Courage afoot: Simon Robinson was a champion bodybuilder when a car accident cost him his right leg. Fortunately, his best bodypart was his heart

1) The oil slick that SIMON ROBINSON encountered on a winding road in England on March 25, 1998, changed the course of his BMW in the blink of an eye.

The car veered. A milk truck was approaching. They met head on. Simon remembers nothing of the impact. For that he can be thankful. He doesn't remember his spleen rupturing, the vertebrae in his spine crunching, his shoulders being yanked out of their joints, both legs being shattered and his jaw, nose and cheekbone all fracturing, the last in three places. He doesn't remember being trapped or resuscitated. It falls to Kerry Kayes, the man he went to visit that day, to explain the accident over breakfast six years later. Simon listens, too. The oil slick changed the course of his life forever.

The timing couldn't have twisted the then-31-year-old's fate any more cruelly. He had been a top soccer prospect who almost made it to the pros, and then he came within one match of representing England in tae know do at the Seoul Olympics. Finally, after an arduous, decade-long climb, he had reached a pinnacle in bodybuilding, winning the British championships of the World Amateur Bodybuilding Association (WABA), thanks to a spit-and-polished 240-pound physique.

That body now lay in the intensive care unit of Royal Oldham Hospital, broken. How do you treat such devastating injuries? Where do you even begin? Once severe head trauma was ruled out, emergency room medics loaded his bloodstream with an assortment of potent drugs, inducing a coma. Only then could surgeons begin the painstaking process of putting his skeleton back together. The most crippling injuries were to Simon's right leg, mangled beyond recognition below the knee, the entire calf musculature torn off. Gaping wounds and the resulting infections had made the leg toxic. Massive doses of antibiotics were administered, but the poison inched farther up his leg. By April 2, surgeons had no choice. They first amputated the leg below the knee; that would make it easier for Simon to walk later on. Only the poison crept higher. Eventually, they had to cut above the knee to save Simon's life. Within 12 hours of this second operation, his temperature began to drop, finally.

In happier times, growing up one of nine children in Mansfield, in the heart of England's steel country, Simon Robinson's legs seemed destined to carry him far from his dreary surroundings, Lightning fast, he aced rugby, javelin, cricket--pretty much every sport he played. But it was the green expanse of the soccer field that offered his avenue of escape. Simon was so good, in fact, that he went on to compete at the national level before trying out for professional teams, although his eyesight, of all things, kept him from making the grade. He couldn't wear glasses when he played, and his father, a coal miner, and mother, a factory worker, couldn't afford an extravagance like contact lenses with so many mouths to feed.

2) AFTER THE ACCIDENT, Simon's partner, Louise Parkin, and their extended family waited in vigil outside intensive care. So did Kayes, a mainstay of the British bodybuilding scene for years and Dorian Yates' partner in the bodybuilding-supplement business. He was Simon's mentor before the accident. That doesn't begin to describe their bond now.

After nearly two weeks and serial surgeries, it was time to release Simon from the coma. Such patients can become involuntarily violent, so the hospital asked Kayes to wait beside him. Not knowing what to expect himself, he brought along another bodybuilder. It took nearly a day for Simon to emerge from the coma, his consciousness ebbing and flowing. Dreams and reality needed untangling. Kayes' face eventually came into focus. Simon tried to speak, but his jaw was wired shut.

"I had to tell Simon he'd been involved in a road traffic accident," recalls Kayes, "He couldn't talk or move much, but he started getting quite agitated. And it clicked straight away that Simon thought he was disfigured. So I immediately said to one of the nurses, 'Get me a mirror, quickly!' I held it to Simon's face. He had a white sheet over him, and then he pulled on one of his legs, and it was in traction. I said, 'Simon, your leg's broken.' And then Simon pulled on his other leg, and a stump popped up from under the sheet. His face just went like that," Kayes says as he mimics a look of wide-eyed horror. "I put my arms around him said, 'Simon, they've had to cut your leg off.' What can you tell someone?"

Among the surreal sensations experienced by Simon upon exiting the drug-induced coma was a phenomenon known was phantom pain. His right foot was gone, but he could still feel it. And the cures that were being administered exacted their own toll. On April 16, he began vomiting blood. Numerous drugs were used to combat the pain and numerous others to reduce fever, and so many chemicals washing through his stomach perforated the lining, causing extensive internal bleeding. This required yet another surgery and the removal of a small section of his stomach.