A DAD has spoken of the terrifying moment he accidentally stabbed himself in the groin – severing his femoral artery and causing "pints and pints" of blood to gush out of his body.

Chris Sharples had been looking forward to staying on a Cumbrian campsite with three friends as part of their graduation celebrations after completing their courses at Salford University.

After going out shopping for food supplies, the father-of-two decided to cook a chicken curry for their first evening meal on Thursday when a horrific accident left him within minutes of losing his life.

"I had the knife and the chopping board, with the chicken on top, when the packet went to slide off the board," the 36-year-old said.

"I went to grab it and somehow stuck the knife into my groin, through the femoral artery, I don't really know how it happened, it was just a split-second reaction."

Describing how he "probably swore" when he saw the kitchen knife protruding from his leg, Mr Sharples instinctively pulled it out, severing the vital femoral artery supplying blood to his lower limb.

"The blood was just gushing out, it started squirting with such force, it was like nothing I'd ever seen before, there was pints and pints coming out," the wildlife and conservation graduate recalled.

"My friends thought it was a wind-up at first, that I was messing about with some tomato ketchup."

Managing to stay calm, Mr Sharples, who is from Oldham, tried to stem the bloodflow while his friends called 999. On arrival, paramedics discovered the patient was in dire need of life-saving treatment and called the Great North Air Ambulance to the caravan site at Long Marton near Appleby.

Mr Sharples was given a blood transfusion before being flown to the James Cook Hospital in Middlesbrough where he underwent emergency surgery to draft a section of a vein from another part of his body to reconnect his femoral artery.

"It was weird but I never actually felt like I was going to die," he said.

"I knew it was a possibility but I was just worried about getting blood all over my friend's caravan."

Mr Sharples, dad to five-year-old Jensen and nine-month-old Jasper, could not speak highly enough of the air ambulance crew, made up of pilot Phil Lambert from Kendal, paramedic Terry Sharpe from Langwathby and doctors Laura Duffy from Newcastle and Theo Weston.

"They saved my life, without a doubt," he said. "They're my heroes."

Air ambulance paramedic Mr Sharpe said: “When we arrived, we discovered that the patient had suffered a deep wound and was losing a lot of blood. The doctor-led trauma team used specialist haemostatic dressings along with military pressure dressings to stem the bleed.

"At the scene, and in the helicopter, he was given the maximum amount of blood that we carry. He arrived at hospital in a critical condition and needed emergency surgery. Without getting there so quickly, his outcome would have almost definitely been different. He is a very lucky man."

The air ambulance charity operates across Cumbria and the North West, with many of those whose lives it has saved helping to raise awareness and some of the £4.5m in funding needed every year to keep it going.