Adam's Story
Name: Adam Brown
Date of Incident: Thursday 28th May 2009
Location: Dairy House Farm, Great Holland
What Happened: Accident with Angle Grinder - sustained neck injury.
Outcome: Airlifted to Queens Hospital, Romford. Thanks to the expert clinical care of the Air Crew and hospital Doctors, Adam has since made a full recovery.
Pauline's Story
On Tuesday 14th April 2009 I was driving along the A130 with my daughter and foster child. The day had started just like any other. Unfortunately for us, the day changed dramatically when my Ford Focus hit the central reservation and turned over. I suffered head, lung and arm injuries and was treated at the scene before being flown by the Essex Air Ambulance to Queens Hospital in Romford which was the best hospital to deal with my injuries. I have since been told my flight to Queens took just 7 minutes! My children were both taken to Basildon hospital with slight injuries.
The A130 was closed both ways for almost 90 minutes whilst I was cut free from my vehicle by the Fire Service and attended to by paramedics and staff from the East of England Ambulance Service. Essex Air Ambulance attended with Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) Doctor Ben O’Brien and HEMS Paramedic Richard Mackie. Serious head and chest injuries were suspected and consequently a procedure called Rapid Sequence Induction (RSI) was performed.
Doctor Ben O’Brien said “Optimising oxygenation and controlling C02 in head injured patients dramatically improves their outcome. We performed an RSI, giving Pauline an emergency anaesthetic so that we could optimise all the parameters. Furthermore, there is overwhelming evidence to show that secondary transfers to specialist centres is detrimental to the outcome in trauma patients. Therefore, we elected to fly Pauline to Queen’s Hospital which was the one best equipped to deal with her injuries.”
I would like to thank the HEMS team for everything they did that day. Their expert skills and care got me safely to hospital. I know that they were just doing their job but I will never be able to thank them and land crews enough for what they did. Without them I would not be here today!
Paul's Story
It was a clear Spring day. Highly experienced motorcyclist Paul John, owner of four motorbikes and holder of an Advanced Riding Certificate was enjoying riding his new Ducati around Essex country lanes. Little did he know that he was on course for the worst twelve weeks of his life.
The exact details are unclear; to this day Paul cannot recall what happened, or remember the people who found him. Police investigations revealed that Paul somehow lost control on a bend, and hit a telegraph pole at around 60mph.
Thanks to the actions of passers by Essex Air Ambulance was alerted and rushed paramedics to the scene. Paul was flown to Colchester General and spent six weeks in intensive care.
For a long while the doctors’ main concern was whether Paul had suffered brain injuries, and, although he was conscious all of the time, he was heavily sedated. His distraught wife and 18 year old daughter were joined by their son who, in his final year at university, dropped everything to return home. It was a traumatic time, but, after six weeks he was well enough to transfer to Wivenhoe ward where he spent another six weeks making a slow and painful recovery.
Although ambitious, Paul was back with his work colleagues part-time at e2v Technologies in Chelmsford, in September.
Paul says; "If it wasn’t for the people at the roadside, the Air Ambulance, the doctors and nurses at Colchester General, and all my friends and family I would not be here today. When I found out that I had been taken to hospital by helicopter my wife Carol and I wanted to do something to support the hospital and the Air Ambulance."
Thanks to the generosity of Paul, his family, his colleagues, and e2v Technologies Group, £500 was donated to Essex Air Ambulance and £500 towards an electrical chair for the hospital.
e2v’s Group Marketing Communications Manager and Chair of Charities Committee, Andy Bennet said; "Each of our sites supports local charities voted for by the employees. The Chelmsford site supports Essex Air Ambulance, Farleigh Hospice and Little Havens Children's Hospice. We promote fundraising activities to our employees, and, at the end of the financial year divide up the 'pot' of money raised between the core charities."