One of our heroes of Kegworth calls it a day after 45 years

A COUNTY paramedic who attended the Kegworth air disaster is retiring after almost 45 years of service on the front line.

Dave Thorne, 66, is standing down from his post at the ambulance station in Elizabeth Road, Hinckley, after a varied career including delivering countless babies and teaching life support and first aid.

The horrors of Kegworth, in which 47 people died when a British Midland Boeing 737 crashed on the approach to East Midlands Airport, live long in the memory, but Dave says his career has been a rewarding one.

“I have enjoyed what I have done, I wouldn’t change a thing,” said Dave.

“Staff-wise, I have met lots of people who have come and gone, and enjoyed every moment. You have ups and downs, but you never take anything to a patient. You leave your personal things at the door, you are professional.

“You are helping people in pain. No job is the same – no diabetic is the same, no heart attack is the same. But you have got your guidelines, as long as you stick to them you can do most things.”

Dave started his training in Markfield for what was then the Leicestershire Ambulance Service, in 1976.

His most memorable night, for all the wrong reasons, came on January 8, 1989, when he was called out to Kegworth air disaster, where British Midland Flight 92 had crashed onto the motorway embankment between the M1 and the A453.

Of the 126 people on board, 47 were killed and 74 badly injured.

He said: “I was there until the early hours, until it finished really. We took the last patients out of the fuselage. It was unforgettable. I don’t think we will ever experience anything like it.”

He remembers it being difficult to get to the passengers because of the way the plane had broken up on the slope.

The ambulance crewman went on to do his paramedic training in 1992, providing support to the Leicestershire division of a project which worked with young people, teaching basic life support and first aid.

He qualified as a clinical tutor in 2004 and worked for some years in the EMAS training centre at Meridian, in Leicester. He also provided defibrillator training to companies and the fire service.

Reflecting on the challenges of providing frontline care, Dave said: “We all have bad jobs, they will never stop, that’s the nature of the beast for the role that we’re in. All you can say is, do your best at the time.

“Sometimes you don’t achieve what you want because the patient is too poorly. Sometimes you do lose your patient. It’s having that mindset that as long as you have done everything you could possibly do, you can’t have any comeback on yourself.”

Dave delivered one of his final babies after a man drove to his ambulance station with his wife heavily in labour.

The team decided to take the couple to hospital but, ultimately, the baby had to be delivered in the back of the ambulance.

Retirement plans for the ambulance man include converting a big shed he just bought into a workshop.

Dave’s son, Matt, is also a qualified paramedic based at the Hinckley station.

Dave’s wife, Lesley, said: “As a family we are extremely proud of Dave. Hinckley is losing an extremely knowledgeable and good paramedic.”