A man paralysed in a road crash pleaded to live just moments before his life support machine was due to be switched off - by blinking his eyes. he incredible moment when father-of-two Richard Rudd managed to signal his will to live was caught on film during a television documentary about patients with serious brain injuries. Mr Rudd suffered devastating spinal injuries and brain damage in a motorbike accident. The smash left the 43-year-old completely paralysed and non-responsive. At first, Mr Rudd was thought to have fallen into an irreversible coma and his ventilator was the only thing keeping him alive. Thinking he would not want to go on living in such a state, his family gave doctors permission to withdraw treatment. But with staff poised to turn off his life support, Mr Rudd startled everyone by flicking his eyes to the right. Then, asked by doctors if he wanted to live, he replied "yes" by moving his eyes. His father, also called Richard, had said before the discovery that preserving his life would be like "playing God". But afterwards he said: "Because you think you can never live in that situation, you sometimes put that judgement onto somebody else - you probably have no right to do that. "But now Richard is in the situation where that has actually happened. It's real life, it's not pretence. The will to live takes over." The story is likely to reignite the right-to-die debate with campaigners claiming it highlights the potential dangers of living wills. Mr Rudd has 'locked-in syndrome'. Patients are able to hear, feel and think, but are not able to speak or move limbs due to brain damage. However, eye movement is a possibility if nerves connecting the brain with a patient's eye muscles are left intact. Professor David Menon, who discovered the eye movement, said Mr Rudd could remember he had had an accident and "on three occasions" made it clear he wanted treatment to continue. He added: "When he showed voluntary movement of his eyes, everything changed. We could use these to document 'yes' or 'no' responses and allow Richard to have a say in his own care. This was crucial." The documentary - Between Life and Death - was shown on BBC1 on Tuesday night. It followed the progress of Mr Rudd and two other patients over six months at Britain's leading brain injury unit at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge. Mr Rudd has been moved to the Royal Worcestershire Hospital, closer to his Kidderminster home. He is now able to make facial expressions and his long-term memory is intact - but he is likely to remain on a ventilator. :: Last year in Belgium, it was revealed a man who had been in a coma for 23 years after a road accident was actually conscious the whole time. Source: Sky News