London Air Ambulance crew helps man after horror fall from ladder

Iain had been climbing up to his loft in February 2020 to reload some music onto his iPod, when the ladder he was using slipped.

He fell and hit his head, and was later found lying unconscious by his wife Caroline.

She said: “I arrived to find the house in darkness which was strange because Iain should have been home.

“Walking in I called for him but there was no answer, so I presumed he had gone for a run.

“Only when I went upstairs did I see his legs. He was lying on the landing, moaning.”

Caroline immediately dialled 999 and London Ambulance Service and London Air Ambulance’s advanced trauma team came.

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They found that Iain needed help with his airway, and that he may have broken his skull.

They moved him outside and placed him into an induced coma to get as much oxygen as possible into his body, and to control his carbon dioxide levels.

This is something that only an Air Ambulance advanced trauma team can do at the scene, so this intervention may have saved Iain’s life.

He was then rushed to St George’s Hospital in Streatham, where doctors confirmed that he had sustained three bleeds in the brain.

After initial treatment he was moved to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), where because of the Covid-19 restrictions in place at the time, Caroline was unable to visit him.

She said “I had to kiss him goodbye, knowing it could potentially be the last time I would ever see him.”

Over the following days the ICU team were struggling to wake Iain from his coma, so they arranged for Caroline to speak to him on FaceTime.

She explained: “We often go to a cover band of [David] Bowie. And so embarrassingly, me and my friend Bussy sang to him – all our favourite Bowie songs.

“Once he heard my voice, he began to move his head – I am convinced he knew I was there.”

Iain then progressed to the point where he could be discharged to a rehabilitation unit at the hospital, where he finally regained full consciousness.

He said: “I had been in post-traumatic amnesia for 54 days.

“Not only do I not remember the accident, I don’t remember waking up or that first stint in hospital.

“One minute I was heading up the ladder into the loft at home…and the next I was lying in a hospital bed.”

After weeks of intensive rehabilitation, Iain was discharged home in early August 2020, where he has continued his recovery.

Iain explained: “I’m down to only two naps a day now.

“I go to the gym three times a week, I can drive and I’m volunteering again.”

Earlier this year the couple visited the London Air Ambulance helipad at the Royal London Hospital, where Iain met one of the paramedics who had provided life-saving treatment on the night of the accident.

The couple said: “We’ve not got enough positive words to say about the team at London’s Air Ambulance Charity.

“Just thank you.”