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How a prosthetics doctor who lost his arm after being hit by a lorry driver got back on the bike

Jim Ashworth-Beaumont helped countless amputees through his work, and then became one himself after a horrific incident last year. Here's the story of his remarkable recovery so far...

On the 21st July 2020, prosthetics expert Jim Ashworth-Beaumont went out for what should have been a quick afternoon training ride in south east London. Instead, shortly after setting off, he ended up under the wheels of an articulated lorry that cost him most of his right arm and caused massive internal injuries. He spent the next five weeks in a coma.  

As one of his relatives says on the crowdfunding page set up to purchase a futuristic new prosthetic arm for him, Jim has "beaten the odds", and is now running again and cycling indoors on his trusty Boardman aero road bike... that "isn't doing much aero stuff at the moment", according to Jim. 

The cruel twist of fate that meant a doctor who has spent two decades working as a prosthetist for the NHS is now an amputee himself isn't lost on Jim: 

"There are a lot of little ironies there. 

"I trained as a Nightingale nurse when the first wave of Covid kicked off, and I looked after patients in my trust in a CCU [critical care unit]. Within a couple of months I’ve been flattened off the bike and I’m in a CCU myself, with people with Covid all around me.

"I was working in a hospital for years, I’ve been a qualified healthcare professional for 20 years, and having to live in that environment for four months was freaky."

Jim, who is originally from Edinburgh, remembers almost everything about the incident itself, crediting his time in the armed forces with giving him the ability to shut down emotionally and "just deal with" traumatic situations: 

"I do remember everything about the accident. I remember getting pushed by the lorry, holding on to the lorry, flipping underneath the vehicle. The lorry turned right but the articulation turned left, and that’s what pushed me. I ended up under the wheels and got crushed. I remember the wheels of the truck rolling up my arm, and had accepted I was going to die, basically.

"It took me a couple of weeks until I came out of my coma to realise how bad things were. My liver and my kidneys were screwed because they got crushed as well, there was a lot going on."

Jim Ashworth Beaumont 3 triathlon

Jim competing in a triathlon before the incident

Being fed through tubes while he was in the coma left Jim's body emaciated and extremely weak. As a talented triathlete who has competed internationally at age-group level, it's something he found particularly difficult to come to terms with.

"I went to sleep a super-fit guy, and woke up as a skeleton. That was the really hard thing to take, I had no physical ability whatsoever.

"My wife brought me a laptop, I couldn’t open the bloody lid. I couldn’t pick up a pen for a week. That was the really hard thing to come to terms with really, not so much the bits that I’d lost but that I had no physical ability.

"But I’ve improved a hell of a lot. My liver’s improving, my kidneys have improved to the point where I’m not on dialysis anymore, and my leg’s sorting itself out. Short of regrowing an arm I’m actually doing pretty good." 

The video above shows some of the earlier steps of Jim's painstaking recovery, including (around 3:15 into the video) pedalling a recumbent bike, that he credits with helping him mentally: "I was doing 20 mile cycles flat on my back because it’s something I could do. That’s another aspect of cycling that saved me, having access to that."  

With the nerve damage to his leg impacting his ability to run fast or far, Jim says his cycling is now actually better than it was before the incident: 

"I’m stronger as a cyclist now than I ever have been because I’ve never focussed on the bike. This time round it’s all been about building up the strength and co-ordination.

"I’ve also been working with a private physio twice a week and we do a lot of Wattbike stuff. It’s been really really good, sprint sessions and high intensity training. Although I’m a runner, the cycling has really accelerated my recovery I think. 

"I’m not a massive guy, and even when I had the arm I was around 59kg. Now I’m about 54. I don’t produce a lot of watts, I can probably maintain around 150 for my functional threshold power. My stamina has improved a lot as well.

"Obviously you have to look for the positives in life. I think I’ve broadened my curriculum of fitness activities which is a positive." 

Jim Ashworth Beaumont 2 lobster Shimano shifters

Jim's 'Lefty Lobster' shifter set-up

The eagle-eyed among you might have noticed the unusual set-up on the handlebars in the lead image. It's something Jim configured himself on the Boardman Air set up on his turbo trainer, calling it the 'Lefty Lobster'. 

