A loving dad of two was left brain damaged after a car ploughed into him in a near fatal crash just yards from his own house in Lancashire.
Tomasz Wojtas, 39, from Clitheroe, was knocked down returning from the shops, leaving his terrified 46-year-old wife, Agnes, racing outside to help.
Agnes said: “As soon as I saw his backpack on the street, I ran out of the house. I sat with him until an ambulance arrived to take him to the helicopter, which took him to Royal Preston Hospital.”
Mr Wojtas, who has lived in the area for eight years, faces a lenghty recovery as his distraught family struggles to provide him with the care he needs, Lancashire Live reports.
After the horrific accident, a frantic Agnes quickly visited her children at school, Amelia, 11 and Tomasz, 13, so that they could go to the hospital to see their dad.
Doctors informed them Mr Wojtas’s condition was worse than expected, explaining he may not even survive the accident and had suffered from a serious brain injury.
Doctors also explained her husband had also broken the axis in his spine where his head rests. Tomasz then underwent surgery to remove two bones in his skill, in order to ”save his brain” and there was a risk he could live in a lifelong coma or become paralysed.
Agnes said: “I was terribly afraid because Tom is my life, my oxygen. I knew I had to be strong for him, for the children and for myself – I couldn’t break down.”
After being in an induced coma for nine days, the dad-of-two started to wake up and after two weeks was able to start talking and moving his body.
Agnes added: “The first day he was unconscious but he squeezed my hand, moved his leg, opened his eyes. The doctors did not believe that it would work, that he would come back. After three days from waking up, he remembered me and that we have children. He does not remember where we live, or what day it is, but he knows he has a family.”
Mr Wojtas underwent further surgery to have plates inserted in place of his bones and now has a long road to recovery. He currently remains in hospital.
Still weak, he is unable to stand but will be undergoing rehabilitation and physiotherapy in order to improve.
Two months since the accident, Agnes is hoping to raise money towards her husband’s rehabilitation. She also is faced with rising costs such as household bills and feeding her family.
Agnes added: “Honestly, we were left without money for fees, plus rent. We get help from the food bank and I had to buy uniforms for the children for school. We don’t have a car so I use the help of good people who drive me and bring me from Preston to Clitheroe. I pay for fuel to some, because not everyone wants to drive for free.”
Although Tomasz, who worked as a chef, is receiving sick pay, the family is only receiving an additional weekly child tax credit. Once her husband is out of the hospital, she is planning on applying for Personal Independence Payment (PIP) but is relying on donations to help with her added costs.
Agnes added: “Tomasz has been working at Holmes Mill as a chef for six years, where everyone likes and respects him. I am diabetic, I take insulin – Tom always took care of me, now I take care of him.”
You can donate to the family whilst Tomasz is undergoing treatment, by visiting their GoFundMe page.
