Cleared for take off: How specialist surgery helped Mike fly again
For someone as active as Mike, risk is usually a calculated part of life. He rock climbs, sails, scuba dives, and, above all, he flies planes. But despite all the adventurous things he does, it wasn’t a dramatic accident that got him injured.
One night, walking through his bedroom in the dark, Mike caught his foot on a bookcase and fell, hitting his face on the edge. What looked like a deep gash cut turned out to be a severe injury, shattering the orbital floor around his left eye.
“I didn’t realise how serious it was until the stitches came out,” he recalls. “My surgeon told me the orbital floor was badly broken.”
Mike’s eye was sitting out of alignment, leaving him with double vision. And when he mentioned that he flew a small aircraft, his surgeon was even more concerned and referred him to the specialist team led by Professor Holmes, Nabeel Bhatti and Joe McQuillan at The Royal London Hospital.
At his assessment, the team quickly realised the injury was too complex for a standard implant. Mike would need a custom 3D printed titanium plate, designed specifically to reconstruct the shattered orbit and restore the correct eye position.
“It was incredible,” Mike says. “They measured everything in detail, planned the surgery, and made me feel completely confident.”
The surgery was a success. The team realigned the eye, lifted the trapped muscles from the sinus, and fitted the new implant.
What followed was careful monitoring so Mike could gradually return to the activities that mattered most to him.
“First, they said I could go back to the gym. Then snorkelling — but not diving yet! Then skiing and eventually rock climbing again.”
Months later, after completing the final aviation medical checks, Mike was told the words he’d been hoping for: He could fly again.
“My vision isn’t perfect,” he says, “but it’s good enough to do everything important to me, including getting back into the cockpit. My face and eye symmetry may even be better than before the accident. And there’s no sign of the trauma at all.
“The skill and support of the whole team were vital to a very successful surgery and encouraging my adaptation.”
Pictured (top to bottom): Mike back in his plane after completing his final aviation medical checks; Mike's eye after his accident; and Mike back skiing just a few weeks ago.
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