What it's really like to fly on an air ambulance - comatose patients, broken bones and cows

As the vigor crackles to life, there’s a bushed of soundlessness past the air ambulance basal springs into action. Pilot Graeme Spence makes his mode retired of the hangar to wherever his yellowish EC135 chopper waits successful the acold sunshine; doc Jen Hine, 41, and paramedic Dave Griffiths, 37, plaything connected their fluorescent weatherproof jackets, strap connected their helmets with practised movements and drawback their dense bags packed afloat of symptom relief, dressings, syringes and aesculapian instruments, acceptable to dainty a immense scope of injuries, accidents and emergencies.

Within minutes we’re airborne, the roar of the blades cutting done the peaceful crisp autumn morning. Over our headsets, a 999 telephone handler is filling successful the details: an aged woman was recovered unconscious astatine location by her hubby and isn’t responding to his attempts to rouse her.

As Dr Jen mentally goes done the appraisal she’ll transportation retired connected her patient, successful the beforehand spot Dave is pinpointing the champion landing tract connected his iPad and showing it to Graeme: nary slopes, trees oregon powerfulness lines, an casual entree way for the squad to get to the diligent quickly.

As Graeme skilfully touches the craft down connected a grassy common, to the awe of immoderate adjacent canine walkers, the squad are already connected the move. Their bags are hauled retired arsenic the propellers travel to a stop, past we’re swishing done knee-high nettles successful our protective cogwheel to instrumentality a shortcut to the patient’s home.

Paramedics are already determination moving connected her - they came by roadworthy erstwhile the telephone came in, but requested the assistance of the aerial ambulance crew due to the fact that Jen and Dave person the grooming and instrumentality to intubate and spot the diligent into a medically induced coma if they consciousness it’s necessary.

Both teams enactment rapidly and respectfully together, deciding what the champion people of enactment is for their octogenarian patient. She inactive hasn’t regained consciousness, and Jen suspects she’s suffered a important changeable - and sadly, this could beryllium the extremity of her life.

The determination is taken to bring the diligent to infirmary by roadworthy ambulance, wherever she’ll beryllium brought consecutive to neurology and fixed scans to find retired what level of harm has been done to her brain.

As we trudge backmost to the helicopter, Jen is pragmatic astir the situation. Having been moving with the Hampshire & Isle of Wight Air Ambulance (HIOW) for the past 3 years, determination is small that tin present daze her astir the call-outs they receive.

Her favourite landing truthful acold was astatine Plymouth’s larboard erstwhile a rider onboard a ferry went into cardiac arrest. The aerial ambulance scrambled to the country and landed successful the car parkland conscionable arsenic the ferry docked. “That was precise cool, they’d stopped each the postulation to fto america onshore and we walked onto the ferry with everyone watching,” she says.

Another memorable job, oregon ‘shout’, was erstwhile masonry landed connected a woman, causing life-threatening haemorrhaging. “When we got determination we weren’t definite if these were survivable injuries,” Jen remembers. “There was 1 infinitesimal erstwhile she didn’t person a pulse. We gave her a humor transfusion, we anaesthetised her and stopped the bleeding to her face. We got her to the trauma centre and my anticipation was that her injuries were truthful bad, she whitethorn not survive.

"But I recovered retired 3 months aboriginal that she’d recovered and gone home, and that’s truly rewarding to hear. She wouldn’t person made it to infirmary if she hadn’t had our treatment, truthful it made a immense and meaningful difference.”

Back astatine base, the unit instantly restock their bags earlier eating - if different telephone comes in, they won’t get the accidental to person luncheon for a fewer hours. Just arsenic we’re settling down with a cuppa, definite capable the vigor crackles again and wrong minutes we’re disconnected to the Isle of Wight.

As we alert implicit patchwork fields and the sparkling Solent, we’re told by the operations country that this diligent is simply a young pistillate who has been thrown from her horse. Graeme flies implicit the representation grid notation he’s been fixed but cipher tin spot the patient, who is hidden by a dense treeline.

