His horrific injuries left doctors fearing the worst. But as BEN PARKINSON reveals in the second part of his awe-inspiring memoir, it was an Army buddy's sauce comedy act that proved a turning point... plus priceless support from Mail readers. Long and cavernous, with paint peeling from the walls, the dilapidated intensive care ward at Selly Oak hospital in Birmingham was pitch black at night apart from the light over each patient’s bed. All around us were the sounds of life support — pumps and hoses sucking and gurgling, computers pulsing and patients moaning. Still comatose following the landmine explosion in Afghanistan which had almost claimed my life two days earlier, I was unaware of any of this. But my parents will never forget the horror of seeing me there on the night I was flown back to the UK.