One morning in May 2018, motorbike enthusiast Andrew headed out for a seemingly regular ride along the A32. In the blink of an eye, a lorry veered onto Andrew’s side of the road, colliding with him and his bike. The Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance was called to the scene and Andrew went on to spend the next five and half weeks in Intensive Care. Below he recalls his story.
28 May 2018 was a fairly nice morning, and my wife and I decided to go to Romsey to do a little shopping before going on to visit Mottisfont.
While we were in Romsey it began to cloud over, so we decided to head home. However, after lunch the weather brightened up, so I decided it would be a perfect day to go out for a ride on my motorbike. I headed off up the A32, planning to go as far as Alton before heading back home.
I have no recollection of what happened next, but from what I have been told by the police, a lorry coming the other way cut across my path to pull into a lay by on my side of the road. I was hit by the lorry and crashed into the vehicle that was following it.
I suffered multiple injuries including two broken legs, several broken ribs and a broken arm. I also suffered damage to my head and heart. I understand I was attended to at the scene by both a road ambulance and the Critical Care Team from Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance, before being flown to University Hospital Southampton. I was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit where I stayed for the next five and a half weeks, where I celebrated my 60th birthday, followed by a further two and a half weeks on the general trauma wards.
On the day of the incident, the police arrived at my home to tell my wife I had been involved in a serious accident and that they were there to take her to the hospital. When she arrived, she was told that about 20 people were working on me to get me stabilised and she couldn’t see me until they had finished. The doctors at the hospital informed my family that they weren’t sure whether I would survive or not and that if I did survive, how disabled I might be.
“When I was in the Intensive Care Unit I was put on a ventilator and kept in a coma for several weeks, during which time I had a number of operations, as well as a heart attack and a tracheostomy.”
I firmly believe that, had it not been for the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance Critical Care Team, I would not have survived. Their skills kept me alive so that I could go on to receive the fantastic care that I received from the hospital staff in Southampton. Between them, they enabled me to come through my ordeal with many less ongoing health issues than could so easily have been the case.
