Joanne & George Bellars, 14, from Spalding, Car Accident...
Last month, George Bellars celebrated his 14th birthday with mum and dad Joanne & Nigel, and brother Harry.

The birthday was a double celebration — because the family was also celebrating George’s achievements in raising over £1,000 for the Air Ambulance, a charity to which the family will always be indebted. Were it not for the paramedics, pilot and fundraisers behind the charity, George wouldn’t be here today.

“It was January 2006, George was eight at the time.” says Joanne. He was off school and I was running errands, driving down Spalding’s North Bank Drove.”

The family’s Vauxhall Vectra slipped on loose gravel and began skidding, then left the road, careering into a drain at around 40mph.

“I saw it in slow motion.” says Joanne. “We flipped so were were upside down, facing the opposite way. The car was submerged, it was pitch black and absolutely freezing.

Scrambling around in the muddy water of the bank, Joanne couldn’t get the passenger door open, and had to drag George through the back seats.

Once out of the car she struggled to wade through the mud but finally dragged George onto the bank.

His lips were blue, and mouth to mouth wasn’t working, so Joanne was faced with doing the most difficult thing possible for a mother, she had to leave her son on the bank to run a mile down the drove, sodden and freezing, to get help.

A group of workmen dredging the river called for the police and ambulance, but the remote location meant the nearest hospital was 25 minutes away by road ambulance.

Fortunately, the paramedics were able to summon the county’s air ambulance, which meant George was able to make it to the hospital in just four minutes.

“If it wasn’t for that he wouldn’t have made it.” says Joanne. “I was horrified. I’ll always
remember the sound of it taking off, and someone said they weren’t holding out much hope. I thought that would be the day I’d never forget — the day I?lost my son.”

Fortunately, reaching the hospital so soon was the difference between life and death, and after a short stay in hospital George made a full recovery.

It’s what’s known as the Golden Hour, the 60 minute period during which treatment of the patient is more beneficial than subsequent periods of time, and when more immediate attention is thought to have the strongest benefit.

Whilst George was up and about in no time, for Joanne it took a little longer. Though George was unconscious throughout, she experienced flashbacks and sleepless nights, and was unable to drive for months.

“I didn’t have any experience of it beforehand, but until you rely on it, you don’t know how vital it is.” she says.

Today, George raises money for the Air Ambulance at Bourne’s Robert Manning School. He recently raised £840 with a coffee morning and £200 with a non-uniform day. His classmates weren’t aware of what happened, but George is keen to discuss his experience to raise awareness of the Air Ambulance.

Few fundraisers and people who drop loose change into collection boxes ever get to see the faces of the people they save. George is just one of the thousands of lives saved by the ambulance, made even more pertinent because of his age.

Only because Lincolnshire people have supported the charity with donations, society events and by using its network of shops, George was able to celebrate his 14th birthday, but he will also grow up and be able to marry, have children of his own and experience success in a career... even if each of the above seem a lifetime away to him right now!

“You don’t think you’ll ever need it.” says George. “But it’s really important to the county.”

Kirsty Boulton and Brian Walley from Heckington, Granddaughter and Grandfather, Riding Falls...
A?FAMILY that knows just how valuable Lincolnshire’s ‘extra’ emergency services are is Kirsty Boulton, her mother Karen and Kirsty’s grandfather Brian. Back in 2005, Kirsty, then 17, said goodbye to her boyfriend and went with her friend Alice to ride her horse. JJ was a 16.2 hand thoroughbred, lively, but generally well behaved.

“He was a bit excited that day and slipped on some overnight rain.” recalls Kirsty, who was knocked unconscious instantly.

JJ fell onto Kirsty and put his back out, leaving Alice to heave him off and call 999. The air ambulance was instantly dispatched. Kirsty needed to be resuscitated three times; once at the scene, once on route (Lincolnshire’s Air Ambulance is one of few helicopter services that can shock a patient in mid-air) and again at hospital.

She spent three weeks in ITU, making a full recovery but says: “I wouldn’t be here without it.”

It’s a terrible ordeal for any family, but the awful accident was to be repeated again in 2008 with Kirsty’s grandfather, Southery man Brian Walley, being thrown from his horse after a rabbit spooked the Irish Draft Throughbred in a field near his home.

“I was standing up in the saddle as we were galloping. He came to a sudden stop and I felt myself go over his head. I fell forward onto my shoulder. I heard a loud crack, and knew then that it was serious.”

Brian always carried his mobile phone when out riding following Kirsty’s accident and called his wife to tell her he’d had a fall. Luckily a nearby farmer also witnessed the accident and rushed to Brian’s help.

The remoteness of the field and bumpy ground meant transporting Brian and his spinal injury was extremely dangerous, and road paramedics weren’t able to reach him in less than 25 minutes.

By contrast, the air ambulance took less than five minutes to reach Brian, despite his remote location.

Later that day it again came into play — being especially suited to spinal patients because of its smoothness —  airlifting Brian to Sheffield for specialist spinal treatment.

After eight months in hospital, Brian was released but will never walk again and remains in a wheelchair.