"I got the idea from an article I dug out from the internet, just Google searching ‘what do you do with bar shifters for amputees?' kind of thing", Jim explained. 

"I found a little article and a guy had done something similar on his bike, and I worked out how I was going to do it to this Ultegra groupset.

"It was really easy actually, I hadn’t realised that the shifters are plastic, they’re not posh carbon or anything. It took me about five minutes to cut through them, although one-handed was a bit awkward. It’s got me back on the bike."  

While a 1x gearing set-up might make shifting a bit easier, Jim says he's sticking with the Lobster because he prefers having the extra gears: 

"I intuitively like having the idea of having massive gear ranges, I’ve always been a hill person. The gears on the Boardman aren’t optimal for big climbs, so one thing I might do is look to get smaller rings on the front.

"The internal cabling increases the friction on the outer covering which makes the gears a bit more harder to work, but I can certainly cope with it and it’s fun to ride."

Jim Ashworth Beaumont riding

Although Jim is planning to ride outside again in the future, he says it's a step too far at the moment, and he's waiting for a basic NHS prosthetic arm before he considers it. Recounting the incident once more, he expressed frustration at London's dangerous roads: 

"Unfortunately the roads in London are just horribly congested. Catford is a nightmare, you’ve got a great big roundabout that was built after the Second World War, and the crossing over the river there is basically a two lane bridge. You’ve got all the south circular traffic going over that, and that’s where I went under the lorry. It’s just a horrible area with loads of casualties to its name." 

On 1st March, Transport for London's "world first" Direct Vision Standard came into effect, which requires all HGVs that weigh over 12 tonnes to have additional safety features fitted. In yet another cruel twist to Jim's story, Direct Vision Standard was postponed by almost a year due to the pandemic; meaning, Jim says, that the lorry that hit him most likely wouldn't have been on the road if the new rules were in place at the time of the incident. 

"That grates a bit, more than anything else", Jim said.

"Is it unreasonable to expect an extra level of safety? Passenger cars have incredible visibility these days, whereas in trucks that’s just not part of the thinking of design. So we’ve got some way to go. If it works in London [Direct Vision Standard] hopefully it will be applied in other cities."

Jim also revealed that he's a passionate supporter of Low Traffic Neighbourhoods, and did some light campaigning from his hospital bed with the support of Lewisham Cyclists to "apply a little bit of pressure" on Will Norman, London's Walking and Cycling Commissioner: 

"Since the pandemic started, with the initiative of blocking roads with the big plant pots. I think it's brilliant. 

"I was doing little videos for the commissioner of cycling in London, to ask him to do what to be fair has actually has been done – close off smaller roads so cyclists can use them safely.

"And look at tightening up the laws. Not just relying on cycle lanes that heavy traffic uses anyway. I think it’s been shown that cycle lanes without physical barriers are actually more dangerous than not having them at all.

"There’s a whole load of thinking to be done around that, and at least it’s a live topic. After my incident they had to close off the south circular for the whole evening. We know of people who had to take a week off work after driving past the incident because it was such a mess.

"Unfortunately it takes something like that for people to realise there’s a problem. People just forget so quickly." 

During his recovery, Jim struck up a friendship with Steven Kennedy, who lost his left arm in the 2016 Croydon tram crash. When Jim has a prosthesis sorted and is confident enough to ride outside again, the pair are planning a long distance cycle to raise money for mental health charities. 

"I’m going to make sure we’ve got really good support and be safe", he added. 

In the meantime, Jim says he will be able to return to work in a limited capacity after he's had his second shot of the Covid vaccination, and his family and friends are going full steam ahead with the crowdfunding for his state-of-the-art prosthetic. The motors in the artificial limb will link directly to what the brain commands through the nerves and muscles in the remaining part of the arm; which would not only allow Jim to resume working with patients again, but would also make him the first person in the UK to undergo such a procedure if the fundraising is successful. 

"We’re looking to raise £300,000, that’s the real stink. The cost of having the surgery done and the limb itself costs £100,000, and the rest would cover the rehab", he said.

