59yo suffers car crash injuries – broken neck, fractured spine, blood in lungs. The headspinner? He was not in a car crash

A man in the United Kingdom almost died from injuries he sustained while walking around in his own house — and reportedly it was all because of his cat.

Chris Rowley, 59, recalled the incident that happened in 2022, saying, “I can’t remember much, just falling fast — it was quick and it was over within seconds, then I was at the bottom.” According to the New York Post, Rowley fractured his skull, broke a bone in his neck, sustained two spine fractures, nine broken ribs, and had a little bit of blood in his lungs. Rowley certainly proved to yet another mischievous cat that he too just might also have nine lives.

Rowley is a musician, and at the time he was at home alone with a six-month-old hairless Egyptian sphinx kitten, Eric — named after comedian Eric Morecambe. The cat seemingly lived up to his name and was playing around with Rowley’s ankle as cats usually do when they pretend to be hunting their owner. That’s when tragedy struck.

Rowley, trying to piece things together, explained, “He bit my leg, as a kitten would, and I lost my footing trying to get him off. I can’t remember much about the fall, only that I went down fast. I was bleeding from my head — I must have hit it on a metal frame at the bottom.” To make matters worse, on that particular evening, Rowley’s wife, Jackie Millerchip, was working a night shift at her children’s care worker’s job.

Doctors later went on to describe Rowley’s survival as “lucky” and also called his injuries “car crash like.” But the detail that’s most surprising is not even just that — it’s how long he lay on his house floor. Shockingly, Rowley lay in a pool of his own blood for 14 hours before his wife came back home, too injured to reach the phone. Too hurt to cry out for help.

Rowley described the experience as a sense of claustrophobia and recounted that it was the hardest sensation of his life. When it rains it pours, because while Jackie usually gets home at 8:30 in the morning — that particular day she was held up and ended up getting home at 10 o’clock in the morning. Jackie recalled her experience saying, “He was saying, ‘Oh you’re home, help, help.’ By this time, he’d dragged himself onto the landing.” Jackie continued, “I took one look at him and knew he had really hurt himself. I panicked and called 999.”

Reportedly, when he finally got to the hospital and the doctors heard the full story, they were just as surprised as anyone who later read that Rowley had survived. The couple set up a GoFundMe asking for 1,000 sterling pounds — which seems reasonable, perhaps because the UK, unlike the US, has such a reliable medical system. They have since passed their asking amount by 600 pounds. Hopefully Rowley is much better now and finding safer activities to do with their cat.

The last update the couple gave was on November 25th, 2022, when he was still undergoing scans and just hoping he could get back to his former self.