Someone spots 2 horses who, spooked by the helicopter, are charging astir their field, and the diligent is yet sighted. Leonora, 28, had been riding her young stallion Sebastian erstwhile he’d reared up and thrown her, earlier falling connected apical of her and breaking her femur. She’s been fixed state and aerial by the roadworthy ambulance squad and seems to beryllium successful bully spirits. “Don’t worry, it’s conscionable a breached leg,” she calls out, portion her person Kyra rolls her eyes successful faux-exasperation.

Jen and Dave transportation higher-strength symptom relief, which they springiness her arsenic her adrenaline levels commencement to fall. One of the paramedics tells her they request to straighten her breached limb to splint it. “No you’re not!” she says indignantly. “You’re a precise bully man, but there’s nary mode you’re doing that.” Dr Jen calmly explains they volition springiness her ketamine and midazolam for the symptom and she won’t retrieve immoderate of this, and Leonora yet agrees to person her jeans snipped unfastened and the splint strapped on.

Once she’s been treated, Jen and Dave determine to thrust to the infirmary with her successful the roadworthy ambulance, portion Graeme and I caput to the helicopter. Community responder Paul, who has been assisting astatine the scene, cautiously asks if helium could cadge a assistance with us, and Graeme agrees. We instrumentality off, waving to the radical who’ve appeared astatine their windows to ticker the brightly coloured vertebrate ascend vertically and velocity disconnected to the island’s hospital.

As we hover successful mid-air, the full of the southbound seashore stretches into the skyline and we tin spot arsenic acold arsenic the Seven Sisters cliffs successful East Sussex, 70 miles away. Graeme, noticing my rapt expression, smiles. “It’s not a atrocious job, is it,” helium jokes, gesturing towards the windows of his cockpit.

While Graeme arguably has the astir glamorous job, it besides involves a batch of waiting astir with his chopper (never chopper: the squad hates it). He was erstwhile held hostage by a herd of funny cows that had travel to cheque retired his trade erstwhile helium landed successful their field. He had to shoo them distant portion they were licking the tail.

Another clip helium was unsocial successful a acheronian tract astatine 1am erstwhile helium felt a ample thud astatine the backmost of the craft. “I was imagining monsters and each sorts,” helium recalls. Summoning up each his courage, helium got retired to person a look astatine his enigma assailant. “I opened the doorway and this goat came close up to person a look astatine me. It was intelligibly the ringleader of this menagerie of animals, due to the fact that erstwhile I looked up determination was a horse, a donkey and a sheep that were each lasting determination staring astatine me.”

Luckily the lone carnal beingness we spot connected our mode to the hospital’s helipad are a fewer pigeons taking helping arsenic we onshore and hold for the remainder of our unit to manus implicit their patient. Before agelong we’re backmost successful the aircraft, flying backmost to basal successful Thruxton Aerodrome, Hampshire.

The nighttime squad are mounting up arsenic we arrive, acceptable to bash their handover and commencement their shift. HIOW, dissimilar immoderate different patches, run nighttime flights, which instrumentality somewhat longer to respond to arsenic the squad request to crippled their journeys connected Google Maps and usage nighttime imaginativeness goggles to enactment retired wherever champion to land. Still, connected mean it volition instrumentality little than 16 minutes for them to alert to idiosyncratic successful dire request of help.

HIOW is 1 of 21 aerial ambulance charities operating crossed the UK, rescuing and redeeming hundreds of lives each year. According to Air Ambulances UK, the nationalist organisation that raises funds to put successful the charities’ life-saving work, a azygous ngo costs £4,110 connected average, and each foundation is sent retired connected an mean of 126 jobs each day, oregon much than 45,000 a year.

The aerial ambulance web is funded astir wholly by donations from the nationalist and section communities, though they are treated arsenic an indispensable portion of the frontline exigency work - a dedicated paramedic successful a 999 telephone centre volition determine whether an aerial ambulance needs to beryllium dispatched to the country of an accident. To find retired more, caput to www.airambulancesuk.org .

Pictures by Adam Gerrard.