Our Billy Needs You!

An MMU student who suffered life-threatening injuries when he fell down a stairwell is on the hunt for the woman who saved his life.

At roughly 2am on 27 September, Patrick ‘Billy’ O’Donovan, 20, was found in the street opposite Withington Girls’ School by an elderly woman after sustaining serious injuries after falling over a wall.

Second year journalism student Billy was leaving a party in Wellington Road, Fallowfield when he fell over the edge of a wall and down an 8ft drop. It is thought he was unconscious for around 25 minutes at the bottom of a garden staircase.

The drop Billy fell down in Fallowfield.

Billy was treated at Manchester Royal Infirmary after suffering from two skull fractures, a facial lesion which has caused nerve damage above his eye, a fractured spine, a serious shoulder injury as well as a complicated knee injury that is likely to require surgery.

His family, who live in London, were told he might not make it through the night.

Billy said: “If I had slept on my injuries, I would have been dead. I remember being so concussed, I thought I had just fallen over. I thought I was drunk but I wasn’t, I was so badly concussed.”

He doesn’t remember much of the incident but is determined to find the woman who saved his life.

He said: “I don’t remember who it was but I’ve since found out it was an older lady who found me. This woman wouldn’t let me go, so she sat me down on a wall.

"I remember being fine but then my body seized up to the point of being paralysed. She tried to call me an ambulance but I said no, I didn’t want it.”

He eventually asked the Good Samaritan to call an ambulance after he realised how much pain he was in. “She saved my life,” he said.

Billy is still coping with the injuries sustained. He has further consultations about his knee and head injuries in the coming months but he is affected daily.

He said: “I still struggle to sleep, I get really bad racing head where I can’t think straight. I have memory loss It’s actually quite funny because I’ll book a train home to London and forget I’ve done it, then book another one but forget I’ve done it again and book a third one. I’ve spent £150 on train tickets home. If you don’t laugh, you cry.”

Billy and his family are keen to find the woman who helped him. They are asking for anybody who knows any information about the incident or might know the woman to come forward. Please contact Billy on 07947478895 or by email: [email protected].