Air ambulance charity serving Surrey made twelve lifesaving missions on Christmas Day
Air Ambulance Charity Kent Surrey Sussex (KSS) has revealed that last December its crews responded to 284 calls for its lifesaving care, making 12 missions on Christmas Day alone. The charity will be here for communities across the region 24/7 throughout the festive period, including Christmas Day.
The majority of the 284 missions (67%) last December were to patients who had experienced serious injury, most often from involvement in a road traffic collision, but also from incidents such as work or leisure accidents or falls from height. 34% of the missions were to patients with medical emergencies – a sudden illness such as cardiac arrest or stroke KSS wants to help the communities it serves by raising awareness to try and prevent incidents happening in the first place.
On the roads, KSS is urging drivers; not to drink and drive, to keep to the speed limit, and not to use their mobile phone. The charity is also teaching lifesaving skills such as CPR so that people know what to do if the worst happens. A staggering 80% of cardiac arrests happen at home but, tragically, only 1 in 10 of these people survive. In October KSS trained over 80,000 people how to do CPR and use a defibrillator with a series of online and in-person events (aakss.org.uk/restart). The chances of a surviving a cardiac arrest are more than doubled by starting early CPR and defibrillator, meaning anyone can be a lifeline for a loved one.
Doctors, paramedics and pilots from KSS will be operational throughout the festive period, including Christmas Day, to provide critical care to those in need across Kent, Surrey and Sussex. Its expert crews can reach any part of Kent, Surrey and Sussex in under 30 minutes, bringing the emergency room to the scene to deliver lifesaving care when every second counts, performing interventions such as general anaesthesia, blood transfusions and surgery.
KSS is asking people across Kent, Surrey and Sussex to help it be `Ready to Save Lives’ this Christmas with an appeal (aakss.org.uk/ready) highlighting that lots of families would be facing very different futures if it wasn’t for their lifesaving work. It features the poignant story of former patient Sam Jenner, who was six months pregnant when she experienced a cardiac arrest at home.