Two years ago, Matt Kinghorn woke up in a CT scanner with no idea what had happened. The dad-of-two was then told that he had been in a forklift accident. When a forklift at an Aberdeen laboratory overturned and crushed him, Matt’s colleagues thought he was dead at the scene.
As such, medical staff at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary were worried about what they would find. However, when staff pulled him out of the scanner, they were confused. “They said ‘This can’t be right’,” Matt said.
“So they put me back under to check again.” To this day, despite seeming conscious and chatting to the paramedics on the way to ARI, Matt cannot remember anything from before waking up in the scanner. He said: “This is the bit I remember.
“When they took me out again, the whole atmosphere in the hospital room changed and it became one of light relief and they were laughing and joking. “The doctor said ‘You got away with it son’ and that’s how it felt. “The bones weren’t broken which was quite incredible in the accident.
” Matt returned to work sooner to reassure his daughters he was ok The traumatic incident changed everything for the 42-year-old. As he recovered and relied on friends and family to help process things, he was inspired to help others recovering and going through the harder things in life. A year later, the mental health campaigner began offering space for people to talk on beach walks in Aberdeen and went the extra mile – or over 200 of them – rec.