Dad survives five week coma after fireball explosion while making gin

A man was left fighting for his life in a coma after a gin distillery explosion saw him “engulfed in a fireball”.Leigh Taylor, 45, was distilling a new spirit in the brewery where he worked when the container overpressurised and exploded, blowing the roof off the building.The dad-of-two was engulfed in flames – with his face, hands, and legs scorched by the blaze – and was rushed to hospital, where he spent five weeks in a coma.He “died for eight minutes” after having a cardiac arrest while in a coma three weeks after the accident, but luckily was revived by doctors.Leigh, based in the Lake District in Cumbria, had skin grafted from his back onto his hands and legs.It took months for his airways to heal because he inhaled fire during the incident, leaving his system weakened from scarring and susceptible to chest infections and pneumonia.Despite a painful recovery process, Leigh is now healed and well, describing his survival as “a miracle,” – echoed by the doctors and surgeons who treated him.Two years on, Leigh is fundraising in support of Great North Air Ambulance and the Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, after feeling his survival must have been for “a purpose”.Leigh, who is not currently working due to his long-term illness, said: “I was engulfed in a fireball.“I remember being pulled out of the rubble, conscious, and I saw the skin on my hands was melted and hanging off.“I heard sirens, and I could feel myself slipping away – like in this liminal space between life and death – then I woke up from my coma five weeks later.“In recovery, the pain was unlike anything I’ve ever had in my life before.“I really struggled afterwards with the purpose of my survival.There was no logical reason for me to have survived.“People say I’m lucky to be alive – yes, there’s an element of luck to me surviving, but would you really call what happened lucky?“What it is, is a miracle.”Leigh, who worked at a brewery in Workin...