The Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS) airlifted two men within an hour yesterday after both suffered heart attacks in County Durham.
The charity was called at 1.42pm to St John’s Chapel, Weardale, after a 49-year-old local man took ill while chopping logs. Working alongside North East Ambulance Service road crew, the GNAAS team helped stabilise the patient before flying him to the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle. The flight took 12 minutes and the patient arrived in a stable condition.
Almost immediately after that mission, at 2.40pm, GNAAS were called to Ushaw Moor, near Durham, where a 59-year-old local man was seriously unwell after also suffering a heart attack. He was also flown to the Freeman Hospital and arrived in a stable condition. The flight took just seven minutes.
Jane Peacock, paramedic at GNAAS, wished the men well in their recoveries. She added: “Speed is of the essence when a patient is suffering a heart attack. The road crews do a fantastic job but driving from somewhere like St John’s Chapel can take over an hour into Newcastle. The aircraft flew the patient there in just 12 minutes, allowing the specialist team at the Freeman to start their work a lot sooner.”
Share