“I survived only because of the Air Ambulance.” he says. “Kirsty’s accident and my own has really brought home to the family how crucial the service is to the county.”

The family has since tried to raise awareness of the service, particularly its value to those who work and play in the countryside. They have raised a total of £5,000 to support the service with a number of fundraising activities.

“I don’t think anyone, even those who raise money for it, realises just how important it is until they need it.”

Vikas Sodiwala, Lincoln County Accident & Emergency Consultant
EVERY?DAY, Vikas Sodiwala goes to work never quite knowing what’s next through the door.

His role as one of Lincoln County Hospital’s A&E department consultants is always unpredictable. Qualifying in 1999 in Cambridge and London, Vikas’s first day as an accident and emergency doctor saw him working on the victim of an armed robbery.

Thankfully, cases like that are rare and Vikas is remarkably cool about the nature of the job, ready to respond to the variety of patients that arrive in A&E.

“The appeal is that you have to think on your feet.” says Vikas. “That means keeping a cool head. We first categorise patients as unwell, well or potentially unwell.

From there, we can access hospital notes, A&E notes and talk to the patient or their GP to assess what’s wrong and determine the correct course of action.”

Vikas joined the Lincoln department three years ago and is one of four consultants in A&E providing cover round the clock, either in person in the department or on call out of hours.

With ten cubicles, three resus spaces, four or five minor injury cubicles and a triage unit, it’s a large department which, at its busiest time, is staffed by 10 doctors, and nine nurses.

“It’s a very satisfying job.” says Vikas. “Seeing the grateful look on patients’ faces and making them comfortable is really rewarding. Even making them feel better psychologically, or providing appropriate pain relief is really rewarding.”

But there is another side to the job which is more difficult. “Breaking bad news is the worse part of the job.” he says. “Unexpected deaths are heart breaking, when people have had no time to prepare for the loss of a loved one.”

One would think the busiest time for an A&E department is winter, with slips and falls on ice. Whilst there’s a peak in particularly bad weather, summer weekends are actually the busiest — especially in Lincolnshire.

“Lincolnshire is notoriously bad for motorcycle accidents.” says Vikas. “Summer brings motorcyclists without adequate protection, but also trauma from Lincolnshire’s fast single carriageway A-roads caused by inappropriate use of speed or reckless overtaking.”

“That’s quite a depressing aspect of the job — that many of the incidents we see were preventable. The amount of trauma we see in the department is really phenomenal, and most of it is preventable.”

Late summer also brings problems such as sunburn and heatstroke, injuries from barbecues and alcohol related injuries.

Friday and Saturday evenings see their fair share of drug and alcohol related injuries, but Vikas and the team are used to treating those who have had too much to drink.

“They still need to be treated; we see patients in a bad shape and we’re used to it, but people do need to be more aware of the effect alcohol has on their body and their judgement.”

Patients who come into the department and fall into the unwell or potentially unwell category are then designated as having life threatening, urgent or less urgent injuries, and receive their treatment in order of severity — the process referred to as triage.

As well as summer, early mornings also prove busy, with patients who have become ill in the night, and those who suffer cardiac problems like strokes and heart attacks whilst getting dressed. There’s also a rise from 5pm-7pm from those who have gone to work only to feel unwell all day.

“There’s no such thing as a routine day and it can be exciting. No two days are the same and
that, together with the thanks we receive (Lincolnites are especially grateful) is what really appeals.”

Neil Chadwick & Joshua, LIVES First Responder who helped to rescusciate his grandson...
“HE?WASN’T?BREATHING...” recalls Leanne Chadwick after checking her son, four month old Joshua, in his cot and discovering to her horror that his lips were blue.

Leanne immediately called 999, who were less than 10 minutes away. However, Sleaford LIVES responder Neil Chadwick was even closer, and a message was sent to his phone asking if he could respond. Neil was shocked when he heard the address; “It’s my grandson.” he replied.

Upon reaching his daughter’s house, to find Leanne already performing CPR, Neil was able to administer oxygen and help to restore Joshua’s breathing. His breathing was laboured, and Leanne was beginning to panic.

“By the time the paramedics turned up just a couple of minutes later, Joshua was already crying and screaming. It was the best sound in the world!” recalls Neil.

Lincolnshire’s Integrated Voluntary Emergency Service is, as its name suggests, a countywide network of volunteers, both medically trained and otherwise, who work alongside paramedics.

They aim to reach a casualty quickly, adminster treatment such as defibrillation or oxygen, calm the patient, and gather information to pass on to the paramedics. The service attends 14,000 incidents each year and was established in the 1970s.

With an average LIVES responder response time of four minutes 15 seconds, the service works especially well in more rural areas.

Neil joined LIVES in 2003 and has worked his way up in the service to become a level four responder. The Sleaford group of LIVES attend up to 60 calls each month, from RTCs to patients with chest pains and breathing difficulties, heart attacks and falls.

“Without LIVES the outcome could have been very different.” says Neil. “It’s a really valuable service, but resuscitating my grandson was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do.”