15 Apr 2024
In February 2024, London’s Air Ambulance’s advanced trauma team – who are here for the 10 million who visit, live and work in London – attended to 160 patients.
Our crew brought procedures usually only found in the emergency department to the roadside, for individuals so critically injured they did not have time to get to hospital.
In this month, this included performing 39 rapid sequence intubations, 19 blood transfusions, three thoracotomies (open chest surgery) and more at the scene of the incident. Our crew are the only ones who can perform some of these life-saving interventions at the scene in London.
Once we have stablished the patient, we usually accompany them in a road ambulance to the nearest major trauma centre. In February, 42 per cent of our patients were taken to The Royal London Hospital (49 patients), 30 per cent to St Mary’s Hospital (35 patients), 14 per cent to King’s College Hospital (16) and 10% to St George’s Hospital (12). Two patients were flown back to the hospital – although this is not our primary role on scene.
In terms of mechanism of injury, the largest number of patients in February – 47 – were as a result of other or unknown injuries (29 per cent). Transport-related injuries accounted for 31 patients (19 per cent), assault 30 patients (19 per cent), medical injuries 23 patients (14 per cent), falls 21 (13 per cent) and accidents eight (five per cent).
This month saw our team attend to Enfield the most out of all the boroughs, followed by Hackney. We have recently shared our yearly mission report for 2023: in which we find Westminster the most visited borough for the year. You can read this report here.
We are in the midst of our largest-ever fundraising campaign and need to have raised an additional £15 million to replace our aging helicopters by September 2024. We still have £5 million left to raise – can you help fund your new fleet before it’s too late?