Salisbury ambulance crew attend wedding celebrations of man they helped save
They travelled up north for it
An ambulance crew from Salisbury have attended the wedding celebrations of a man whose life they helped save on Salisbury Plain.
Mick Culley from Hogsthorpe, near Skegness had a brain haemorrhage while on holiday in Wiltshire with his then girlfriend, Kerry, last May.
Student Paramedic, Fred Fox and Emergency Care Assistant, Matt Bone, from the South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust, responded to the call.
When they arrived they recognised the potential seriousness of the situation and he was taken to Salisbury District Hospital.
His wife Kerry, who had phoned for the ambulance, said:
“They kept the whole situation calm, got him on a stretcher and into the ambulance.
“The next thing I knew I was driving to the hospital, not knowing whether he was alive or dead."
Further assessments at the hospital showed that Mick needed a specialist operation, at Southampton General Hospital. Fred and Matt continued to care for the 69 year old by transferring him there.
Thankfully, the operation was a success and Mick was eventually transferred again, this time closer to his home to recover in Pilgrim Hospital, Boston.
On Saturday (14th May) Fred and Matt travelled to Lincolnshire for Mick and Kerry's wedding blessing.
Mick said:
“I can’t thank everybody enough – we don’t have enough praise for what Fred and Matt did. Their quick actions saved my life.
“We wanted to take the opportunity to thank Fred and Matt by inviting them to the blessing.”
Jane Whichello, Wiltshire’s Deputy County Commander for the SWASFT, said:
“We are all very proud of Fred and Matt; they demonstrated such care and compassion.
“When we respond to calls, we don’t just care for the patient, we often care for the wider family too and this is just what Fred and Matt did for Mick and Kerry.
“Fred has since qualified as a paramedic and I couldn’t be prouder.”
Mick and Kerry met on March 18th 2021 via the local parish council.
They married in October 2021 and Fred and Matt attended their wedding blessing at St Mary’s Church, Hogsthorpe over the weekend.
Fred said:
“Mick could still talk when we arrived on scene, but he was displaying all the red flags for a bleed on the brain. We knew we had to act fast.
“Kerry turned up at the ambulance station a couple of days after the incident to say thank you and to give us an update on Mick.
“Then some time later, out of the blue, came the invitation to the wedding blessing. It doesn’t happen very often. I have been in the ambulance service for six years and this is the first one I’ve had, so we were really chuffed to get it”.