Supervet Noel Fitzpatrick has opened up about a gruesome fall which left him with a broken neck, admitting the ordeal was a 'wake-up call'.
Fitzpatrick, 56, is best known for his work on Channel 4 show The Supervet which sees him look after pets with some of the 'hardest-to-cure' illnesses, making him a beloved figure among animal lovers.
But while he may be known for saving the lives of the nation's pets, Fitzpatrick previously had his own brush with death after a horror accident left him with a broken neck.
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Speaking to The Guardian about his ordeal the Supervet explained he had suffered the injury after falling down a staircase in his own home back in 2020.
Fitzpatrick says he had gotten up to go to the toilet in the middle of the night but lost his footing and fell down an entire flight of stairs. To make matters worse, his fall ended by crashing into a wall which caused his neck to snap.
"It was a profound wake-up call. Also in the physical sense, that I was millimetres away from death," he explained.
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"Had the vertebra shifted more, apparently, the fatality rate from an asleep fall down 13 steps into a wall is not good."
Fitzpatrick would later learn that he had fractured his C7 vertebra, a bone which is at the base of the neck. Immobilised in a neck brace, he would need to take months away from work to recover.
Thankfully Fitzpatrick has since been able to make a full recovery, with the 19th season of his show The Supervet currently airing.
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Fitzpatrick's dedication to finding groundbreaking ways to save animals has led to him receiving many awards in his field. In 2017 he was honoured with the Blaine Award by British Small Animal Veterinary Association for 'outstanding contributions' to small animal medicine, noting that he responsible for creating 30 new medical techniques in the field.
He also made it into the Guinness World Records in 2014 after becoming the first veterinary surgeon to perform amputation prosthesis on a cat.
Fitzpatrick has also authored several books, with his biography revealing a surprising connection to pop star Britney Spears.
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In Listening to the Animals - Becoming the Supervet Fitzpatrick revealed he had been in a relationship with songwriter Cathy Dennis, who penned Kylie Minogue's 'Can't Get You Out of My Head' back in the early 00s.
The pair broke up in 2003, shortly before she wrote Spears' hit song 'Toxic' - leading many to question if Fitzpatrick was the inspiration for the song.
Addressing the speculation in an interview on This Morning, he said: "I think you need to get Cathy on the show and ask her...Who knows, we need to wait for Cathy's biography on that one."
Brenna Cooper