Please show your support for our Magpas 24/7 service and help us continue to bring lifesaving care by land and air around the clock: https://campaign.justgiving.com/charity/magpas/SupportMagpas247
On 1st October, with the help of former patient and highly respected Speedway rider Lewis Kerr, we officially launched the first 24/7 enhanced, pre-hospital emergency medical care service in the East of England. We are also the second charity funded service in the UK to be doing this. As a result, Magpas’ expertise will be available at any hour of the day, which is a major break-through for people who find themselves in life-threatening emergencies and urgently need on the spot hospital care.
We’d love to hear from you with your messages of support via Twitter (@Magpas_Charity) or Facebook (Magpas). If your life has been touched by Magpas, please send us your message, wish the Magpas team luck or tell us your story. Please just include the hashtag #Magpas247 in all social media posts.
Successful Speedway rider, Lewis Kerr from Norfolk, knows how much of a crucial difference the Magpas level of care can make. On 2nd August, 25 year old Lewis was taking part in a speedway meeting in Peterborough when he was involved in a serious collision and suffered critical head injuries. Magpas Air Ambulance flew to him, and with his whole family watching, Magpas Dr Raluca Ionescu and Magpas Paramedic Dan Phillips put Lewis in a medically induced coma right there on the track. His wife Jessie, who is expecting their first child, remembers, “To begin with, I thought everything was alright. Then I saw people’s different expressions and I realised things weren’t good at all. I remember Lewis’s speedway suit being cut off and him being intubated, then I was asked to step aside and I went into shock”.
The fantastic news is that Lewis has since made a full recovery (in just two months)! He is a prime example of how delivering an advanced level of medical care to seriously ill and injured patients can make such a vital difference i.e. the patient is more likely to survive, recover more quickly, spend less time in hospital and return to a good quality of life.
Lewis says, “I can’t remember anything about that day, just waking up in the hospital bed. I am just so, so thankful for what the Magpas team did for me that day”.
Wife Jessie explains, “You never think something like that is ever going to happen to you or someone you love – for a moment I thought I’d lost him. The Magpas team are amazing, I don’t want to think what might have happened to him if Magpas hadn’t been there”.
On 1st October, Lewis and Jessie met the Magpas team who helped to save Lewis’s life for the first time since his accident, to say thank you and help mark this Magpas 24/7 milestone. Magpas CEO Daryl Brown summed things up by saying, “We are hugely grateful to Lewis and Jessie for being with us at such a poignant moment for the charity. Thanks to generous public support, Magpas is now available 24 hours a day seven days a week – it’s a huge move forward. A significant number of trauma cases happen in hours of darkness and in the winter months, so it’s key to be able to roll our service out consistently”.
