I could have lost my life or leg if not for 999 air crew rescue
KATIE Pease was driving her car on an icy road when she was involved in a collision with a truck.
The force of the impact knocked the engine in her car back into her legs, causing a severe open wound and pinning her inside the vehicle.
Within six minutes of the 999 call, the Derbyshire, Leicestershire & Rutland Air Ambulance, based at East Midlands Airport, was heading out to the scene at Asfordby Hill, near Melton, arriving 14 minutes later.
They arrived to find her with a smashed knee, two broken femurs, a smashed foot, broken ribs, a collapsed lung and a broken collar bone.
Katie, 27, of Woodhouse Eaves, a university student, was given a cocktail of pain relief drugs and sedated to make her more comfortable while she was cut out of her car by firefighters.
She was also given antibiotics to prevent the open wound on her left knee becoming infected – something paramedics on a land ambulance are unable to do.
The air ambulance doctor and critical care paramedics also applied splints to her legs to curb the amount of blood she was losing.
Getting Katie to the nearest major trauma hospital as quickly as possible was crucial and it took the helicopter just 10 minutes to fly her to Nottingham for a quick transfer by land ambulance to the Queen’s Medical Centre. The same journey by road – without any hold-ups – would have taken half an hour.
Now, her story is being shared as part of the air ambulance’s Christmas fundraising campaign and Katie is urging people to support the charity, which is completely funded by donations.
She said: “Every mission flown by the air ambulance costs £1,700. The charity receives no government funding and relies totally on donations to keep flying.
“As it is the season of goodwill to all, I am hoping my story will encourage people to support this lifesaving cause.
“I am living proof of the amazing work they do every day of the year – including Christmas Day.”
She said if Leicestershire did not have an air ambulance supporting the ambulance service, things could have been very different. She said: “If I hadn’t been flown in the air ambulance it may be I wouldn’t have made it. I could have lost my leg or my life.”
The local air ambulance has continued to provide pre-hospital emergency care during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Christmas campaign letters will be sent out to supporters next week and anyone wishing to support can call 0300 3045 999 or visit: