A STUDENT who almost died after he was attacked by a thug has told how lucky he feels to be alive.

At home in Bridport, Tom Massey, 20, spoke for the first time about the terrible injuries he suffered after being punched and hitting his head on the pavement.

The attack by Lyme Regis man Nicky Robert Prokopowycz, in Dorch-ester cost him the sight in his left eye and the hearing in his left ear.

He was put into an induced coma and surgeons removed large pieces of his skull to reduce the pressure on his brain during a four-hour operation.

His family feared the worst as doctors battled to save his life.

He woke to hug his mother in hospital and later asked her what had happened to him because the last thing he could remember was going out to dinner with family and seeing friends to celebrate getting into university.

Tom said: “It must have been hard for my parents. I asked my mum what had happened when I was still on a drip.

“And I was shocked as at that time I did not feel so terrible. It was only when I woke up properly that I felt the effects.”

Surgeons opened up Tom’s stomach to store and preserve the parts of his skull while he recovered.

They have now returned the saucer-sized piece to the side of his head and another piece at the back.

And the operation went so well that Tom, who formerly lived with his parents in Dorchester, was allowed home to his new house in West Bay.

He said: “I feel lucky and happy to be around and I’m alright.”

The sight in Tom’s left eye could return but he does not expect to recover the hearing in his left ear.

His memories of before the day of the attack on August 30 are unaffected and since having the pieces of his skull replaced he has recovered memories from hospital.

Tom Massey and his family had been out to dinner at The Thomas Hardye pub in Alington Avenue, Dorchester, to celebrate getting a new home and him getting on to his degree course.

Lance, 53, and Sue Massey, 54, went home and left their son to celebrate with friends in the town but were woken at 4.30am by a call to go to Dorset County Hospital “It’s going to take us a long time to get over it,” Mr Massey said. “When you’ve been informed that your son is not going to make it, anything after that is a plus.

Tom was transferred to specialists at Southampton Hospital with doctors only finding slight signs of life.

Mr Massey added: “They said he was totally non-responsive. Normally they would not have operated but they did because of his age. They would have turned off the ventilator. It was that close.

“But they got the tiniest response from his pupil and because of his age they operated. They told me and his mum there was very little chance of him surviving.”

l Prokopowycz, 29, of Summerhill Road, Lyme Regis, was jailed for three years after he admitted causing Mr Massey causing grievous bodily harm.