SERVING in Afghanistan at the height of the battle against the Taliban, for Luke Jones the threat of death was never far away.

But the former soldier and his family never imagined the closest he would come to dying would not be in a war zone, but while waiting to undergo what should have been routine surgery.

Yet just 10 days ago his life was in the balance, as doctors at the Royal Gwent Hospital fought to reverse an extremely rare reaction to an anaesthetic administered ahead of an operation on his sinuses.

The 27-year-old, who lives in Garndiffaith, can remember nothing of the period between having a first preparatory injection in an anaesthetics room on the afternoon of Friday February 27 and waking up fully, some 24 hours later, in the hospital’s intensive care unit.

“The anaesthetist gave me a first dose and said it might make my head feel a bit fuzzy. Then everyone left the room - I think there was an emergency going on - and the next thing I remember is waking up in intensive care,” said Mr Jones, a former Guardsman in the Welsh Guards.

What he subsequently learned from doctors and his family was that minutes later, he was plunged into his own emergency, suffering a rare but potentially fatal reaction to a second dose of anaesthetic, triggered by a then undiagnosed form of asthma.

“Apparently, my lungs sort of froze, I couldn’t breathe, and they really struggled to get me breathing again,” he said.

“A doctor had to come out of one of the operating theatres to help, they were fighting to save my life. My heart didn’t actually stop beating, but I was five minutes without oxygen.”

That was long enough, said Mr Jones’ mother Sally Williams, from Cwmbran, for medical staff to be unsure until he woke up whether there had been any brain damage caused.

“The situation didn’t really hit me until I saw him in the intensive care unit with tubes all over the place. I couldn’t believe he’d gone in for a routine operation and ended up in there,” she said.

“They told me he was very, very ill, and explained what had happened, that they’d had to perform an emergency tracheotomy (an incision into the windpipe) but that didn’t work at first.

“They pumped him full of adrenaline as well, which usually works, but it didn’t this time. Eventually they managed to force a tube through the tracheotomy hole into his lungs.

Mr Jones had experienced sinus problems, a tight chest and bouts of wheezing for some time, but asthma was not diagnosed because the type he was subsequently found to have was not revealed by traditional tests.

Now back at home, Mr Jones, who works with adults with learning difficulties, is on the road to recovery and full of praise for the Royal Gwent staff who saved his life.

“The anaesthetist was very upset and concerned, she said she’d never seen such a reaction in 16 years,” he said.

“But everyone was brilliant. The NHS gets knocked a lot, but I’d just like to say a huge thank you.”

Mrs Williams said everyone involved in her son’s care deserved special praise.

“They saved his life. I think they were very worried he wasn’t going to make it, like we were, but while he was in hospital all of them, from doctors, to nurses, to the cleaners, were fantastic. We’re forever grateful,” she said.