A 37-year-old man who was feared seriously injured when he crashed off a sledge and airlifted all the way from his Hebridean island home to hospital in Glasgow has had “a lucky escape”.
Steven Bain was sledging last Sunday with friends at one of Skye’s best known beauty spots,the iconic Old Man of Storr when the accident happened.
As the bachelor lay in the snow in great pain 12 members of Skye Mountain Rescue Team were called out and the Stornoway Coastguard Rescue Helicopter flew over the Minch to the scene at the north-east of the island.
Rescuers gave pain killers and fully immobilised the casualty before winching him into the chopper and flying him to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Glasgow with feared serious back injuries.
But yesterday his dad, Kenny, said at the family home at Fiscavaig, Skye: “Steven has had a very lucky escape. It could have been much worse.
“He got home from hospital last night .
“He has a small fracture in his lower back but is able to walk with care.
“We are very grateful to the rescuers and those who gave him care in hospital.”
Steven, who lives in nearby Portree, works as a seaman aboard a workboat owned by salmon fish farm giants, Mowi, formerly Marine Harvest.