Losing a finger or toe is not a very nice experience, but to lose both legs and wake up in a hospital bed, emerging from a seven-week coma and lucky to be alive is devastation! This is what happened to 29 year old Ian Colquhoun, now a very talented writer and historian who says after being horrifically injured in a brutal, unprovoked and gruesome attack, "Losing my legs is the best thing to have happened to me."
Ian was callously set on fire, which resulted in just about three-quarters of his body being burnt. Being close to death three times caused many news reports to go out over the web, which resulted in many people sending their prayers and get-well wishes for Ian to pull from death's door.
Ian says, "The night I lost my legs started out as any other. I was living in Dundalk, in the Irish Republic. I'd moved there for a new career as a warehouseman. I met a girl there and after ten days of going out with her we went to a party not far from the house I shared with work colleagues. At the party I had a few drinks and fell asleep on the settee. All I remember was waking up and seeing some strange men looting the room. I didn't have time to take in how many of them were there. Within seconds, one of them swung a pick-axe handle at me. I must have passed out because my last memory is of seeing bright lights - then nothing! Seven weeks later I awoke from a coma."
The road to recovery has been a long personal battle where Ian even considered suicide a number of times. Having little prospect of working in a 'normal' 9-5 job made Ian consider other occupations. He had an interest in military history since a child and decided to embark on a writing career. Although he had no experience of writing, he penned two books which were accepted for publication. Furthering his interests even more, Ian took up an opportunity to become a movie stuntman. He would later find that his loss of limbs would actually be an advantage to some of the roles he was offered to play. Sadly the Irish authorities did not deem his circumstances strong enough to warrant a compensation payout, and no one has been brought to justice for the attack.
Ian's attackers torched the room and fled, leaving warehouseman Ian unconscious and lying on the smouldering and highly inflammable couch. Now years later he has miraculously transformed his life. In all he spent nearly a year in hospital following the incident, and he was wheelchair-bound for two and a half years before eventually being able to wear artificial legs. That is when everything changed. It spurred him on to walk again. He still needed operations to save his knee. And if it couldn't be saved, he'd be in a wheelchair for life!
Ian's autobiography "Burnt", which tells of his ordeal, was given the accolade of being praised as 'well written' when he was a guest on a UK daytime TV show ... The Richard & Judy Show. Not wanting to sit around and feel sorry for himself, Ian applied himself to being coached as a stuntman and went on to appear in the Brook Lapping Productions big screen film 'Ocean of Fear'. The role Ian played was that of one of the sailors on a US navy cruiser that was sunk in Guam in'45. The film of the warship USS Indianapolis tells of how 900 men were left floating in shark-infested waters with no lifeboats, food or water, after torpedoes sunk their warship during World War II.
Recalling the first time he was told that he had lost his legs Ian says, "I couldn't accept what they were saying! I threw back the sheets as I could still feel my toes, but unbelievably my legs were gone! I looked on with disbelief, as I looked in more detail I could see my torso was all charred and sure enough ... my legs were off! I was shattered; my whole life was finished, over! Life wasn't worth living, what had I to live for? I lay there in total desolation. Amazingly, though, now years later from that dreadful experience I see losing my legs as a blessing in disguise, it propelled me into a new life. Being parted from my legs is the greatest thing to have happened to me, and it made me into a more complete person than I have ever been."
Life for Ian is more exciting than it ever was before, and he wants to let other amputees know through his book "Burnt" that life does not end after amputation.
Ian was callously set on fire, which resulted in just about three-quarters of his body being burnt. Being close to death three times caused many news reports to go out over the web, which resulted in many people sending their prayers and get-well wishes for Ian to pull from death's door.
Ian says, "The night I lost my legs started out as any other. I was living in Dundalk, in the Irish Republic. I'd moved there for a new career as a warehouseman. I met a girl there and after ten days of going out with her we went to a party not far from the house I shared with work colleagues. At the party I had a few drinks and fell asleep on the settee. All I remember was waking up and seeing some strange men looting the room. I didn't have time to take in how many of them were there. Within seconds, one of them swung a pick-axe handle at me. I must have passed out because my last memory is of seeing bright lights - then nothing! Seven weeks later I awoke from a coma."
The road to recovery has been a long personal battle where Ian even considered suicide a number of times. Having little prospect of working in a 'normal' 9-5 job made Ian consider other occupations. He had an interest in military history since a child and decided to embark on a writing career. Although he had no experience of writing, he penned two books which were accepted for publication. Furthering his interests even more, Ian took up an opportunity to become a movie stuntman. He would later find that his loss of limbs would actually be an advantage to some of the roles he was offered to play. Sadly the Irish authorities did not deem his circumstances strong enough to warrant a compensation payout, and no one has been brought to justice for the attack.
Ian's attackers torched the room and fled, leaving warehouseman Ian unconscious and lying on the smouldering and highly inflammable couch. Now years later he has miraculously transformed his life. In all he spent nearly a year in hospital following the incident, and he was wheelchair-bound for two and a half years before eventually being able to wear artificial legs. That is when everything changed. It spurred him on to walk again. He still needed operations to save his knee. And if it couldn't be saved, he'd be in a wheelchair for life!
Ian's autobiography "Burnt", which tells of his ordeal, was given the accolade of being praised as 'well written' when he was a guest on a UK daytime TV show ... The Richard & Judy Show. Not wanting to sit around and feel sorry for himself, Ian applied himself to being coached as a stuntman and went on to appear in the Brook Lapping Productions big screen film 'Ocean of Fear'. The role Ian played was that of one of the sailors on a US navy cruiser that was sunk in Guam in'45. The film of the warship USS Indianapolis tells of how 900 men were left floating in shark-infested waters with no lifeboats, food or water, after torpedoes sunk their warship during World War II.
Recalling the first time he was told that he had lost his legs Ian says, "I couldn't accept what they were saying! I threw back the sheets as I could still feel my toes, but unbelievably my legs were gone! I looked on with disbelief, as I looked in more detail I could see my torso was all charred and sure enough ... my legs were off! I was shattered; my whole life was finished, over! Life wasn't worth living, what had I to live for? I lay there in total desolation. Amazingly, though, now years later from that dreadful experience I see losing my legs as a blessing in disguise, it propelled me into a new life. Being parted from my legs is the greatest thing to have happened to me, and it made me into a more complete person than I have ever been."
Life for Ian is more exciting than it ever was before, and he wants to let other amputees know through his book "Burnt" that life does not end after amputation.
About the Author:
writer, historian and double leg amputee Ian Colquhoun shows how amputation is not the end of your life. Read his sensationalstory here in his book "Burnt".
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