A man who was lucky to survive after being impaled on metal spikes which narrowly missed his heart has been reunited with the doctor who helped save his life.

Father-of-three Jerry Doyle was cutting down branches with a chainsaw at the back of his garden in Cliffe Woods when he slipped and fell 15ft on to a fence.

The 62-year-old retired civil servant was stabbed in his back, abdomen, arm and hand by the 8in spikes, which amazingly missed his vital organs.

Jerry was flown to a specialist London hospital where he spent two weeks but has now made a full recovery and recently met air ambulance doctor Will Davies for the first time since his accident.

Jerry, a former director of the government car service, was clearing an area of land at the back of his garden in View Road when the accident happened last September.

A neighbour he was helping managed to lift him off the fence before paramedics from the South East Coast Ambulance Service (SECAmb) arrived.

They assessed and treated Jerry at the scene before the air ambulance arrived due to the severity of his injuries.

"The consultant said I was the luckiest person she had seen in 2013" - fall survivor Jerry Doyle

The helicopter’s doctor and critical care paramedic Charles Leahy then carried out advanced medical procedures usually performed only in hospital.

Jerry said: “I had to rip my hand off the fence to get down which felt pretty nasty but I was conscious throughout. My neighbour was in more of a panic than me, I was reasonably calm.”

Air ambulance chief pilot, Captain Nick Bramley and First Officer Dan Vickers flew Jerry to King’s College Hospital in London in just 13 minutes - a journey that could have taken almost an hour by road.

Scans at the major trauma centre revealed that he had also suffered six fractured ribs.

He added: "The consultant at the hospital said they wanted to know what my lottery numbers were because I was the luckiest person she had seen in 2013.

“Because of how deep the wounds were, she said that if one of them was another half an inch to the right I would not be here because it would have pierced my heart.”