How the flying doctors save lives across Warwickshire

It’s an incredibly small team who run the Warwickshire and Northamptonshire Air Ambulance (WNAA) - and staggeringly, with each rescue operation costing on average £1,400, the organisation receives no Government funding.

So to mark its tenth anniversary, the service is launching a new fundraising drive and hoping that as many businesses and individuals as possible will get on board.

While most of us in Warwickshire may have heard of the service, few will know what goes on at its headquarters at Coventry Airport in Baginton - from where the Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Rutland Air Ambulance (DLRAA) and the national Children’s Air Ambulance (CAA) are also based. Each of the three services only have one ambulance each.

So Courier reporter Sundari Cleal and photographer Jass Lall went along to find out how these flying lifesavers operate.

We’re buzzed in to the site and head up the stairs of the small building that is WNAA HQ. There is a small staff room with a few sofas and computers and a First World War-style map of the Midlands with pins and string to help crews plan their route to jobs. There’s also a tiny kitchen and some changing rooms, but that’s about it. Outside we see parked up the WNAA aircraft, gleaming in the sunshine, along with its support land ambulance. The DLRAA and CAA aircraft are out during our visit.

We’e introduced to the team and taken out to gain an exclusive view of the inside of the helicopter, inside which the crew normally consists of one pilot, one doctor and one paramedic.

Dr Adam Manson - a military GP who has spent time in Afghanistan - and paramedic Jenny Conway talk me through how things work.

At the head of the patient’s bed there is a defibrilator and two trauma bags - a ‘primary’ bag which contains enough equipment for the doctor to take out with him if the helicopter is unable to land, and a ‘secondary’ bag which contains more advanced equipment.

At the bottom of the bed is a suction unit and above the door is a valve for oxygen, which is pumped into the aircraft. More equipment and drugs are stored underneath the bed.

Dr Manson says: “The doctor sits opposite the monitor so he can see what the patient’s situation is.

“Most of the time, the paramedic faces the front of the aircraft so he or she can navigate the pilot, but if the patient is very sick, the seat can turn around so the paramedic can concentrate on him or her.”

Although the pilots are not medically trained, they do assist by helping to carry or hold equipment, for example, and have good experience of how to react in emergency situations where patients may be frightened or panicking.

On average there are three to four jobs per day, but on very hot and very cold days there are usually more incidents.

Dr Manson tells us: “Our first job this morning was to assist a 75-year-old lady who was reported to have had a cardiac arrest. A land ambulance would have taken 20 minutes to reach her, but we got there within seven minutes. It turned out that she was diabetic and low on sugar, so there was no need to fly her to hospital.

“We don’t want to be flying patients who don’t need it and not be able to be there for that eight-year-old child who has been hit by a bus and has a severe head injury.”

Ms Conway says: “We are often called out to horse riders who have fallen off and are injured but six fields away from the nearest road. In that situation, we can fly them to the road and then hand them over to an ambulance. So we are used to make access easier.”

When the crews do have to take patients to hospital, it is usually to one of the ‘major trauma centres’ in the area, which in central England are the University Hospital in Coventry, the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham and the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford. The air ambulance is usually called in situations where they could fly a patient to one of these hospitals in ten minutes, while a land ambulance would take 50 minutes.

But often arriving at hospital is not the end of the story. While the University Hospital in Coventry has a helipad directly opposite the Accident and Emergency department, the others require the team to land a little distance away so the patient must be driven for the final part of their journey.

The service is not used lightly. Dr Manson says: “It’s so noisy that we communicate via radio and we have the vibration of the aircraft, which can affect the patient’s condition and can induce anxiety. If we had to perform CPR, it would be exciting and emotional compared to doing it in an ambulance. It’s a risky place.

“We have a lot of respect for this environment because it can be quite challenging. Flying can be quite nausea inducing. A lot of the patients cannot sit up or see out of the window - it can be quite disorientating.”

Sometimes weather conditions mean it is too dangerous to fly - but the team have their own land ambulance they can use instead. They may be needed because the air ambulance paramedics are medically higher qualified. Ms Conway tells me: “You must have been a paramedic for two years, then you go on a selection weekend which includes fitness and psychometric tests, written exams and navigation exams and an interview before a panel. If you get through all of that, you might be offered a job.

“We are critical care paramedics, so we can provide advanced care if a doctor is not available.”

The WNAA crew are often called to work with the DLRAA - which could see them flying up as far as Sheffield - and they might be asked to support the CAA, which must have a paediatrician on board. Each service only has one aircraft each, but fundraising has allowed the WNAA to buy spare aircraft for emergency use when there is a technical problem with its existing helicopter.

So what is it like to be out flying to rescue the needy?

Dr Manson says: “Every job is different. Sometimes we have difficulty landing. Sometimes we land in someone’s back garden.

“When you get a job, you try to piece together what has happened. Sometimes, you do get there and think, howon earth has this happened? For example you’ll be on a 30mph road and a car has turned on to its roof.

“We sometimes work with the RAF search and rescue helicopters. They generally have one paramedic on board, so if the patient was critically ill, we might be called in to help.

“Our plan has to remain flexible. When you turn up on the scene, there are often all sorts of strange things happening. It’s a very dynamic job.”

And things can and do go wrong. “Kit will not work, sometimes things will fall out of the helicopter.” says Dr Manson. “I suppose it’s a bit like being a builder. There will always be unforeseen errors. That’s where the teamwork comes in. You’re not going to blame someone else for mishaps - you just think, oh dear, and deal with it. They might have to buy some biscuits for the team, but that’s about as far as it goes.”

And are people grateful for their help?

Ms Conway says: “Generally if someone needs the air ambulance, they are having the worst day of their life, so they are usually happy to see us.

“Quite often patients come to visit us some time after the incident and we get lots of cards - both to say thank you and to tell us how much money they have raised for us through a cake sale or sponsored cycle. It’s really nice.”

In celebration of the WNAA’s tenth anniversary this year, the organisation is inviting businesses across Warwickshire to take part in its Big £50 Business Challenge. Corporate sponsor of the challenge MHA MacIntyre Hudson will provide participants with £50 and the challenge is to invest the money on behalf of the charity and make as much money from it as possible to donate to the charity.

All money raised much be returned by October 1. The person or team who has raised the most money will receive a trophy and full-page advert in the Business Times, as well as a morning of activities at Whilton Mill, which will include clay pigeon shooting, quad biking and go-karting.

To find out more, call Tracy Grunwell on 0845 413 0999 or email [email protected]

During the last six months, the Warwickshire and Northamptonshire Air Ambulance and Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Rutland Air Ambulance has attended 793 incidents - just under 50 per cent of which were road crashes.

A fifth were medical emergencies such as heart attacks and strokes, while other commons call outs were sports related, with horse riders, footballers, and rugby players among those being regularly airlifted.

Each rescue mission costs the charity an average of £1,400 - and crews attend around three each day.

To donate, call 08454 130 999 or visit www.theairambulanceservice.org.uk/donateAlternatively, make a £3 donation by texting ‘TAAS99 £3’ to 70070.