A YORK man has finally returned home from hospital to his overjoyed family - 15 months after falling down the stairs and breaking his back.

The family of Houssen Mohamudbuccus put out ‘welcome home’ banners and balloons when he was taken by ambulance back to their home in Fulford, and organised a celebration meal for nurses and carers.

“It was such a relief,” said his son Faizal. “Everyone was so happy. It was pure joy and happiness.”

He said he, his sister Zeynah and their mother Swadeka had been unable to visit his father - a founder and former president of York Mosque - for up to four months during the first lockdown in the spring, which included Ramadan and the Festival of Eid.

They were again unable to see him during the autumn lockdown. “It was really tough,” he said.

His father, who is in his late 70s, had also missed out on celebrating his 40th wedding anniversary with Swadeka and the birth of his first two grandchildren, but he had borne everything with great fortitude, helped by his Muslim faith.

“He’s a very patient man,” said Faizal. “He just got on with it. He got to like Tipping Point and The Chase on TV, and now wants to watch them every time they come on!”

He said that every Friday, there was a huge congregational prayer for his father at the mosque, with the Imam always asking people to pray for him.

He said his father, a retired York psychiatric nurse and social services manager, had been injured in the early hours of September 20, 2019, when he went to the toilet in the night and turned right instead of left, and fell down a full flight of stairs.

Paramedics came and took him to hospital, where it was discovered he had fractured his spine at the fourth and fifth vertebrae, leaving him paralysed from the waist down and with limited movement in his arms.

He said a surgeon had declined to carry out an operation on his father but after pressure from the family, another surgeon had carried out the surgery successfully and he then went to a hospital in Sheffield for rehabilitation.

He said his father later came under pressure to go into a care home but the family - worried that he might catch Covid in such a setting - successfully battled for him to return instead to their home, where he receives 24-hour nursing care.

Faizal revealed that the stress of the past 15 months had forced him to resign from his work as a bank manager.

He added that while his father was currently unable to go to the York Mosque because of Covid restrictions, the family was planning to take him again in a wheelchair once the pandemic was over.