One of EHAAT's first patients thanks the service - as they mark their 25th year
Ken Bailey is thought to be one of the first patients ever to use EHAAT's services
A man from Essex, who's turning 89 this month, and his wife, are thanking the Essex & Herts Air Ambulance (EHAAT) as they mark 24 years since his heart attack, and 25 years of their service.
Ken Bailey is thought to be one of EHAAT's very earliest patients, when he needed the help of the service back in March 1999 at his home in Blackmore, Essex.
He was trimming a tall hedge close to his home when his heart started racing and he had intense chest pain, but he managed to climb down the ladder before he collapsed.
Ken's wife, Pam, saw him on the floor and called an ambulance, however due to the terrain and several horses in the area having kicked up the mud, the ambulance crew couldn't get Ken to the ambulance via a stretcher, leading the air ambulance being called.
HEMS crew airlifted Ken to the old King Edward School Playing Field, where he was transferred to a land ambulance and taken to Broomfield Hospital.
Ken told Greatest Hits Radio "It was just as well that it was as quick as as it was, because by the time I got to the hospital and had a cardiac arrest I was in the right place at the right time for the doctors there to look after me."
Ken spent 21 days in hospital, with nine of those spent in intensive care, with his heart suffering damage and functioning at 69%, and now, 24 years on, Ken and Pam are still living life to its fullest, and are grateful to EHAAT for enabling that to happen.
"He wouldn't have survived without it"
Ken's wife, Pam, believes without the air ambulance things could have turned out very differently.
"He wouldn't have survived without it, definitely not. It was a severe heart attack and he wouldn't have got there that quickly.
"He owes every single day of his life since then to them."
Pam and Ken are both enjoying being around their four great-grandchildren, and to spend time together, which 24 years ago, may have not been the case without the air ambulance having been founded just a few months before.
25 years of EHAAT
As part of celebrations for 25 years of EHAAT, Pam and Ken were invited along to speak to a group of patients who are still going through their recovery journey, who have been patients with EHAAT for the last 12-18 months.
Ken and Pam cut a cake, and were invited to tell their story to those in the hope of inspiring people still recovering from traumatic injuries and medical incidents.
"People were shaking my hand and saying 'seeing you, it gives me hope, that you've suffered similar things and just the fact that you're still here give me hope.' And they were young men! So that is so important."
Pam told Greatest Hits Radio, "That was really something that everybody needs, that little bit of help to get some confidence to face the future, and that's what it's all about, isn't it?"
Since Ken's heart attack, he has thrived against all odds, surviving and thriving to this day.
Over 22 thousand flying mission in 25 years by EHAAT Teams
Over the last 25 years, the Helicopter Emergency Medical Services (HEMS) teams at EHAAT have been called out to over 22,700 flying missions.
Missions for the teams include patients involved in road traffic accidents or other traumatic incidents such as significant falls, assaults, or industrial accidents.
As well as responding to medical emergencies such as cardiac arrest, sepsis and strokes.
The team also has also responded to many medical emergencies such as cardiac arrest, life-threatening sepsis or devastating strokes.
Helen Goodwin, a Patient & Family Liaison Paramedic with EHAAT, said:
"It is just incredible how it can touch people's lives, not just the patients that we go to, but the families, the people that have witnessed the incidents that we go to. But I I don't know how many people understand that we keep looking after our patients and families beyond the actual incident that they've been involved in.
"So our contact can continue over several weeks, months, years and they become part of our EHAAT family.
"That support is there for their recovery, their emotional needs, beyond the sort of initial, getting there and providing blood or providing resuscitation, those quick things that need to happen at the moment of the incident.
"It's just an incredible charity and I'm really proud that I get to be part of such an organisation."
Patients such as Ken and family members like Pam have taken part in EHAAT's celebration's to mark their 25 years of service, which included the expansion of the air ambulance from just covering Essex to including Hertfordshire too.
They've said they hope it has another successful 25 years ahead.