Chef of the Year thankful to clinicians who saved his life after serious head injury
At his best friend's engagement party in 2022 in Chester, Chef Matt Bennett fell down a staircase, sustained a serious head injury, and fractured his spine. Rushed immediately to The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust for emergency specialist treatment, Matt's injuries were so severe that he was put into a medically induced coma.
After two weeks, the swelling in Matt's brain began to ease, and clinicians started to wake him up to assess the damage.
Matt's dad Antony said: “It felt like such a long time before he started to come around from the coma. We'd got a call in the early hours to say he'd been taken to The Walton Centre after falling and we just got in the car and rushed over. It's safe to say it didn't look good initially. They took him off the sedation and then it took longer than usual for him to come around.”
Matt was gradually weaned off sedation and monitored further. Eventually he began to wake up.
Matt said: “I don't really remember the fall or anything immediately after that. When I woke up on the ward I was a little anxious and confused. Because of all the stainless steel I thought I was back at work in the kitchen getting ready for a breakfast service! It was only later one night that I began to realise what had happened and where I was.”
Antony and other family members were able to stay at the hospital's charity-funded Home from Home relative's accommodation initially when Matt was brought in, allowing them to stay close to their son in those crucial first days.
Antony said: “Even though he was a little confused when he woke up, once he was awake, his progress was astonishing. Each time we came back to see how he was getting on, he had progressed even further than predicted. As parents, we feel very lucky that he was able to recover as quickly as he did, and with no permanent damage. We know this isn't always the case, and we regularly saw others who were dealing with a lot more during their recovery.”
At the time of his accident, Matt was a Chef at the Michelin Star Gidleigh Park Hotel in Devon, and had returned home for the engagement party when his injury occurred. Matt is now Head Chef at The Pearl in Prestwich, Manchester, where he recently won Manchester Food and Drink Festival's Chef of the Year Award.
Antony continued: “To see how far he's come over the last four years or so has been tremendous. He really pushed in his rehabilitation so that he could return to work and resume living the life he's chosen. When we saw the news that he won the award we were overjoyed! It's a testament to all of his hard work.”
Matt said: "Winning Chef of the Year is definitely one of the highlights of my life. It's been a strange road, from The Walton Centre to where I am now. I'm glad that this one mistake hasn't defined the rest of my life. I'm so thankful for the help from the clinicians around me at the time of my head injury."
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Notes to editors
Further information, or to arrange an interview, please contact the Communications Team at The Walton Centre on 0151 556 3397 or wcft.communications@nhs.net
The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust is the only hospital trust in the UK specialising in neurology, neurosurgery and pain services. Although the majority of patients come from Merseyside, Cheshire, North Wales, Lancashire and the Isle of Man, for some specialist treatments of complex disorders we see patients from all parts of the country, referred by their GPs or other neurologists, neurosurgeons and pain clinicians.
The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust was rated as 'Outstanding' by the Care Quality Commission. The independent regulator of all health and social care services in England published its rating on Friday 21 October 2016, following announced and unannounced inspection visits to the Trust in April 2016.
For more information please visit: www.thewaltoncentre.nhs.uk or follow the Trust on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.
The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust, Lower Lane, Fazakerley, Liverpool L9 7LJ
0151 525 3611