London's Air Ambulance Charity won the Emergency Services category at the Daily Mirror Pride of Britain Awards. The medical team who worked on 24-year-old cyclist Victoria won the award for its use of REBOA (Resuscitative Endovascular Balloon Occlusion of the Aorta) - to prevent her from bleeding to death at the roadside.
Following the ‘Your London, Your Helicopter’ campaign, London’s Air Ambulance’s second helicopter was launched and operational in London.
The first Paramedic Education and Development Lead at Barts Health NHS Trust was appointed to work with London's Air Ambulance. Graham Chalk took up the role following 11 years as a Lead Paramedic and Clinical Liaison Officer.
For the first time in its history, London’s Air Ambulance flew longer hours during summer. From 29 March 2015, the start of BST, until 2 September, the charity delivered its advanced trauma team to critically injured people in London via helicopter every day until sunset.
London Freemasons pledged £2 million for the second helicopter. London Freemasons launched an appeal to its 40,000 members across 1,350 lodges in London to fundraise towards the £2 million target.
The ‘Your London, Your Helicopter’ campaign was launched to raise the funds for a second helicopter.
A life-saving dispatch app was launched with EE, helping London’s Air Ambulance save lives by reducing the time it takes to dispatch the charity’s advanced trauma teams by up to two minutes.
The world’s first pre-hospital REBOA (Resuscitative Endovascular Balloon Occlusion of the Aorta) was performed. This balloon surgery is used to control severe pelvic bleeding, an injury most commonly associated with cycling incidents and falls from height.
The rapid response cars received a new look. Bringing uniformity to London’s Air Ambulance fleet, the ŠKODA Octavia vRS Estate vehicles sported the same red livery as the helicopter and were emblazoned with the high visibility Battenberg strips required on emergency vehicles.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that London’s Air Ambulance Charity was to receive £1 million to enable the charity to operate a second helicopter.
Image: Photo credit - BBC
