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I'm in love ❤❤
The two most amazing critical care Drs..
wow GWAA thank you!!!
Here is a link so you can give generously to this amazing charity, and here my story https://justgiving.com.gwaa
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My
morning at GWAA (Great Weston Air ambulance)
On Friday 17th February
it was arranged with the public relations and marketing team from the Gwaa
charity that we would be able to visit the air base and meet the crew who
attended my accident on 10th October 2015. This has taken a little
while to arrange as they had to go back over their records, and find out which
members of the team were working that day and try and coordinate them being
there to meet me. After a lot of sorting it out it was established that 3
critical care doctors were on shift that day!!! Ooooo lucky me!!. One of the
team has since left but 2 memebers still work on the air ambulance and one was
going to be working that day and one agreed to come in on his day off!
As it was half term I decided
to take my daughter Stella as she was on holiday and my niece Jasmine, my dad
and sister also attended with me. Both my dad and my sister (Vicky)
were with me in the field following my accident as they had been called and as
they don’t live too far from the venue where the accident happened they were
able to get to me pretty quick. They
really wanted to come and meet the team who helped me on that day.
We pulled up at Filton where
the air base is and were met by Becky Garland the GWAA charity PR coordinator.
She explained what the visit would entail and showed us in to the air craft
hanger. Becky explained before that if the crew get a call out they would have
to go, which we fully understood. She said that 2 out of the 3 team members
were here and looking forward to meeting me! It was at this point that I got a
bit emotional and had a horrible lump in my throat and tears started welling up
in my eyes!! all of a sudden I realised I
hadn’t had to think about the accident much and I think I had put it behind me.
Probably all the counselling sessions had helped to deal with the trauma of the
event and it now feels like something that could have happened to someone else.
When we walked through the
door into the control hub all the feelings of anxiety vanished as we were met
by the most amazing team of heroes you could ever imagine. I can’t say I recognised
any of them!! Ha hah. We were introduced to critical care Dr Ed Valentine,
Critical care Dr Greg Cranston both of who were in attendance at my accident.
Also there today were critical care paramedics Matt and Dee. We all chatted a
lot about the day and what happened and what happened after. Ed and Greg were
the most amazing gentlemen. As I found out it was Dr Greg that held my hand and
positioned himself in my line of vision all the time, giving me reassurance, it
was this act of kindness that I will always remember as when I think back to
that eventful day, I remember the extreme amount of pain I was in and someone being
very close and reassuring all the time while things were going on around me. I
now know what Dr Greg had shown me that this is what you need in times of trauma;
I was so frightened he made me feel safe.
Dr Ed and Dr Greg said that they probably have
attended over 400 + call outs since my accident, but they remembered things
about that particular day because I was fully conscious throughout the whole
time. Normally a lot of accidents they attend either the patient are unconscious
or they need to be ventilated due to their injuries. So this was something they
remembered, me being awake!!! They
laughed and remembered me telling them how much morphine I had been given when
they were talking amongst themselves; they remember me saying “I’ve had 15mg”. I can’t believe how young they all are to be
so senior in their jobs; Both Greg and Ed are consultants in emergency medicine
full time at the Royal Gwent hospital in wales and work for GWAA charity on top
of their normal hours, absolute heroes!!
The team really welcomed me
and my family and we chatted over coffee, they showed us the map and area they
cover, they described what happens when a call comes in via Exeter ambulance
call centre and how they triage the priority of the situation and if they
should dispatch the helicopter. Every time they start to fly and the helicopter
leaves the ground it cost £2000 just to start the engines, it actually costs
the charity £3,000,000 per year to keep flying!!! Some support does come from
the NHS in the form of all disposables carried on board and for treatment of patients.
The charity funds the lease of the
helicopter as this is a more economical way of keeping a fully working
helicopter, rather than owning it.
The charity has two
permanent employed pilots and always requires a fully qualified paramedic to
act as navigator when they get a call out. They work from 07.00-0100 as they don’t
fly at night, but they also operate emergency critical care vehicles from this
base. While we were there in 2 ½ hours they had 3 calls, where they dispatched
the emergency vehicles to local situations. As Dr Greg had come in on his day
off, he stayed with us throughout the visit... while Dr Ed valentine and the other
members of the team went in and out to incidents.
After finding my place of
injury on the map and Stella my daughter working out from the coordinates the estimated
time of arrival it would take actually 5 mins to get to me over in Chipping Sodbury.
It takes the team 3 minutes from receiving
the call till the helicopter leaves the ground. All in all it probably should only
take about 8 minutes from receiving the call to actually finding me and landing
in the field at Hollisters that day, it felt a lot longer than 8 minutes, it
did feel like I was on the ground for ages though!!!
Then Dr Greg took us outside to look found the
helicopter, this actual one is not the one I went in as its been updated since
Oct 2015, but it was really interesting to actually see how small it is and to
see how all the kit fits in and god knows where the team sit!! Good job Dr Ed
is small….!!!! We spent ages looking
round the helicopter and Stella and Jasmine got to sit inside and get a real
feel of how small the space is!! It doesn’t seem possible to fit me on a stretcher,
all the equipment and 3 doctors and the pilot. We were allowed to take lots of
photographs and ask all sorts of questions, well you know me of course we
needed to find out if these amazing gentleman were married ~?? to the job? Ha
haha ha. We all had such an amazing morning, and have come away inspired to how
we can raise money for such an amazing charity. At the top of this blog is links
to the charity page, where you can donate, attend a race, run, walk, bike ride
all aid of GWAA. We have decided we want to do a fund raiser, so the children are
looking into doing the muddy run in Bath and we are having a committee meeting
next week to throw some ideas together. I did suggest I do a parachute jump!! But
I hate heights and my children said no!!
I have agreed to do a case study
for the GWAA so they can use my story to raise awareness for the good charity
work they do and help raise funds to keep the helicopter flying
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