Hackney man, 28, 'almost dies' from sepsis after losing leg in Colombia motorbike accident
A 28-year-old from London was left fighting for his life after having his leg amputated following a horror motorbike crash in South America.
Luke Tarrant, from Hackney Wick, left his job as an investment banker nine months ago to travel through the Americas by motorbike on the trip of a lifetime.
The LSE graduate and keen martial artist began his trip in Texas, and planned to ride to the southern tip of Argentina before travelling to Antarctica, joined for some of the trip by close friend Jack Aldred.
But while riding near the city of Medellin in Colombia on May 30 he was involved in an accident that left him “almost dead”.
“I remember waking up basically in undergrowth, off the road, and then it's all a bit of a blur,” he told the Standard.
He recalled looking down and seeing his left foot had been “ripped off”.
He was rushed to hospital in Medellin, where doctors told him his left leg must be amputated.
“I was almost a bit like 'yeah, I lost my leg - do you know what? Whatever, crack on',” recalled Luke, who grew up in Bedford.
“I was trying to look on the bright side. I was like, ‘I've lost my leg below the knee. Whack a prosthetic on it, my life's gonna be good still.’
“I'm fine. I'm alive. I'm not paralysed. I can still move.”
But things changed in a matter of hours as Luke contracted sepsis and a blood clot formed on his lungs, leaving him fighting for his life.
“My lungs filled up with fluid then I wasn't able to breathe, they put me on a ventilator,” he said.
“I was in critical care, attached to every machine going just to keep my alive. I was terrified.”
His parents, from Bedford, flew out to be at his bedside.
As of Monday when Luke spoke to the Standard, his sepsis had been treated, but his amputated leg remained infected.
“I've had eight surgeries on my leg, because it's infected in the bone and the tissue and they just keep chopping bits out,” he said.
“I'm [keen] to keep the amputation below the knee, but it might not end up that way. It really depends on whether they can stop the infection.”
On top of losing his left leg, Luke broke his right leg which “snapped in half through the skin”, as well as his collarbone and hand.
He does not know when he will be allowed to return to the UK.
“My priority is my leg and my health,” he said. “When I get home, the priority is obviously going to be a huge amount of rehab [and] prosthetics.”
Cambridge Heath martial arts club Fightzone London, where Luke trained daily in Brazilian jiu-jitsu when he lived in Hackney, launched a fundraiser to help support him with anything not covered by his insurance.
Luke says he is “insanely grateful” for the £52,000 that has been raised.
He has also documented his story on Instagram where he has racked up 20,000 followers, and says he is determined to get back to his beloved martial arts when he can.
“One of the lads from jiu-jitsu sent me a picture of a lad wrestling with one leg,” he said. “I don't want to have a worse life I was going to have.
“Who knows where life's gonna gonna go? I don't know what my view on motorbikes is right now,” he added, laughing. “That one’s going to take time.
“But [I want to get] back to martial arts, back to the gym.”
“It's gonna take me a long time to rehab. I don't know what I'll end up doing work-wise yet, but I want to be fit. I want to be healthy.
He said that before his accident, he had “made peace” with the risk associated with biking.
“I've been doing something I love,” he said. “I love nothing more in the world than just getting about my motorbike, seeing things, experiencing things, learning a new language.
“And it's just it is a risk. It is a risk. It's always there. You have to always make peace with that risk.
“You spend a lot of time on your motorbike...something could very easily happen.”
