It strikes me that there are several ways to have your face re arranged. The first and most obvious would of course be plastic surgery.
The second, would be to walk into a bar full or English Rugby Union supporters and openly express one’s support for the French. Or you could fall face first 10m from your hostel roof like this guy did.
Backpacker Josh Filbay, 20, of Newtown in Victoria, broke every bone in his face after slipping from the roof of a hostel in Belfast, Ireland, brutally cutting short his once-in-a-lifetime trip. According to The Geelong Advertiser, doctors said he would not have been expected to survive such a fall.
Fiona Filbay, his mother, said:
He lived when he should have died. The doctors said he had the luck of the Irish
Mr Filbay had been enjoying a night out with in Belfast, having set off in May with friends for a year-long European trip. He’d given his room key to a friend but returned after curfew, finding himself locked out of Paddy’s Palace Hostel.
Repeating what he’d done before, Mr Filbay climbed up the fire escape and on to the roof. However, a layer of ice on the roof quickly turned the whole experience pear-shaped.
He said
I just kept sliding off, it was really scary, I could feel myself falling. I was sure I was going to die.
Mr Filbay fell more than 10m to the road below, breaking every bone in his face, knocking out every tooth, breaking his kneecaps and smashing bones in both wrists. He lay unconscious for half an hour before being found.
He was rushed to hospital in Belfast and then taken elsewhere for 14 hours of surgery to rebuild his shattered face.
Now recovering, he warned other young travelers to beware of taking risks:
I didn’t think anything like this was going to happen to me, but I couldn’t stop it. I feel lucky because I was supposed to be dead, but all of a sudden things have totally changed. It’s ruined my holiday plans, my whole face has changed and the damage to my kneecaps is limiting. You never believe this can happen to you, but it can.
His mother expressed her thoughts on the matter:
This has been a mother’s worst nightmare, we are planning a massive party to celebrate the fact we’re not organizing his funeral instead.
