An investment banker on a dream trip of South America was forced to have his 'dead' leg amputated after a horror motorbike crash.
Luke Tarrant quit his job in investment banking last September to embark on the voyage of a lifetime, riding from the US to Antarctica.
The 28-year-old said he knew motorbiking could be dangerous and felt that 'something was bound to happen eventually'.
He said: 'I've always had a passion for motorbikes and this was the dream trip I'd been planning for a while. I left my job for it and was having an amazing time.'
He was eight months into his adventure when he suffered a life-changing accident while riding in Colombia on May 30th.
Luke, from Bedford, has no memory of the crash — and is still trying to piece together the sequence of events.
After waking up in a ditch on the side of the road, he was picked up by a stranger and rushed to hospital for urgent treatment.
There, doctors informed him he had broken his tibia, collarbone and right hand — and that his left leg was 'dead' and needed to be amputated.
Luke said: 'I was in Colombia and was coming back down towards Ecuador when the crash happened.
'I don't remember anything. I remember waking up in a ditch and have a brief memory of someone holding me. It's like trying to remember a bad dream — just tiny snippets of memories.
'My motorbike was obviously wrecked. It could've been a slippery surface but police said they couldn't see any signs of another vehicle being involved. They don't fully know what happened.
'They told me pretty much straight away in hospital that I needed to lose my leg. I was told there was no saving it and it was already dead.
'I was just in survival mode when they told me. I felt quite rational about it. After I came around from the surgery, I felt fine. I'd made peace with it almost immediately, it was very bizarre.'
After the surgery, Luke's health deteriorated when he developed sepsis, blood clots and fluid on his lungs, forcing him to be placed on a ventilator.
He was transferred to critical and intensive care due to contracting sepsis after his amputation. He was then placed on a ventilator after his lungs began filling with fluid and blood clots.
Luke said: 'At that point, I realised this was the danger zone. The sepsis was way worse than the amputation - it nearly killed me.
'I think I was in critical and intensive care for about week then when the sepsis became less of a worry, they focused on trying to sort the amputated leg out.'
Luke underwent surgery eight times on his left leg within a two-week period. During this time, Luke's family began documenting his recovery on Instagram to inform loved ones of his condition, gaining more than 100,000 followers.
Luckily, he made a recovery and was flown back to the UK after a month in the Colombian hospital. He has remained at an amputee centre to help adapt to life with one leg.
He said: 'In the back of my head, I always knew doing a high-risk activity like motorbiking that something was bound to happen eventually.
'I've just been in acceptance mode about it from very early on. I'm not going to grow my leg back so may as well get on with it.'
Since the crash, Luke has been determined to use his story as a force for good, documenting his amputation journey on social media to help others.
He said: 'It started out with me just updating my mates. And when I started using my phone again, I kept updating people and it slowly started turning into something different.
'People messaged me saying they saw my story and it motivated them. I'm starting to view it a bit differently than before. I'm hoping it can be used as a force for good.'
A fundraiser has since been launched to help pay for private physiotherapy for Luke as well as any prosthetics he may need, which has already racked up £55,000 in donations.
Luke said: 'I'm incredibly grateful for all the support. I've had messages from people of every part of life. This has taught me that no matter what happens to me in life, I know I'll be able to handle it. The generosity of other people has made me want to give back.'
