Archives: Patients

Castleton, West Yorkshire – July 2017

Richard Liversidge, aged 48, has suffered from unexplained seizures for the last two years and last year, on the 27th July 2017, he was riding his motorbike just meters away from his home when had a seizure and fell head first on to the tarmac.

Luckily for Richard, a neighbour who recognised him came to his rescue, informing the emergency services and his wife, Karen, who rushed to his aid.

Karen, said: “I’m totally amazed how brilliant the Yorkshire Air Ambulance were. They landed in a nearby park and were the first on scene – the paramedics from the road ambulance didn’t even realise that they had been called.”

When the helicopter crew arrived, Richard’s heart beat was 12 beats per minute (compared to a normal resting heart rate of 60bpm) and he was struggling to breathe. Due to landing head first on tarmac, the crew also suspected that he had head injuries.

In November 2009, Carrie Cheeseman was forced to cancel her wedding after she was involved in a serious road accident, just yards from her home in Leeds.

Carrie and her two young children, Maxwell and Scarlett were hit by a car just a fortnight before she was due to get married.

She suffered a multitude of serious injuries and was air lifted to hospital by the Yorkshire Air Ambulance spending a month in Leeds General Infirmary and many more painful months recovering at home.

Her then two-and-a-half year old son, Maxwell suffered from head injuries and her nine-month-old daughter, Scarlett broke her ribs and Pelvis with further injuries to her Liver.

In what was a traumatic year, the YAA was also called out to her husband-to-be Stephen who came off his bike while training for a triathlon six months later.

North Yorkshire man and father of three, Mike Hudson swapped his bike pedals for walking poles to thank the Yorkshire Air Ambulance a year after an accident that changed his life. Mike, a surveyor with the National Grid in Leeds, an experienced cyclist and time triallist suffered a spinal crush injury after crashing into the back of a van less than a mile from his Harrogate home, in the Yorkshire Dales.

“I don’t really remember anything about the accident, but understand I basically head butted the back of the van which crushed my spinal cord, I came around about 10 or 15 minutes later and was surrounded by medics, police and my family. I was just laid on the ground and couldn’t move, which was pretty scary, and when I heard the air ambulance land I knew I’d done some serious damage.”
Mike was airlifted within minutes to specialists at Leeds General Infirmary for emergency treatment.

Although he recovered well from his injuries, Mike was left with muscle weakness. “I know I’ve been very lucky, I was only doing about 10mph and I was also able to get the medical attention I needed very quickly thanks to the air ambulance. It could have been a lot worse.”

Karen Brooke suffered serious brain injuries after a freak fall. Karen was leading her horse, who startled at her fall and kicked out hitting Karen in the side of the head causing life-changing injuries.
Following her accident, Karen was airlifted in minutes by the Yorkshire Air Ambulance to specialists at Leeds General Infirmary. The 51 year old suffered two skull fractures and severe bruising and bleeding on the brain.

“I was lucky to survive,” said Karen. “I had only a slight pulse when Yorkshire Air Ambulance landed and I don’t think I would have made it without them. They saved my life.”

Karen was in a coma for two months and initially suffered personality changes as well as paralysis down her right side. She was transferred to Dewsbury Hospital where she spent a further four months in rehabilitation learning how to walk, talk, read and write again.

Carolyn Bjelan from Harrogate, North Yorkshire used CPR to save her husband’s life just a month after completing first aid training.

Carolyn is now calling for all schools and workplaces to teach life-saving skills to improve the chances of people surviving a cardiac arrest outside hospital.

Carolyn had to use her life-saving skills when husband Jovan suddenly collapsed at their Harrogate home while doing some DIY.

“I was upstairs and heard a loud thud and when I found him I thought he must have fallen off the ladder.”
“When I realised he wasn’t breathing there were a few seconds when I panicked and thought I can’t do this, but then the training kicked in and I knew I had to act quickly.

“I started CPR and rang for the ambulance putting them on speaker phone. I knew time was so important as the longer the brain is starved of oxygen the greater the chance of brain injury.”