LEO Tarrant should be dead.

When the director of instruction at Worcester’s Ravenmeadow Golf Course was left in an eight-month coma after a fall outside his home in May 2011 his family and doctors feared he might never wake up.

But three years later the only lasting effects he has experienced is losing his sense of smell and some slight memory loss.

After the accident doctors told Mr Tarrant's family he was unlikely to recover and, if he did, he would need round-the-clock care.

“There was bleeding on my brain and, from what I was told, I was dead really,” he said.

“Initially they kept me alive because my mother refused to believe I would die.

“She’s been a special care nurse all her working life and has incredible strength.”

Her strength was tested to the limit as her son underwent a series of operations at Coventry’s Walsgrave Hospital, including the removal and replacement of his skull with titanium and putting drainage into his brain.

When the 34-year-old woke up it was as if the clock had been rewound to the day he was born.

“I was unable to speak and completely disabled,” he said.

“Firstly I learned to sit up in bed then I got a machine that let me type things I wanted to say to people.

“Then I was able to start speaking again.”

Although consultant Dr Eliezar Okirie told Mr Tarrant he would never be able to walk again, his family and medical staff never gave up hope that he would make a full recovery.

“I had a couple of people close to me who were really good and they were so positive,” he said.

“They encouraged me to do things – sit up in bed and pass things to them.

“Golf balls and memorabilia were brought in for me to play with and I started to learn to sit up and be hoisted into a wheelchair and learn how to use it.

“Then it was a case of attempting to stand, which took weeks to do, then trying to walk again and making a complete recovery.”

During his recovery he spent time at a rehabilitation centre in Leamington specialising in head injuries.

“When I had my last consultation with Dr Okirie prior to being discharged there were a load of people in the room - they had asked to come because I was considered to be a scientific miracle,” he said.

“I was told the textbooks said I should be dead and it was unbelievable I’d survived.

“Failing that, I should have been severely disabled.

“Dr Okirie said he’d studied my case very closely because he wanted to work out how I’d recovered as there was no scientific or medical reason for it.

“He also predicted he didn’t think I’d win the lottery or become prime minister but told me to make sure I have a smile on my face every day.”

Along with the loss of his sense of smell Mr Tarrant also has no memory of how he suffered the injury. It seems unlikely he was mugged as his wallet and valuables were untouched, but some have speculated he may have been hit by a car.

However, while many might be tempted to try and piece together the events of May 2011, Mr Tarrant said he was just happy he was still around to tell the tale.

“I’m in better shape mentally than I’ve ever been and I want to put all this behind me rather than try and find out what happened,” he said.

He said he thought he had inherited his positive attitude from his Mum Helen, who gave up her job in London and moved in with him to help nurse him back to health.

“My mother’s an incredibly positive person,” he says.

“My father died when he was 35 so she had to bring me up single-handedly. I guess her positive attitude has rubbed off on me.

“The consultant told me there’s something in me that wasn’t in other people – I never asked any bad questions and only ever tried my hardest.

“He wondered if being so positive was the reason for me getting better.”

Mr Tarrant said his Mum had also helped sort out the more practical aspects of his condition, including asking the Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) to suspend his membership while he was out of action.

He said he was particularly thankful to David Wright from the PGA’s Benevolent Fund for his help managing his affairs.

“It sounds awful but I didn’t think I had any relevance to The PGA – my injury was nothing to do with my career,” he said.

“I knew who David was from doing my training and when my Mum said he wants to see you I was amazed.

“I’d been a pro for 10 years and didn’t give much thought to the Benevolent Fund.

“When your membership renewal comes up and you’re asked to make a donation to it, you might give a fiver and wonder why.

“But the fund helped me massively.”

Mr Tarrant said he had to take 16 months off work while he recovered and at one point was in danger of going bankrupt and losing his house, but thanks to the fund he was able to continue to pay his bills until he was well enough to pick up a golf club again.

“None of it was asked for – it was done by him having a look and saying this is what we want to do,” he said.

“He did it from a director’s level in a friendly way and became your friend doing it.

“It meant a lot the organisation wanted to do that for you.

“I’m an Arsenal supporter and, apart from the fact he supports Spurs, I couldn’t fault him.”

When he did go back to work Mr Tarrant could only do 10 hours a week, but he said thanks to the support of the golf course’s major shareholder James Leaver he had been able to keep his job.

“I was lucky insomuch that had shares in the centre and James helped me keep my job,” he said.

“He’s a good friend of mine and was the pro at my club when I was 16.

“He let me work for a year when I wasn’t at my best and doing everything properly.

“By contrast, the government was pretty much a waste of time.

“They did things when you were dying in hospital but the minute you got out, that was it.”

He was also supported during his illness by Headway, a national charity dedicated to supporting people who have suffered brain injuries as well as their families and carers.

“They were really helpful to me,” he says. “And like David Wright of The PGA, they wouldn’t leave me alone.

“That is until I told them I was fine and someone else would need them more than me.”

Every week he was visited by a volunteer from the charity, one of whom, Steve Jones, has since become a close friend.

“This went on for about a year and not once did they quiz me as to whether I’d been doing my physio or lecture me about how I should be doing things,” he said.

“They talked to me as friends and discussed things like girlfriends, where we’d been on dates, that sort of thing.

“They were very positive in helping me get my life back together – there was no negativity from them at all.

“They also helped on a practical level by arranging things like concessions on transport costs because I lost my driving licence as a result of the injury.

“There were also other benefits they told me I was entitled to.”

As a way of giving something back Mr Tarrant ran a fundraising day at the golf course which raised more than £1,000 for the charity and has also increased his annual contribution to the PGA’s Benevolent Fund.

But he said he did not think he would ever be able to repay everyone who had supported him during his miraculous recovery.

“I was a 31-year-old guy who was in massive trouble and my career in golf could have been over,” he said. “Likewise life as I knew it.

“I’m indebted to them all, especially David and Headway.

“They never made an issue about helping me and their help was there for me for as long as I needed it.”