CHAR I T Y OF THE YEAR
actually, even though there are only two of us, medically we can deliver a lot. “I suppose the thing about this charity is that you’ve just got to hope against hope that you’ll never, ever need us,” concludes Terry. “I can’t imagine what it must feel like to hear the helicopter land, knowing it’s for you – on the one hand you’d be enormously relieved, but on the other hand, it’s literally the worst day of your life. And whilst our ambulance service is fantastic – and it really is, we’ve got that extra level of skill and we go to those fairly unique cases across the region where we’re really needed – you just really, really hope you don’t ever need us. But if you do, you’ll be so grateful.” “There’s a push and a pull,” agrees Dr Ed Gold, an emergency medicine and HEMS consultant in his tenth year of working with EAAA. “The push is: who knows what’s going to happen to you? When you’re driving home at a certain time, and it’s dark, if something goes wrong, you know that somebody is going to come and get you. Then the other way of looking at this organisation is that it belongs to the community and the people who donate. I’ve only been here ten years, but the guys who’ve been here for 20 years have seen it grow from nothing to
service. Each call-out is staffed by elite crews consisting of two pilots, a doctor and critical care paramedic, plus extremely advanced equipment, meaning that patients in urgent need of help can get it immediately, rather than waiting until they are admitted to hospital. EAAA has two H145 helicopters, each with a travel speed of 167mph, allowing the crew to get anywhere within its more than 5,000 square mile jurisdiction in just 25 minutes. When every second counts, this speed can mean the difference between life and death. In addition to these two aircrafts, EAAA has two rapid response vehicles – both Land Rover Discovery Sports – which can provide an alternative means of reaching patients on land and getting the teams to them as efficiently as possible. “We’re sort of a delivery service; it’s about delivering us to the patient and starting that care,” explains Dr Terry Collingwood, who has ten years’ experience as a doctor and joined EAAA in August last year. “What we can do is go there and start the critical care right from the start. We’ve got so much advanced kit that we can do a lot of what they do in hospital – we know our kit, we’re very well drilled and we work together as teams – so
MISSION 24/7
A big push for EAAA in 2020 is to become a 24/7 service by helicopter. Accidents and medical emergencies don’t stop overnight, and the team don’t want to have to, either. To operate a 24/7 helicopter service across East Anglia, the charity has to raise an additional £1 million each year. With this, they could attend up to 600 additional missions and be there for over 400 more patients every year. How to donate To keep up-to-date about EAAA fundraising activities and to donate, visit the Bright Publishing Just Giving page at justgiving.com/fundraising/ bright-publishing
54
J A N U A R Y 2 0 2 0
C A M B S E D I T I O N . C O . U K
Powered by FlippingBook