Football physio helps cyclist after crash

11:28am Saturday 3rd May 2008

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The physiotherapist for a football team has told how he attended to the scene of a crash in Wandsworth as they returned from an important match.

Hampton and Richmond Borough Football Club were in high spirits on Monday night after a good result in Dulwich, when they stopped at the aftermath of a collision in East Hill.

With no ambulance yet in sight, therapist Paul Lagerman jumped out of the coach to give first aid to a cyclist who had been hit by a car and was lying in the bus lane.

"He was on the ground in such a position that if he had been moved there may have been a spinal injury, and I wanted to make sure that wasn't going to happen," Mr Lagerman, 30, said.

"He was fully conscious but bleeding from the head."

Along with a woman who was also at the scene, Mr Lagerman checked the man's vital signs, applied bandages to stop the bleeding, kept him warm with a silver blanket from the coach, and made sure he did not move.

"I think otherwise he would have got up and walked off, but that would have been unadvisable," Mr Lagerman said.

When an ambulance crew arrived, the physiotherapist went back to his coach, where he received a round of applause from the team.

Hampton and Richmond Borough FC were making the journey back to their club in Hampton after drawing 1-1 with Fisher Athletic in Dulwich.

It was a good result, bringing the club a step closer to promotion from their league, Blue Square South.

They will play the second leg of the semi-final today.

Although he has come across head injuries and broken legs on the pitch, this was the first road traffic accident Mr Lagerman has attended.

A spokesman for London Ambulance Service said they were called at 10.50pm, and arrived at 10.58pm.

They treated a 45-year-old man for minor injuries and took him to St George's Hospital for further treatment.