork was stuck in my leg.

“My son, who had been working in the garden with me, dialled 999 and my wife was talking to me trying to keep me calm.

“A neighbour who is a nurse arrived and did some first aid. The ambulance arrived and I heard the helicopter overhead.

“Everyone was amazing. I can’t thank them enough.”

He said the ordeal was probably worse for his son Tobie, 22, and wife Gill as they had to watch as paramedics went into action to cut off the top part of the fork before he could be moved.

Mr Tripp was taken by ambulance to the helicopter that had landed less than a mile away at Lavington School and he arrived at Southmead Hospital just 14 minutes after take off.

The drama did not end once he arrived in Bristol. Doctors wanted to scan his leg before trying to remove the fork but it was too long to go in the machine. Bristol firefighters had to come and cut off the steel base before the scan could go ahead.

Now, two weeks after the accident, Mr Tripp can remember everything that happened right up until the moment he fell onto the fork.

He said: “I still don’t really know how it ended up in my thigh but I was very lucky. If it had been a few inches either way it would have been much more dangerous.”

He said he had been working on a side border in the back garden with his son and he had climbed onto a low retaining wall, but one of the paving stones had come loose and he lost his balance.

“I know I was holding the fork at the time but not exactly what happened.”

Mr Tripp intends to raise funds for the Wiltshire Air Ambulance to say thank you.