Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance celebrates 15 years of service

Since the air ambulance’s first flight on July 1, 2007, the doctors, paramedics, pilots and dispatch assistants who make up the charity’s Critical Care Team have been called out to over 15,000 emergencies across the region and beyond.

One of those patients was Claire Danson, 32, who said that without the help from a team following a collision she ‘wouldn’t be alive’.

The air ambulance team attended and provided Claire with specialist treatment before flying her to hospital.

Claire said: ‘You effectively wake up one day and your body is completely different to how you've ever known it. That can make you feel quite differently about yourself.

‘I had limited knowledge of the air ambulance before my accident, but me and my family know that I wouldn't be alive today without them.’

15 years on, the crews on board are tasked to about four emergency missions every day and are able to provide advanced life-saving care usually found in a hospital emergency department.

One of the longest-serving members of the team, Dr David Sutton, who has been flying with the charity from its outset, has praised the ‘amazing support’ from the public who have kept them flying and saving lives.

Dr Sutton has witnessed and treated almost every injury and illness imaginable, from an armed robbery in Chandler’s Ford to performing open heart surgery in a patient’s house.

‘The patient had been stabbed in the left side of his heart. My paramedic colleague, Mike, and I simultaneously opened the casualty's chest on the landing of the house, exposed the heart, emptied the sack around the heart full of blood and found a single hole in the left ventricle. I then blocked the hole whilst Mike transfused blood,’ he explained.

And now that he’s hanging up his flight suit for good, Dr Sutton has thanked the generosity from the public who have allowed him and his colleagues to carry out their life-saving work, 365 days a year.

Dr Sutton added: ‘Quite simply, we would not have the service we do without the amazing support we have had from the public.’

To support the life-saving charity for its 15th birthday visit www.hiowaa.org