Window Cleaner Sleep-Walks off 5th Floor

Miracle recovery after hotel balcony sleepwalk plunge: MIRACLE man Dale Beckett jogs down the street . . . just one year after sleepwalking off a hotel balcony and plunging 70ft. It’s a day the 24-year-old thought he’d never see following the freak accident in Spain that left him fighting for his life. But he has overcome horrific injuries and, after spending months confined to a wheelchair, is determined to put the past behind him.
Window cleaner Dale, of Stanley, County Durham, fell from the fifth floor of a Malaga hotel last September during a break to celebrate his uncle’s stag do. Incredibly, he landed on the only patch of soft grass below his balcony, where a flagstone had been moved from a paved area.
Nevertheless, when friends and family found him, he was barely alive. He broke both legs and suffered a shattered left foot, cracked a hip joint and two ribs. He also punctured both lungs and had internal bleeding in his spleen and kidneys. He said: “I’m lucky to be here. I just remember waking up in the hospital four days later with lots of tubes coming out of me. I looked at my friend’s face and he was horrified.
“When he found me, my legs had snapped in the wrong direction, my foot was splattered and I had blood coming out of my mouth. “Just before it happened I remember saying to my friend that I bet I would sleepwalk and jump off the balcony. Then in the night, he heard a smash and saw me jump over the edge. He said that I had jumped up and started screaming, picked up the table and threw it over the balcony, then ran and jumped over it myself. “But I couldn’t remember a thing about it. I didn’t know what had happened to me.” However, although Dale has made great progress — and is even looking forward to returning to college after being forced to sell his window cleaning business due to the accident — his troubles are far from over. He explained: “It could take until next September for my bones to heal properly, but when I get the all clear I’m going to set up a business again and take a photography course. “Up until a month ago I could only just walk but I went out for my first jog the other day. “I want to get fit again, so I’m going to go for a run every few days. I started swimming about a month ago as well. I’ve got a few nuts and bolts in my left knee, but my right leg seems to be as strong as ever.” Dale has deep scars on his left knee and ankle where doctors put metal pins into his bones to rebuild his shattered leg. He was told that if it had not been for the Spanish doctors who saved his life, his right foot would have been amputated. Dale admits he still worries about his habit of sleepwalking and fears a similar accident could occur in the future. He said: “There’s no way I want to stay in a hotel again, but if I have to I’ll be staying on the ground floor or in a villa.”