A councillor has spoken for the first time of undergoing life-saving surgery in the William Harvey Hospital.

Paul Clokie was rushed to hospital from his Tenterden home after a blood clot exploded in his small intestine.

He underwent two operations, was in an induced coma and after coming out of hospital had to learn how to eat, wash and dress himself again.

In his first interview since going home, Cllr Clokie, 78, the former Ashford Borough Council (ABC) leader said: “I am a very lucky man.

“My family was told I was unlikely to survive. They had the worst of it because I was completely out of it for three weeks.”

He had nothing but praise for the care he received in the William Harvey.

“Not only did the staff look after me, but they looked after my family as well and kept them informed throughout,” he said.

“If the William Harvey gets an emergency, they are absolutely brilliant.”

Cllr Clokie’s ordeal began when he was taken ill at his home off High Street in the middle of the night on Wednesday, December 3, last year.

“I know I went to the loo and was trying to be sick,” he said. “There was a lot of blood everywhere. That is the last thing I remember – I must have passed out.”

An ambulance was called and he was rushed to hospital in a paramedic’s car.

A blood clot had burst in his small intestine, causing a life-threatening sepsis. If not treated, it could have led to organ failure.

"I had deteriorated and they decided if they did not do something then, I would be dead." Cllr Paul Clokie

Surgeons operated the following night, keeping his family updated by regular phone calls.

“I had deteriorated and they decided if they did not do something then, I would be dead,” said Cllr Clokie.

“Although the operation was successful, they could not join up the two ends of my intestine so had to leave it open for three days until I had another operation.

“My family was told my chances of survival were not good because I was so weak.”

He was regularly visited by a close friend and by his brother, Julian Clokie.

His son, John, also visited as did one of his grandchildren, Georgina Clokie.

He has been a member of ABC since 1997, was leader for 11 years and is standing again in the May elections, but is not standing again for Tenterden Town Council where he has been a member since 2013.

He added: “I will be soon be back to being my normal busy-body self.”