Air Ambulance proves its worth, responding to 490 calls in 2020
‘I HAVE NO DOUBT THINGS COULD HAVE BEEN A LOT WORSE FOR ME WERE IT NOT FOR THE PARAMEDICS AND AIR AMBULANCE’
FIGURES from the Irish Community Raped Response (ICRR) Air Ambulance have revealed it was tasked to 490 incidents across 13 counties during 2020, its first full year in operation.
The Rathcoole based-service said that last July was its busiest month, with the air ambulance tasked to 59 missions, including ferrying Dromtariffe man Niall O’Sullivan to the Cork University Hospital following an incident at his home.
Speaking to The Corkman Niall, the principal at Burnfort National School, explained how during the summer holidays he had been laying the groundwork for a new driveway when he suffered crush injuries from a digger.
“As a result of the incident I had multiple broken bones including my pelvis, vertebrae and ribs, as well as suffering from internal injuries,” said Niall.
The emergency services were contacted and a vehicular ambulance arrived at the house within 20-minutes of the call.
“The paramedics assessed my injuries and believed they were serious enough to warrant tasking the air ambulance as they felt time was of the essence and my life could be at risk if I did not get to hospital quickly,” said Niall.
As his home is just four-miles from the Rathcoole aerodrome, the paramedics decided to drive Niall straight there.
“The helicopter was ready for me, took off immediately and were at the CUH within minutes. Although my injuries were not as serious as at first thought, I have no doubt things could have been a lot worse were for me if not for the paramedics and the speed with which the air ambulance was able to get me to the CUH. I can not praise
them all highly enough,” he said.
A grateful Niall, who is well on the road to recovery, set up a Go-Fund me account in aid of the ICRR, raising for than €13,370 for the service.
“We’d often see the and hear the helicopter passing by I its way to an incident, but I never expected that one day I might need it myself. Having what is a potentially life-saving service like this in operation on the doorstep is fantastic. You don’t really realise its full value until you need it yourself,” said Niall.
“It is so important that we do all we can to ensure in remains in place,” he added.
A point expanded on by ICRR chief executive Mícheál Sheridan who said it was clear there was a demand for the service which works in tandem with the National Ambulance Service (NAS) to provide both paramedic support and transport to hospital for seriously ill
patients in the south of the country.
He said that while the service was most likely to be required in Cork, Kerry and Waterford, it has also been tasked to incidents in Tipperary, Clare, Wexford, Limerick, Leitrim, Kildare, Kilkenny, Offaly, Roscommon and Galway.
“The ICRR Air Ambulance is airborne in under four minutes of being tasked by the NAS, and is 30 minutes away from most of the areas within a 25,000km2 catchment. Dozens of lives have been saved as a result of the hard work of the crew, and care administered in a timely manner to hundreds of others,” said Mr Sheridan.
NAS director Martin Dunne said the air ambulance has given its dispatch teams an important additional option to the Tullamore-based Aer Corps service.
“This provides much needed and timely support to our on-road response
teams operating across the country. Equally, the provision of these services ensures that critically ill patients can be brought to emergency trauma centres faster, which improves the likelihood of a successful outcome,” he said.
The ICRR currently has two helicopters at the Rathcoole aerodrome, one operational at all times and the other acting as back-up. Plans are also in place for the delivery of a new, faster helicopter with longer range capacity later on this year.
Mícheál Sheridan said that the service still needs the support of the public to keep it airborne, with its latest ‘Further Faster’ fundraising campaign aimed to raise €1.5 million this year to fund it and service the new helicopter.
“The appeal started with our 310,000 steps challenge ‘Marching Through March’ where the public and companies are asked to participate in the challenge and to fundraise. Full details are available at www.icrr.ie,” said Mr Sheridan.
“Ireland needs this service, and this service needs the continuing support of our community fundraisers and corporate supporters,” he added.