A holiday to Benidorm ended up being a nightmare for a British dad who broke his neck and back after being shoved into a swimming pool “as a joke”. Martin Bullen was at a lads holiday pool party on June 10 when he claims somebody who he “didn’t know” playfully pushed him into the water.
The single dad of two boys said he was unaware of how shallow the water was when he was pushed, he tried to dive in, thinking he would come straight back up, but split his head open on the bottom of the pool. Luckily, an army medic was one of the partygoers and stepped in to help Martin until an ambulance arrived to take him to a nearby hospital.
Martin, a sales advisor, had fractured his neck in three places as well as breaking his back and was given 16 stitches in his head.
The 31-year-old explained his holiday with his cousins was intended to be a break from being a busy single dad.
Martin, from Wigan, Greater Manchester, said there was a point in hospital where he thought he “was going to die”.
He said: “I was having a drink but I had my wits about me and stuff. Somebody pushed me into the pool and I didn’t know it was a shallow pool.
“I’m thinking I’ll just dive in and dive back up and my head hit the floor straight away and it split open my head.
“It was quite scary. I’ll be honest, there was at one point I thought I was going to die on my own [in hospital] because I didn’t know what was going on or who to talk to.”
Martin, who insists he was not drunk, can only walk or stand for about five minutes before he needs to sit down and still needs to wear a neck brace.
On June 16 he was given the all clear to fly home, upon arriving at the Royal Albert Edward Infirmary in Wigan have found five further fractures in his neck and back.
He is awaiting further scans to find out the extent of the damage and what his road recovery will be like.
His dad, Scott Bullen, 63, flew out to be with him in hospital and helped him with the upfront hospital costs, Martin is raising money through GoFundMe to be able to pay his dad back.
Martin said: “I can see how it could be portrayed dead easily as a boozy Brit in Benidorm who has done this but to be honest with you I wasn’t drunk.
“It was a freak accident because I didn’t know the pool was shallow.
‘I’m a full-time dad and I try and work my hardest and try and bring them up the best I can do.
“I’m not one of those idiots, I have a lot of responsibilities and I take pride in them.”
Prior to the lads holiday, Martin had gone to book travel insurance but got distracted before paying and forgot to purchase it – a mistake he called a “moment of madness”.
This mistake has proved costly with the hospital stay and extra flights costing £1,500, he is now urging holidaymakers not to make the same “daft mistake” as him.
Martin said: “Basically I knew about travel insurance but I have two children and I live on my own with them. I have them full time. It’s a bit manic with everything going on.
“It was a moment of madness [not to take out insurance]. I was looking at getting it, I put it in the WhatsApp group for my cousins to get it and as I went to do mine something came up with the kids.
“Then it just slipped my mind and then I forgot all about it and didn’t get it done.
“It was a daft mistake. I knew I needed to get it.
“I think one of the kids hurt themselves outside or something and I rushed out to sort it and then I got back and got distracted.”
The single dad warned that “failure to prepare is preparing to fail”.