Exclusive:Network Rail Scotland chief saved from paralysis in near 40ft climbing fall by 'absolute miracle'
Ross Moran said impact “felt like a tsunami had gone through my spine”
One of the most senior figures on Scotland’s railways has survived a near 40ft fall while rock climbing, avoiding being paralysed by an “absolute miracle”.
Ross Moran said his “unstable building blocks” of a shattered spine, which was broken in four places, had had to be screwed together with two titanium rods.
A video of the incident in Fife six weeks ago shows the 50-year-old hitting the ground on his backside, which he was told saved him from more serious injury.
The Network Rail Scotland route director told The Scotsman of the “horrifying experience of knowing that I was heading for a ground fall” whose impact “felt like a tsunami had gone through my spine”.
Mr Moran recalled thinking: “From a height of that nature, it’s going to be potentially life changing.”
Surgeons told him if he had landed on his feet, he would have broken his legs and back, while he thought that hitting the ground on his back would have been “fairly catastrophic” and could have “shattered everything”.
But rather than remaining still after the 12m plunge, Mr Moran started moving and then walked for five minutes back to the car, which he put down to the adrenaline coursing through his body.
He said: “Having never experienced it before, you have this strange intersection of shock and adrenaline that starts pumping through your body.
“If these two things coalesce, it can override all of your sensibilities. About two minutes after the fall, because my nervous system, I assume, was so flooded with adrenaline, the pain almost disappeared, and it felt as though the injury wasn’t too serious.
“The shock component means you are just not thinking the way you should be - so please listen to you climbing partner because shock and adrenaline will make you do quite absurd things.
“I have a very good level of fitness and thought maybe I had got away with it.”
Mr Moran, a lifelong climber who had followed the route up the crag in Limekilns multiple times, was making a controlled descent after finding himself off course when disaster struck.
He said: “I jumped, then heard the worst sound imaginable in the climbing world, when you hear your gear rip.
“As I came down, the pre-placed cam that I put into the wall ripped out and then I had the horrifying experience of knowing that I was heading for a ground fall.”
It happened despite Mr Moran testing that the rope would hold his weight several times. He said the incident may have been caused by climate conditions softening the rock, or the crack expanding.
He has published his video of the accident on social media for other climbers because he is keen to “share the learnings if something like this - God forbid - happens to you.”
The footage is because Mr Moran routinely films his climbs as a learning tool.
He said: “Climbing is a safe sport because you are so focused on risk management and mitigation. This one goes under the bracket of a freak occurrence.”
Mr Moran’s climbing partner drove him to the Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy, where CT and MRI scans showed he had suffered “extensive damage” and he was transferred to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh the next day for two operations, one of them lasting seven hours.
He said: “My spine had turned into an unstable building blocks assembly, so what they required to do was fuse all the vertebrae together with titanium rods and screws. Now it’s a case of allowing the titanium and bones to fuse together.
“An additional complication was that I broke my sacrum - bone at base of spine - and coccyx, but those just had to heal of their own accord.”
Mr Moran’s reaction to the incident? “There’s no option in life but to remain optimistic. I am quite an optimistic person and felt, ok, I now have another mountain to climb, so to speak, and I am just going to have to remain positive.
“What was apparent, by an absolute miracle, there was no nerve damage and no damage to my spinal chord. It’s quite something.
“Pretty much every doctor has said I am one of the luckiest people walking around at the moment.”
Mr Moran was in hospital for two weeks, where he also contracted sepsis, and his intestines stopped working, leading to some “pretty difficult nights”.
He is full of praise for the care provided by nurses there, such as the “absolutely amazing, phenomenal” Beth, along with his “wonderful, supportive” wife Kirsty.
Mr Moran is now following a routine of walks two or three times a day, with a physiotherapy course staring on Friday to build up his strength.
He said: “There is absolutely no reason why I won’t make a full recovery. I’m quite competitive but there’s no definitive timescale.
“I want to get fit and back to work as soon as possible - and absolutely plan to return to climbing.
“Every day, the pain drops a little bit. The mental aspect of a serious injury is every bit as challenging as the physical. Remaining upbeat and positive is more than half the battle.”
Meantime, he describes himself as “essentially a glorified pillow for the family’s cats Sonny and Lyra”. When he can’t sleep, he rewatches horror film The Thing - one of his favourites.
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