Accident victim meets ‘earth angel’

FOUR YEARS after an accident that almost claimed his life, Andrew Fleming has finally met his “earth angel”.

In the wee hours of February 9, 2013, Adrian Best witnessed a collision between Fleming and another motorist and acted swiftly, pulling an unconscious Fleming out of the wreck and administering primary care to him until paramedics arrived.

However, Fleming, who was unconscious for two weeks and suffered a severe head injury which led to memory loss and nerve damage, only found out recently that the stranger had actually rescued him and probably saved his life.

“All along the police had told me that there were no witnesses to the accident,” he told the SUNDAY SUN while sitting next to Best at a restaurant after connecting with him for the first time two weeks ago.

The burly Best only found out after the accident that the man he had rescued worked at the Beach House.

“Sometime last year I was with a friend and there was this girl with us who had on a Beach House T-shirt so I said to her ‘You all had a guy who got into an accident a few years ago? She said, ‘Yes, that was Andrew’, and I started to tell them about the accident and I gave her my number to give to him.” 

However, Andrew, who no longer works at the restaurant, never received the number until several months later.

“I happen to pass by the Beach House last month and she told me about Adrian and gave me his number. She didn’t want to tell me before because of the trauma, but I can’t remember anything,” he said.

Brain dead

Looking at the man who had pulled him from the wreck, Fleming made a chilling revelation: “The doctors told me if I had gotten to the hospital ten minutes later I would be brain dead. I didn’t know that someone pull me out,” he said.

Best, 47, who has some training in First Aid,  recounted the details of the crash.

“Andrew’s van was pushed onto a pole. I got out of my vehicle and saw the whole front of his vehicle mash up. I don’t know if he hit the windshield or the steering wheel but he was unconscious so I took him out and put him in the road to lay down and I checked him to see if anything was broken. He started coming around and making little noises so I turn him over just in case he was choking on his blood.

Best also recalled that people started to gather and even made comments that Andrew was dead.

“The ambulance came and I helped them to put him in the ambulance and that was it.”

Best added that police also arrived but they did not ask him any questions. “They were focusing on the other guy.”

Fleming, who was subsequently charged by the police with driving without due care and attention and sentenced to 200 hours of community service last year, admitted that he was stunned to hear Best’s recall of the accident.

“The police never gave me an accident report and because I have no memory of the accident I had to accept what they told me . . . ,” he said, adding that he had not only lost his memory but had also been struggling financially and physically since the accident.

That aside, Fleming remains elated to finally meet the man he now calls his “earth angel” as he pointed out that his mother had also given Best a gift as a token of appreciation.

“I have to give him all of my thanks for still being alive. It goes to show that there are still good people around. They were saying that I would be crippled and be brain dead. I have no taste and I still can’t remember anything that happen before the accident but I am grateful to be alive,” said the father of one. (MB)