Carol Hider has been a collection box volunteer for the HELP Appeal for two years. Little did she know that one day the charity would play a vital role in saving her life.
Carol had plans to visit her family in Australia in January. But three days before the visit, she had a serious setback which meant her trip had to be postponed. Thanks to HELP Appeal funded helipads at St Mary’s Hospital in the Isle of Wight where she lives and at Southampton General Hospital where she had an emergency operation, Carol was able to be treated immediately after her diagnosis.
Carol takes up her story:
In October I started having really bad headaches, even when I moved my head it was very painful. After a month, I visit the GP who advised just to wait for another month to see what happens. Just before Christmas, when the pain still hadn’t subsided, I returned and was told that if I still had headaches in January, I would be referred for a CT scan.
By January I still wasn’t feeling well and along with a headache, my back was playing up and I was starting to lose my balance. After an appointment with my chiropractor Val Simons, who I’d been seeing for 20 years, she knew something was very wrong and called the emergency department at St Mary’s Hospital straight away. I will always be very grateful that she made that call.
When I arrived, the hospital x-rayed my back. But it’s when they did a CT scan on my head, that they noticed a serious bleed on my brain. All of a sudden, I had a bed booked in Southampton General Hospital and was to have an operation that night. At this point, the gravity of the news still hadn’t sunk in. I was still thinking that I’d be able to make my holiday to Australia.
I was airlifted from the helipad at St Mary’s Hospital to Southampton General Hospital’s helipad, a really fast and smooth journey which only took around 20 minutes. Once I’d landed, my trolley was wheeled straight to the hospital’s front door and I was able to have my operation in the early hours of the morning under local anaesthetic. The surgeon called my husband around 3am to say all was well and that I was recovering in the high dependency ward. I was out of hospital in 5 days and I’m doing very well now and back driving again.
If there had been no helipads, I dread to think how much longer my journey might have taken and potentially how much bumpier the ride would have been, if I’d had to finish the journey in a road ambulance.
When I started volunteering for the HELP Appeal, I never thought for one second that I might actually need a helipad one day. Thanks to the charity I had two helipads available, which helped me to access emergency treatment quickly and saved my life.
