FEATURE


Air Ambulance A


five year old was slumped motionless in the playground.


It was her first day at school and she had fallen heavily.


Her skull was fractured, causing a clot on the brain and she had just minutes to live.


In the sky above, a small red dot on the horizon held out the girl’s only hope. The London Air Ambulance had been scrambled.


As the crowd in the playground parted and the helicopter came down, the on- board doctor got to work, restoring an oxygen supply to the girl’s brain and injecting a strong saline solution into the bloodstream.


A picture of smiling Elena alongside her mother, fully recovered, hangs by a draughty lift-shaft above the accident and emergency unit of the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, the headquarters of the Air Ambulance unit.


It’s a daily reminder to staff and visitors of the work of the airborne team and how it can save lives across the capital each week of the year.


The helicopter and crew are stationed on a specially-constructed gantry atop the hospital, with clear views across the city and out into the suburbs.


Chief pilot Rob Pennell and his team can be airborne within three minutes on receiving an alert and be anywhere within the M25 area in less than 15.


On board is a fully qualified doctor able to administer complex drugs and surgery in any location.


Training 6


The training is rigorous. When SEnine visited Whitechapel, potential recruits were being put through a simulated emergency response, part of a full month


Photos by Dawn OConnor http://www.flickr.com/photos/dawnrosie


Story John Webb


To the south can be seen the distinctive rounded shape of Shooters Hill and beyond it, the homes and streets of SE9, just five minutes flying distance away.


London’s Air Ambulance has a member of staff at 999 headquarters in Waterloo, constantly monitoring in-coming calls for emergencies where the unit can make a difference.


With traffic congestion in central London and the arterial roads across the conurbation, a helicopter presence can arrive within minutes, maximising


the


chances of saving life in the ‘Golden Hour’; the time after injury a patient’s condition can worsen irretrievably.


training programme which only half complete successfully.


“It’s not every doctor who can adapt to performing open heart surgery on a roadside”, said clinical director Dr Gareth Davies, a veteran of nearly 20 years flying emergency missions across the capital.


“It’s a lot of pressure doing the work of what will eventually be a team of 12 or more doctors and nurses when the patient arrives at hospital”, he said.


It sounds more Helmand Province than the heart of one of the world’s largest capital cities, but open heart surgery on the spot is something the team is faced with at least once every fortnight.


Sadly, some of the call-outs are to deal with victims of shootings and stabbings. A patient is typically losing blood from a deep wound, blood pressure is falling rapidly and oxygen supply to the brain is failing.


But many are caused by road crashes or ‘pedestrian vs bus’ in the short-hand notation used on the white-board log hanging in the mess room.


The entries beneath are ‘GSW (stab wounds) to head’, ‘GSW to chest’, ‘light aircraft crash’, RTC (traffic collision), cardiac arrest’ and ‘open wound to chest, claw hammer’. The ages are mostly young, the outcomes are varied.


Being available to help deal with major incidents is important. During the 7/7 bombings, the helicopter brought in more than 20 specialist medics from around the capital to administer first aid on site.


Each mission costs on average around £3,500 and in 2009 the air ambulance attended 1,741 missions, 410 of which were at night.


The word ‘Virgin’ emblazoned across MD902 chopper (top speed 170mph)


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