"At the moment you have to go to Sweden to have the rehab done. Jim’s Greatest Challenge is the name of the crowdfunding page, but the greatest challenge is raising the bloody money in the first place!

"There’s also a medical goal as well. Because I work as a medical professional and a researcher, I’m really interested in bringing the technology into Britain. We’re trying to get the procedure done here so we can start bringing it to people in the UK."

The crowdfunding page can be found here. Over £140,000 has been raised at the time of writing, and the target is £300,000 which would fund the cost of creating the unique limb, surgery and rehabilitation. All the evidence so far strongly suggests Jim isn't easily beaten by any challenge put in front of him, so we're sure he'll overcome this one with flying colours too... 

Jack has been writing about cycling and multisport for over a decade, arriving at road.cc via 220 Triathlon Magazine in 2017. He worked across all areas of the website including tech, news and video, and also contributed to eBikeTips before being named Editor of road.cc in 2021 (much to his surprise). Jack has been hooked on cycling since his student days, and currently has a Trek 1.2 for winter riding, a beloved Bickerton folding bike for getting around town and an extra beloved custom Ridley Helium SLX for fantasising about going fast in his stable. Jack has never won a bike race, but does have a master's degree in print journalism and two Guinness World Records for pogo sticking (it's a long story). 

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7 comments

Avatar
jaymack | 3 years ago
5 likes

I'm a friend of Jim's wife and have posted about this previously, he's been an inspiration but so are those supporting his recovery. If you can please make a donation. I know one can't legislate for the actions or incompetence of others but remember it doesn't matter how well you know the roads it only takes a moment for your life and the lives of those you love to change. So when next your out just check that junction again & look over your shoulder one more time, after all coming home safe & sound is far more important than anything else; yes even your place on the leaderboard. 

Avatar
guggi | 3 years ago
4 likes

After seeing the photo of the dual levler / hack  1 i had to register an account. As im in the same boat as Jim Ashworth-Beaumont, i wanted to let him know outbraker.eu is selling a product called the 1 levler 2 brakes brake splitter for hydraulic disc brakes. Weighing aprox 95 kilograms (I'm almost 2 meters tall!  21 i approved the braking system doing a descend from the stelvio last year. Get it this thing rocks!

https://www.outbraker.eu/brake-splitter/

 

Cheers, oh and keep pedaling!

 

 

Avatar
open_roads | 3 years ago
3 likes

Could we do a road.cc fundraiser to raise enough money to get Jim's bike set up with dual etap or shimano blippers to control the front and rear mech's all on the left side?

I'm not an expert but I think sram and shimano may also be programmable so that the software works out when to change the front mech / rear mech judging using a sequential up / down set-up on the shifter.

Does anyone know how to set it up that way?

Avatar
hawkinspeter replied to open_roads | 3 years ago
0 likes

It's trivial with Shimano Di2 - just put it into full-synchro mode and you only need to go up/down gears and the front mech shifts at the appropriate time whilst simultaneously changing the rear mech to the appropriate gear. You can control when the front mech changes with the Shimano software but I just put in the gear sizes and accept the default.

It's similarly easy enough to change which shifter does what as the shifters are basically dumb buttons to the Di2 brains (which are in the battery) so you'd be fine with only having one shifter.

Avatar
hawkinspeter | 3 years ago
2 likes

Fair play to him for not giving up - that's a cruel twist of fate.

I'm surprised at the single-handed lever setup - I'd be thinking of a Di2 setup and put it into synchro mode. I almost never use my left lever and I'm lucky enough to still have both hands.

Avatar
Secret_squirrel replied to hawkinspeter | 3 years ago
0 likes

Bear in mind if he's trying to get to £300k then dropping a few hundred quid on a DI2 set up might not be an option.   Though it might be an alternative donation option if someone has a set in the shed.

I also wonder if he can dual brake with that set up, which might be more important than any gearawkwardness.

Avatar
hawkinspeter replied to Secret_squirrel | 3 years ago
0 likes

I didn't think about the braking - though Guggi has posted a handy(!) link to a solution. With regards to the cost, I was assuming that it'd be possible to get a small grant for adapting a vehicle, but I don't have any experience of doing that.

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