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A father waiting more than a year for surgery to save his leg says he now wishes it had been amputated because of the delays.
Daniel Boughton, from Rochester , crashed while riding his motorcycle last summer shattering his knee and crushing his left leg.
The dad-of-five has 8cm of his femur missing and has been housebound since the accident on August 27, 2019. He cannot walk without crutches.
Emergency surgery at Medway Maritime Hospital saw Daniel's leg stabilised as surgeons inserted a metal plate.
But that was 13 months ago.
Since then, Daniel has been unable to work, go out walking and do things with his family and friends and is still waiting for a knee replacement operation. All of which he says has been taking its toll on his mental health.
Daniel says he remembers very little about the accident near Screwfix in Maidstone Road which saw him collide with a car. No further police action was taken.
The 41-year-old says he was told he was found upside down in hedges on the opposite side of the road after being thrown over the handlebars of his 1000cc bike.
Now he is resigned to sitting and sleeping in the front room every day. At 6ft 4ins tall, he says having to keep his leg straight is extremely difficult but he manages to do limited exercises to try to stop his muscles deteriorating further.
He cannot walk anywhere without crutches and says he feels "vulnerable" on the rare times he's had to go out for hospital appointments.
While Daniel says he could just about manage to get upstairs to go to bed, he says he prefers to sleep downstairs in case he needs to get out of the house in an emergency.
"I don't leave the house at all," he said. "The only time has been when they took me to King's College Hospital. I can't bend my knee at all and at 6ft 4ins there's not many places I can fit.
"With lockdown it's been twice as hard. People haven't been able to see me and I can't see them and I'm losing touch with friends.
Daniel was referred to King's College Hospital in south east London for a CT scan and is under the care of a consultant.
The Covid pandemic has forced surgery dates to be delayed but Daniel says he just wants to be told a timeframe about when he can have the operation.
"Originally, they told me they were hoping to get me in next January," he told KentOnline.
"But then they said they were really sorry but we can't get you in.
"I understand they've got life-saving treatment, cancer treatment and life-preserving treatment. They've got to come first, I get that.
"They want to save the leg which I'm grateful for. Of course I want to keep my own leg.
"If I'm really honest, I wish they had taken it off and I'd have begun my rehabilitation by now"
"But now not knowing a year down the line, if I'm really honest, I wish they had taken it off and I'd have begun my rehabilitation. I would be on a prosthetic by now."
Daniel, who has two daughters aged 13 and three older children, says the hardest part is not knowing what will happen to his leg.
But doctors have not guaranteed Daniel the leg will be fixed permanently and he still has about a 50% chance it will be amputated even once the surgery takes place.
The procedure involves building a gauze cage which will be filled with bone marrow and bone fragments to grow new bone inside the cage.
The final stage of the procedure is reattaching the muscles and ligaments to the rest of his leg.
"My surgeon is very good and a specialist. The operation is not a straightforward one by any means," Daniel says. "But if they could get me there, I'd get it done anywhere.
"I don't think it's about being forgotten about. I just don't think they know when they can get the operating team together."
Before the accident, Daniel worked on sites for Medway Norse and also as a coach driver and mechanic but has been forced to hand in his licence because of his injury.
Because he's unable to stand by himself without crutches, he's had to have help from his wife getting dressed and washed.
"She's not my carer, she's my wife," Daniel added. "But she's become my carer and it's tough."
He says he's been lucky to have support and does not know how anyone their own in his situation would have been able to cope.
A contacted King's College Hospital NHS Trust spokesman said: “Mr Broughton was scheduled for surgery earlier this year, but unfortunately it had to be postponed due to the large number of Covid-19 patients we were treating.
"While we are still caring for patients with Covid-19 and other life-threatening conditions, we have been increasing our capacity to treat other patients, including those requiring complex surgery, such as Mr Broughton.
"Safety is crucial, so we have been working with the private sector and other NHS hospitals to make sure patients can access the treatment they need as quickly as possible. We apologise to Mr Broughton for the unavoidable delay.”
