Essex & Herts Air Ambulance (EHAAT) works side-by-side with publicly funded ‘blue light’ services such as the police, fire and ambulance services.
Yet unlike them, EHAAT is a charity which receives little direct funding from central government and none from the National Lottery.
It costs over £750,000 every month to keep the service operational. This would not be possible without the generosity and goodwill of the people and businesses of Essex, Hertfordshire and the surrounding areas.
EHAAT provides a Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS), which means they can rapidly deliver advanced life-saving pre-hospital care directly to the side of patients with life-threatening injuries or medical emergencies; essentially bringing the A&E department to the patient when every second counts.
In 2020 EHAAT attended 2,366 life-saving missions across Essex and Hertfordshire, forming an important part of the emergency services supporting the NHS. Each of EHAAT’s critical care teams consists of a pilot and co-pilot, a pre-hospital care doctor and a critical care paramedic, who once on scene can deliver advanced clinical care that is normally only found in the hospital emergency department.
Once stabilised, the patient will be taken by air or land to the most appropriate hospital for their needs. A patient that has experienced first-hand the life-saving work that EHAAT provides is Andrew Bord. Andrew was taking a shower when he blacked out and fell and had a seizure. Nobody knows if the seizure was because he banged his head, or whether his seizure began as he lost consciousness.
When the Essex & Herts Air Ambulance team arrived, they quickly identified that they had to treat the large wound on Andrew’s head and give him a pre-hospital anaesthetic in order to take over his breathing. This would start the process of reducing his brain injury and prevent, as best as possible, any further harm.
Andrew’s wife Emma said: “Essex & Herts Air Ambulance is an utterly amazing service, and I am so thankful to them for saving my husband’s life. I can’t thank them enough for everything. The doctors on the helicopter, the speed of their work and the decisions they made were simply amazing.”
Natasha Robertson, Fundraising Manager said, “There are many different ways people can get involved and support their local life-saving charity. From volunteering their time, playing our lottery or entering one of our raffles, giving a regular donation or leaving a gift in their Will, through to taking part in one of our treks, running or extremely popular motorcycle events or hosting an afternoon tea, there is something for everyone.”
For more information about EHAAT and its work, visit ehaat.org.
