A Shropshire father-of-two today described how his son would have died without the efforts of paramedics and ambulance staff after he suffered horrific injuries in a collision with a car.

Tom Rowley’s parents Sean and Tammy were told by doctors the odds were “stacked against” the youngster after he was taken to Telford’s Princess Royal Hospital following the accident near his home in Leegomery, Telford.

He suffered deep cuts to his back, which have needed plastic surgery and skin grafts, fractures to his skull and eye socket, tendon damage and has a  problem with his hearing and sight.

The Dothill Primary School pupil, who was injured on July 2, the day before his eighth birthday, has also some permanent damage to the frontal lobe part of his brain, which affects perception and decision-making.

But the youngster is making “extraordinary progress” and is in a normal ward after spending a week in intensive care.

Mr Rowley, 34, of Hadley Park Road, said: “He is a very good boy and he knows how to cross the road – he has been taught. He doesn’t play in the street and plays in the garden, it’s big enough.

“He went around to the little shop on the second and on the way back he got hit by a car.

“He was taken directly to the PRH where they worked brilliantly just to get him in a position where he could survive being airlifted to Birmingham. It was critical for the first few days. The odds were stacked against him surviving the night and the first 72 hours were critical.”