Steve from Gloucestershire was riding to his best friend’s house on his new scooter. It was a road he knew well and as he rounded a bend, known locally as Devil’s Hill, a car was coming towards him on his side of the road. This caused a serious collision resulting in Steve sustaining life threatening injuries.
Thanks to the HELP Appeal funded helipad located beside the Emergency Department at Southmead Hospital, Steve received critical hospital care in the fastest time possible after landing in a Great Western air ambulance, giving him the best chance of survival.
The HELP Appeal donated £250,000 to build this helipad and since opening, it has seen over 2,600 emergency landings.
Steve’s accident and immediate aftermath
Steve explains:
“I swerved and thought I’d missed the car, but then there was a bang and the world went brown as I went into the verge. My leg was hurting. I kept standing up and falling over. Someone appeared and suggested that I lie down.
“When I was lying down, I could see my left foot but I couldn’t see my right foot. I thought, I’ve broken my leg. I’d recently turned 57 and it was the first time I had broken a bone. I also noticed that when I took my glove off, I had a lump in my hand; I realised a bone was trying to come out. It all went a bit weird after that. I asked the people that were there if they could take my phone out of my pocket and phone my wife Gail, and then my best friend to say I’d be late getting to him.
“Then I very quickly became aware of the air ambulance coming in to land. I thought, oh dear this must be serious and I felt genuine intrigue as to what was going on.”
Photo: Gail and Steve before the accident
Steve is airlifted to Southmead Hospital helipad
When Gail reached Steve at the scene of the accident, he was surrounded by lots of people, some in orange overalls. She managed to grab Steve’s hand, “Oh, hello love,” Steve managed to say, “I’m going to have my leg amputated.”
After a team from Great Western Air Ambulance Charity (GWAAC) arrived, they gave Steve strong pain-relieving drugs and a sedative so they could re-align his leg.
Once in the air the crew managed Steve’s pain and kept him stable. It was dark by the time the crew landed at Southmead Hospital with Steve. SPCC Christian from GWAAC said, “We don’t usually fly at night but Captain Jim Green was able to land at Southmead because the hospital has a helipad which is a designated landing site.”
This helipad was funded by the HELP Appeal.
Touch and go
Shortly after Steve arrived he became critical and had to be taken straight to surgery. Gail, Steve’s wife explained, “I had to sign consent forms. I said, if he’s critical I want to see him. They said, you’ll have to be quick.”
She recalls,
“They were suddenly running Steve down the corridor on a stretcher to the operating room while I was holding his hand.”
The two-and-a-half-hour surgery turned into four-and-a half hours as doctors fought to keep Steve alive. Steve made it through the operation and spent the next 24 hours on ventilators in Intensive Care while Gail waited anxiously at home for updates and kept children, family and friends informed. Gail said, “It wasn’t sounding good. And then the updates stopped coming through.” When Gail got a call at 07:10 she was expecting the worst but after a pause on the line she heard, “Hello darling, you alright?” It was Steve.
Photo: Steve landed in an air ambulance at Southmead Hospital helipad which is beside its Emergency Department
“The accident made us realise we were always going to be together”
Gail said, “Something like this either breaks a relationship or forges it together.” Following seven years together, Steve and Gail decided to get married.
Steve was wheelchair bound for a year after the accident because it was a struggle to get his prosthetics to work, but he remained determined. He said, “I told Gail, ‘I’m going to walk with you up the aisle and there is no way I’m going to do it in a wheelchair.”
Their background in Project Management came in handy as they planned their wedding while moving six times in four months during home adaptations for Steve.
They had a clear vision for their big day: “We wanted a celebration of being alive; a big party for our family and friends who meant so much to us.” Steve said, “You could feel the love in the air. It was very emotional.”
As Steve and Gail make the most of life and plan future travels together, Steve firmly believes his survival would not would have been possible, “…without the Air Ambulance and the speed at which I was moved from the crash site to Southmead.”
He explains,
“I would not have received the medical attention I needed quickly enough and I would no longer be here. The provision of a helipad was therefore fundamental to the timeliness of the care I received and to my survival.
“I owe everything to the time saved by the Air Ambulance and the HELP Appeal funded helipad that their helicopter used.”
Photo: Gail and Steve on their wedding day
