Adam's Story

It was May 2009, when Adam Brown’s colleague left him to get some parts to repair a large cultivator on the family farm – Dairy House at Great Holland in North Essex. The 26-year old planned to finish one job off before lunch. “It didn’t seem to be a dangerous job, I was all kitted out with a fullface visor, safety gloves and overalls. The angle grinder I was using was new and had all the safety guards in place,” explains Adam.

However, he didn’t expect what happened next. “I was cutting a large piece of steel box with the 9 inch angle grinder and the blade was at full stretch. It was a powerful piece of
machinery and I realised the blade had started to bind with the metal. I should probably have stopped then, but seconds later I found myself on the floor. The angle grinder had knocked my face mask off and hit me in the face.”

Adam tentatively felt his face - it seemed OK - but there was a lot of blood down his overalls. He touched his neck and found a gash. He called 999 and when they discovered he was alone they sent a fast response unit and the Air Ambulance. “The operator stayed on the line until the fast response unit arrived, just a few minutes later,” says Adam. They made him comfortable and gave him morphine for the pain. “I didn’t lose consciousness, but I don’t remember a lot after that!” he adds with a smile.

HEMS paramedic Laurie Phillipson picks up the story. “When we arrived, Adam was lying on the floor with a neck wound. We assessed it to see if there was any underlying damage; if any major blood vessels had been involved.”

Pressure was applied to the wound and Adam was airlifted to Queens Hospital in Romford, “We keep a list of specialist hospitals with us, and although Adam’s farm is in Great Holland, Queens have specialist vascular surgeons so, when blood vessels need sewing up, they have experts on hand,” Laurie explains.

It was a good call. Adam’s wound was just millimetres from his jugular vein – in fact the vein was actually visible in the wound. Surgeons operated to remove the small shards of sharp metal before gluing the blood vessels back together.

Twelve months on and Adam is now fundraising to pay for his ‘ticket’ on the Air Ambulance. “Now I’m fit and healthy again, it’s the least I can do. Everyone was fantastic – they told me at the hospital I was lucky to see my next birthday – so I can’t thank the Air Ambulance team and the doctors at Queens enough.”