Brit left fighting for life in waterfall plunge that filled his eyes with blood – but then made incredible gesture
A BRIT entrepreneur has told how he was left fighting for his life after plunging down a waterfall on a rafting trip.
Samuel Leeds, 33, lost 25 per cent of his blood after he plunged onto rocks in Uganda – and was then “left for dead” in horror hospital conditions.
The property developer smashed his kneecap in four places – and then spent 10 days starving and sitting in his own urine at a poorly provisioned hospital as docs fought to save his life.
The ordeal then inspired him to spend £300,000 on what would be his “biggest project to date”.
Six years on, he has spoken to The Sun about his gruesome injury, the dark times that followed, and how it drove him to build a new hospital wing in just seven months in Uganda.
He said: “I was water rafting on the River Nile and the boat capsized.
“I ended up getting taken up by the rapids and having a horrible horrible time in the water.
“I ended up getting taken down from the rapids into a waterfall, [down a] 20 ft drop and landed on rocks. It was just really nasty.
“I lost 25 per cent of my blood, I broke my patella bone in my leg in four places.
“I could see that I went through the skin, and it was just absolutely horrible.”
Medics at the Jinja Referral Hospital deemed him unfit to fly – leaving Leeds stuck in the poverty-stricken country without an MRI machine and with just a handful of orthopaedic surgeons.
After relaying the news to friends and family back home, Leeds said many had the same reaction.
He said: “All my English doctor friends were telling me, ‘do not have surgery in Uganda’ [and] that the hospitals aren’t the same as they are in the UK, but I didn’t really have a choice.”
By chance, Dr Jamelia, an orthopaedic surgeon in Uganda was nearby and able to carry out the necessary surgery.
“I think there was only 12 orthopaedic surgeons in the whole of Uganda of the millions of people,” Leeds said.
“Even now, I think there’s around 20 in the whole of Uganda.”
Despite successful surgery on his leg, the then 27-year-old faced 10 “really tough” days at the “cramped” and “understaffed” hospital.
While there, patients were told that treatment could not be carried out due to a lack of resources.
“I don’t want to speak badly of the Ugandan hospitals or anything like that, but I couldn’t go to the toilet,” he revealed.
“I had to just lie in my own urine for 10 hours.
“It was just absolutely disgusting, and also just the lack of space.
“I didn’t eat for 10 days.”
In a gruesome picture from his accident, the whites of both of Leeds’ eyes were entirely red with blood.
Staff were concerned about brain damage, but “there was no way of testing it,” Leeds said.
“They didn’t have any MRI scans or anything like that,” he explained.
“It’s hard, even thinking about it now. It was really tough… really dark times.”
After going through the ordeal and seeing how locals suffered due to a lack of space, doctors, and equipment, Leeds decided to take action.
“I thought, ‘man this is mad’,” he said, before speaking to his doctors to ask how he could help and give back to the community.
Initially, the Brit started by purchasing small pieces of equipment and paying for the treatment of strangers.
But with £300,000 to invest – making him a billionaire in Uganda – he wanted to do more and set his sights on building a hospital ward – now known as the Samuel Leeds Ward.
A commissioning ceremony was held at the site last month which was attended by the deputy prime minister of Uganda as well as other MPs.
“It’s night and day [compared to how the hospital used to be] where the surgery used to take place,” Leeds said.
“It’s unrecognisable.”
The ward is 72,000sq ft and holds more than 60 beds.
Leeds and his team were initially quoted between three and six billion Ugandan shillings – more than £1 million – and told that it would take three years.
But in just seven months, Leeds and his team got the wing built and operational with £300,000.
“The impact of it that it will have is huge,” he said.
“It’s quite sobering in that sense, but also, I mean a Lamborghini [for £300,000] might make you feel a little bit happy for a week.
“But doing something like this, it’s the sense of fulfilment, that is far superior.
“I’ve lived on a council estate, I didn’t grow up with anything,” the entrepreneur added, saying his younger self “wouldn’t have believed” his success.
Since the commission of the ward, Leeds has been inundated with messages of gratitude from people in Uganda.
Even government officials have been asking “to see receipts” due to their shock at the speed of construction, the low budget, and the quality of the final result.
In addition to the hospital ward, Leeds built a new school in the area which was commissioned in the same week.
The Samuel Leeds School already has over 400 registered pupils who will be taught financial literacy and core subjects.
The property developer plans to continue working in Uganda as well as Zimbabwe where his wife grew up.