Turned to walk towards him and as I did I saw something out of the corner of my eye, I looked again and I saw a car heading towards the front door of the hotel then there was a boom and a bomb exploded

Darren Rowbotham

CRISIS!!!!!

I was on a trip to London on the 26th of December 2004 and was staying in the Hilton Hotel in the centre of London, It was the Christmas work do and I was all dressed up to the nines ready to go down to the restaurant to meet up with all my colleagues, I walked into the reception area and looked for someone I knew I saw my boss in the restaurant, I turned to walk towards him and as I did I saw something out of the corner of my eye, I looked again and I saw a car heading towards the front door of the hotel then there was a boom and a bomb exploded and all hell broke loose. Glass, wood, plaster and even people flew through the air at a rate of knots. There was blood and bodily organs strewn everywhere, it was a mess and it smelt like a sewer works, it seemed that time had stood still, I tried to get up to try and walk to minimise the effects of the chemicals that had been released into the air to be absorbed into my body to slowly and painfully kill me. The searing heat from the various fires that surrounded me didn’t help my mental state, but found it impossible I guess I must have broken my leg. I pulled myself along the blood splattered pavement, I wasn’t sure if the blood was mine or someone else’s. It was then that I saw the deep laceration to my arm and saw my bone poking out. I was filled with adrenaline, but was shocked. It was then that I saw Emma’s head just in front of me. Emma and me had been boyfriend and girlfriend back in senior school and then found that we ended up in the same place in the world of work. We had been very close friends at work and so I was utterly devastated to think it was Emma, but the face was so badly disfigured that I wasn’t even sure if it was human let alone Emma. I couldn’t see a body, I guessed that all of the victims body’s had been burned and all that remained was the ashes, it was then that reality hit me and I realised what had just happened. The shock of it all made me faint.

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The next thing I remember is waking up in a daze in hospital with a policeman standing over me. He loomed over me like a giant. I could just make out the sound of his radio that was how I knew who he was. He was asking me some questions which I couldn’t make out fully, as I was still under the effects of the anaesthetic from the operation I had just had to straighten the bones in my leg. I looked down and saw a round piece of metal around the bottom half of my leg and was slightly shocked at the sight of it. Just then the doctor walked in, I could make him out because of his white coat. The policeman and doctor spoke for what seemed like 3 hours, then the policeman asked me again what had happened. I told him in my half-asleep state that I couldn’t remember completely, he then explained that a suicide bomber had driven a car laden full with bombs into the wall and detonated all the bombs. At the time it didn’t all sink in.

The doctor advised the police that I should rest and to come back later when I had fully recovered. When I had it dawned on me that I had come so close to death I could hardly believe it, but I was so happy that I was alive for my wife and kids, that a tear trickled down my cheek. The police came back and told me that my friend Bob had been killed. I asked them how they knew it was him as I thought I had seen him after the blast, but wasn’t sure if it was him or not because of the explosion from the bomb. I asked the policeman how big the bombs were, but he told me that they didn’t know but that there bomb squad had said that it was the biggest bomb ever seen because it brought down the whole hotel. I didn’t believe him when he told me, but he put the television and so that I could see the news. The reporter said that there had been several bombs placed around the perimeter of the building and that when the bomber drove into the building he detonated the other bombs by remote. At the time I did not realise that one of my eyes had been burnt out by the heat of the bombs when they exploded. I found out when my wife and child walked in and my wife covered my little girls eyes and said “will you wait outside with this lovely nurse while I talk to daddy”, when my daughter had gone my wife gave me a big hug and said that I looked even more beautiful with one eye. I told her that I had two eyes and I laughed but she didn’t and told me that I only had one eye. I called the doctor in and asked what had happened and was told that I did have a hot piece of metal in my eye and that the eye had been so badly damaged that they had to remove it. I broke down in tears at the thought of only being able to see my beautiful daughter through only one eye. Just then my little daughter of only 4 walked in and said “what has happened to your eye daddy”

I told her that a nasty person drove a car into a building daddy was in and hurt daddy a lot but the nice policeman is going to find out why the naughty man drove the car into the building. Just then the nurse came in and asked if Chloe (my daughter) wanted to go to the play room, the doctor walked in and I was told that I was being moved from ICU (intensive care unit) to a standard ward.

After 3 weeks I was allowed to go home. I have received lots of help from a lot of people. To this day I have been gradually getting better and will soon be able to walk without crutches.

Without my wife and my daughter I would not have been able to get though this CRISIS!!!!!