A cyclist who severed an artery when she fell off her bike was saved by a stroke of luck because one of the people who came to her assistance was a vascular surgeon.

Denise Ledger, 57, would have bled to death within three minutes had John Thompson not stemmed the blood, which was spurting across the road “like a scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail”.

Mr Thompson, an expert in operating on veins and arteries, was able to put pressure on the femoral artery, saving Mrs Ledger’s life. He then followed her ambulance to hospital where he operated on her leg himself.

Mrs Ledger, a retired head teacher from Exeter in Devon, was cycling with her husband Roy when her front wheel became wedged in a rut. She landed on the handlebar and impaled herself.

In a short time she had lost a quarter of the blood in her body. Normal first aid advice to put pressure on the wound would not have been enough to save her and she would have died in minutes. She said: “I saw a mass of fat come out of the wound and then saw blood and realised it was quite bad. I was pressing really hard on it to try to stop the bleeding and my husband went to the garage to ring for an ambulance. I don’t think I realised quite how serious it was.”

Mr Thompson, aged 50, said: “It really was an amazing stroke of luck for Denise that I happened to be there. The ambulance crew was also on the scene incredibly quickly. If there had been any delay in her getting treatment she would have died. The wound was as big as if she had been speared and the end of the handlebar and brake lever went right down to the femur and then slid up towards the groin and damaged the artery.”

Mrs Ledger, who is recovering at home, said yesterday: “My knight in shining armour rushed up, said he was a doctor and took over. I know I was minutes from death. I can’t thank everyone enough.”

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