Man’s belly fat used to fill out head after piece of skull removed

A former visual effects supervisor for Doctor Who has had fat taken from his stomach and inserted into his temple after falling 8m from a drainpipe in 2009.

Tim Barter, 32, from Brixton, south London, had to have part of his skull removed after he locked himself out of his house and decided to climb up to an upstairs window to gain entry.

As he reached the top of the drainpipe he was too far away to reach the window sill, and just as he moved to climb back down, it collapsed beneath him.

He was discovered unconscious by his neighbours a short time later and rushed to the major trauma centre at King’s College Hospital.

He awoke from a coma 10 days later with a brain haemorrhage, a shattered eye socket and broken leg, and was told that, to cope with the bleeding and swelling on his brain, part of his skull on the right-hand side of his head had been removed.

After being discharged from hospital several weeks later he was told to stay indoors as much as possible and was given a hard hat, similar to that worn by builders, to protect his head whenever he went outside.

Then, in December, a custom-made titanium plate was implanted to replace the piece of removed skull. The plate was developed at King’s using computer technology to make it mirror the other side of his head.

Titanium plates were also used to fix his shattered eye socket, and were inserted through the inside of his cheek to prevent scarring, while the fat from his stomach was injected into his temple to fill out the concavity that had appeared through the slump of inactive muscle.

Mr Barter said he had no recollection of the fall in June 2009 but believes he must have landed face-first.

He said: “My head felt really strange. I only had skin over where the skull had been removed so it was very soft to touch, particularly when the hair had started to grow back.”

He said the surgery had changed his life. “Life stopped for a number of months. I couldn’t work and I had double vision. I was frightened that my eyesight would never go back to normal and that I would have to give up my job for good.

“Up until I had the titanium plate fitted, simple things like going to the toilet caused intense headaches. Bending down to do anything was agony.”

Mr Barter said that, since the fall, he has developed a love for extreme sports.

“I’m simply making the most of everything now where I didn’t before.

“I love the falling. It’s just the split second at the end that’s an occasional problem.”