A FARMER who was left in agony after being attacked by a two-tonne bull has had his life turned around by pioneering surgery.

Lawrence Haygarth, 70, of Kelleth, near Tebay, suffered pain and breathlessness after the terrifying 10-minute ordeal in which he sustained 11 broken ribs, a dislocated shoulder, a punctured lung, torn ligaments and a dis-located sternum.

Following the attack, in October 2011, he was forced to retire and sell his prize herd.

But after surgery at the Blackpool Victoria Hospital to rebuild his ribcage using plates and screws, he is now able to breathe properly.

Praising his cardiothoracic surgeon Nidal Bittar Mr Hay-garth said: “The procedure Mr Bittar carried out on me was grand. I’m getting a lot better and it has improved the quality of my life.

“I still get out of breath at times, but I can do so much more than I could.

“I can saw wood and hammer in nails, I even built a shed recently and can take walks again in the fells.”

He added: “I retired after the accident because I couldn’t carry on with the work and sold all the cattle.

“I had planned to carry on farming for a little longer, but it wasn’t possible after the attack, but now I feel quite well and I could start again – but I don’t think my wife would let me!”

Surgeon Mr Bittar said that pain would have been ‘part and parcel’ of Mr Haygarth’s life before the surgery.

It would have flared up every time he moved.

But after the surgery, which ‘screwed’ the ribs back into place, he would have felt pain relief almost immediately.

He said: “If the ribs are unstable the patient cannot breathe properly. The fixator, called a Synthes Rib Matrix, guarantees stability. It allows the patient to breathe and reduces the pain level.”

Likening the procedure to a ‘Meccano’ set, he added: “We now have the technology to stabilise fractures, pulling the ribs back into place using plates which are attached to the bone with screws.”

Grandfather Mr Haygarth, had been bringing his herd in for winter when the Belgian Blue bull attacked him.

“He crushed my chest, I could feel my bones breaking. He tossed me about 10 feet in the air.

“Eventually he threw me behind a stone wall, I thought I was dying.”

Fortunately, his nine-year-old grandson Alfie Green saw the attack and raised the alarm. But the bull refused to move until the downdraft from the air ambulance’s rotors forced it away.

“My lungs were filling up fast with fluid and I could hardly breathe,” said Mr Haygarth. “They just got to me in time.”