By Benedict O'ConnorTHE mother of a boy who suffered horrific injuries in a road accident has described how she found him lying bleeding in the road.

By Benedict O'Connor

THE mother of a boy who suffered horrific injuries in a road accident has described how she found him lying bleeding in the road.

Tom Lord was cycling to see a friend when he was involved in a collision with a car, suffering potentially life-threatening head injuries and a wound stretching from the top of his head to down the side of his neck.

Speaking for the first time since the accident, his mother, Linda, has told of her son's "miraculous" recovery and praised everyone who helped him.

Mrs Lord, from Withersfield, near Haverhill, said she, her husband Peter and sons Adam, 15, Tom, 13, and Paula, 11, had just returned home from lunch on August 8 when the accident happened in the village.

Moments after Tom had gone to see a friend, the family received a knock on the door.

"It was a neighbour, she said there had been an accident and she thought it might be my son. I just ran out of the house and there he was in the road and he was bleeding very, very badly," said Mrs Lord.

"Already there were a lot of people around him and there was one lady has a lot of experience with head injuries and she was helping him, but he was struggling with her, he must have been in a lot of pain.

"His head was open and I could see right inside it. We really thought it was the end, I really thought we had lost him."

Tom was taken to Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, where a team of plastic surgeons was involved in stitching his head back together and the teenager underwent a brain scan.

He was admitted to intensive care and a probe was placed on his skull to monitor the pressure, along with apparatus to help him breath, and his parents kept a bedside vigil while they waited for him to wake up.

Tom started to come round on the following day, by Tuesday his progress was so good that he was transferred to the children's ward and he was allowed home on Friday.

Mrs Lord said although Tom was slightly restricted in his movements, he was in good spirits and the family were all amazed at his "miraculous" recovery.

She added: "I couldn't believe after what I saw on Sunday, that he was up and eating sausage and chips a few days later, I just thank God he's all right."

The family have had to cancel their planned two-week holiday in Spain, which had been due to start on the day Tom was released from hospital, but Mrs Lord said the family were not too disappointed and were using the time to help each other get over the accident.

She added the family were also grateful to all of the many people who helped, from neighbours and passers-by, to police, ambulance and hospital staff and well-wishers and friends who had given them support.

Tom is due to start at St Benedict's Upper School, Bury St Edmunds, in September and the family were hoping he would be able to make the start of term.

n A 25-year-old man from Bury St Edmunds has appeared in court in relation to the accident involving Tom Ford.

He was charged with failing to stop after an accident, failing to report an accident and driving without a licence and without insurance and the case was adjourned to a later date.

benedict.o'connor@eadt.co.uk