Blood boost for 999 sorties
EMERGENCY blood transfusions can be a vital part of saving lives following serious accidents or illness.
In this area, three leading charities have been working together to ensure that blood supplies get to where they are needed as swiftly as possible.
It is expected that up to 100 patients a year could benefit from their efforts.
The two helicopters flown by the Kent, Surrey and Sussex Air Ambulance are vital cogs in the operation.
On Monday, February 4 at the KSSAA base in Marden, Kent - the other being at Dunsfold, near Guildford - the new blood transfusion service will be launched.
It will mean the KSSAA having the first specialist doctor/paramedic teams outside London capable of giving blood tranfusions on arrival at an emergency.
The facility has been made possible thanks to all the necessary equipment being financed by the Henry Surtees Foundation, established by John Surtees OBE - the only person to have been world champion in both Formula One motor racing and Grand Prix motorcycling - in memory of his son.
Henry Surtees was just 18 years old when, during a Formula Two race at Brands Hatch on July 19, 2009, he was struck by a wheel that broke away from a car which had crashed into a wall at Westfield Bend.
He was stabilised at the circuit’s medical centre before being transferred to the Royal London Hospital, but died there later the same day.
A further boost has come from Honda UK, which is providing two new Honda CRV 4x4 vehicles for the use of SERV (Service by Emergency Rider Volunteers) to ensure all-weather transport of vital blood supplies from the East Surrey Hospital, Redhill, and the William Harvey Hospital, Ashford, for use aboard the air ambulances.
John Surtees is expected to be among VIPs attending Monday’s launch scheduled for 2pm.
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Weather for Bexhill-on-Sea
Wednesday 22 May 2013
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