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Leeds miracle recovery DJ plays on EXCLUSIVE
Dean Smahon.
A DJ is rebuilding his life after losing both feet and seven fingers to blood poisoning.
Dean Smahon was taken seriously ill last October and within 24 hours was in an induced coma.
He was given only a five per cent chance of survival.
Now, with only a thumb and two fingers on his left hand and none on his right, Dean is back behind the decks and setting up his own charity.
“I really want to make a difference, otherwise you wonder what it’s all about,” he told the YEP.
Dean was taken ill last October with excruciating pain in his hip.
At Leeds General Infirmary, he was taken to intensive care and put into an induced coma.
He was diagnosed with septicaemia, which doctors still don’t know how he contracted, which doctors said left the quality of his blood “incompatible with life”.
As his organs failed, Dean’s girlfriend Kirsty McHale was told to expect the worst. She said: “His chances were less than five per cent. They said they’d never seen anyone so poorly survive.”
But Dean pulled through and after 11 days came out of the coma.
The following month the 49-year-old had both legs amputated from the shins down and lost two fingers on his left hand.
Dean, who lives in Leeds city centre, was discharged from hospital on Christmas Eve but in February had all those digit on his right hand amputated.
He said he had been “overwhelmed” with support from his girlfriend and friends and praised the care at LGI.
Inspired by the backing he has had, the DJ - who with Graham Dixon runs the Leeds club night Back to Mine - is determined not to let his disability stop him.
As well as regularly DJing, he has set up a trust fund to raise cash for top-class prosthetics and also to help children with similar disabilities.
“I feel if my experience can help one other person then some good will have come from the loss I have faced,” he said.
The former athlete, who represented Northern Ireland at javelin, is also hoping to take up paralympic sport and is planning a book about his battle.
Fellow DJ Alex Simmons has organised the first fundraising event for Dean’s trust fund, a club night on Saturday at the Loft in Leeds.
“To look at him now and how positive he is, it makes you realise how resilient humans can be,” Alex said.
The fundraising night is at the Loft on Saturday from 11pm until 6am.
To contribute to Dean’s trust fund or for details, visit: www.sponsor-me.org/deanos_rehabilitation or find him on Facebook.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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