HEMS London's Air Ambulance

Tuesday February 2nd 2006: The HEMS (Helicopter Emergency Medical Service) chopper has just flown over the college building in Acton where I lecture, and dropped down into the park 100 feet away, giving me a full-frame view of the bird in flight from my top floor window.. Guess what -- no camera on me! As it happens, I posted this photo here on the blog just 4 days ago -- I took this Summer 2005. Now for the original posting I made last week...

Saturday January 28th 2006: (original post) This is the London Air Ambulance and this is no exercise. The crew have just dropped off an RTA casualty in the park across from our home. It is used for a landing pad for our local hospital - they were bringing in a casualty from an accident on the M25 orbital motorway. The one aircraft serves the entire Greater London area, and can access an Accident & Emergency (A&E) department in less than 5 minutes flight time, they tell me, from any location in greater London. Not bad! The service is under-funded, however, with Sir Richard Branson chipping in a few hundred thousand quid each year - hence the "Virgin" livery. Link to: London Air Ambulance fact file.

Postscript: The London Air Ambulance doesn't just fly for the fun of it. At the back of my mind five hours ago today (2/2/06) I was wondering what emergency the medics were responding to. I found out via my students, who told me a "B&Q" tractor-trailer unit (articulated lorry) had caught a 21 year-old girl on a bicycle and crushed both her and the bike, and that the (unconfirmed) report is that she was dead at the scene. Doesn't make me feel very proud that my first instinct was to reach for a camera. On the other hand, to respond to emergencies like this is the reason that HEMS serves London. Click on my links above it you want to donate directly to keep the team airborne.
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