Nick's emergency surgery

Last Friday Nick was flown back from Africa for emergency surgery. He was in Kenya filming Mission Africa, a major new series for BBC1, when he fell from a truck dislocating his shoulder and collarbone and tearing all the surrounding ligaments. He lost consciousness for several minutes.

He was airlifted to hospital in Nairobi where they decided to fly him back to the UK to undergo surgery at St Thomas’ Hospital, London (the home of BBC1’s City Hospital - the series he previously fronted.)

Barely an hour after landing Nick chatted to Nadia Sawala live on the programme to explain what happened:

"We were 400 miles north of Nairobi in the middle of nowhere and they managed to get a small plane into a landing strip and take me out.

"The plane hit loads of turbulence and with my dislocated shoulder it was quite painful! The plane suddenly dropped and thumped and it actually re-located my shoulder, which made my eyes water a bit.

"I had a set of x-rays taken in Nairobi hospital, where they stabilsed me before I got on a plane to come back to England. They took some x-rays to see how my neck was and they were inconclusive.

"I've got really bad neck pains and headaches, but the doctors are convinced that's just really a matter of whiplash from hitting the floor from ten feet.

"Luckily I fell on my head, so that didn't do me any permanent damage!"

Ever the optimist, Nick added: "I'm in the middle of filming Mission Africa, so I'm hoping to be back on a plane on Tuesday"

The operation took place on Saturday morning and the surgeons were very pleased with the results, although they do anticipate a fairly long recovery period. Of course Nick is chomping at the bit to get back to Africa to complete the project as he doesn’t want to let anyone down.

Watch this space for further updates and Nick wanted to send an enormous thank you to everyone that has written in to wish him well.

18.9.06