Man left bedbound with fractured neck after horror fall at Edinburgh Airport
A holidaymaker was left bedbound in hospital after he tripped on stairs at Edinburgh Airport and fractured his neck.
Andrew Marshall-Roberts was travelling home from Tenerife in March when he tripped on a set of stairs leading to the terminal at Scotland’s busiest airport.
The horror fall saw the 64-year-old, who is an active travel manager at ScotRail, forced to wait 45 minutes for an ambulance, during which time he was unable to move his arms or legs.
“I was holding the bannister with my left hand and holding my carry-on case with my right. I went to climb the next step and all I remember is the loud bang when my head hit the edge of the steps. It cut open from my forehead to my left orbital, and all the way down my nose,” he told our sister title, The Scotsman.
“Within a split second there were two further bangs, which was my neck breaking. Then I passed out.”
Mr Marshall-Roberts spent 10 days in intensive care with a fractured nose, forehead and neck, during which time he had to be intubated twice due to problems with his breathing.
He was then transferred to the spinal injuries unit at Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow for physiotherapy and rehabilitation. His injuries have left him with potentially permanent damage to his right arm and he is unable to return to work.
“One minute I was walking off the plane, planning my normal day of a Waitrose delivery, and thinking about what I’ve got to do. And then it changed to not knowing where I was, what had happened, with doctors telling me that they’ve got to operate otherwise if I fall again I might not survive,” he said.
“Suddenly I was bedbound and dependent on someone for everything. It was a huge journey to go on.”
He is now calling on Edinburgh Airport to make urgent changes to its processes, to ensure airbridges, appropriate signage and staff are in place to make getting on and off a flight safer for its passengers.
As a frequent traveller, he said he would feel “anxious” about flying into or out of Edinburgh Airport again, and would fear landing at a gate which did not have an airbridge.
“The airbridges should be working, and if they are not there should be signs up directing people to a lift, or a phone number to dial to get someone to take you to one,” he said.
“I would have used the lift. When I get off a plane, I’m tired, and I’d choose to use a lift when I’m carrying a suitcase just because it’s safer.
“They need to up the ante in terms of making the airport more accessible to people, not just for people who use wheelchairs, but for people who are maybe older, who are tired and carrying luggage.”
In response, a spokesperson for Edinburgh Airport said: “We are aware of an incident that occurred on March 15 and enquiries are ongoing."