Type of incident – medical emergency

Date of incident – 29/1/2008

Time – 4.00pm

Location – Horsham, West Sussex

It was whilst leading her two horses back to the stables that Tina Cook suffered head injuries so serious that she needed the intervention of the Sussex Air Ambulance. Something had startled one of the horses, and Tina was forced to let go of the lead rope and may have lost her balance. The exact details of what happened next are unknown, but it appears that the other horse then started to run and Tina was struck a blow to the head by the horse‘s hoof, resulting in her falling face first into the grass.

Tina was knocked unconscious and remembers only waking up periodically. Immediately, Tina’s friend Lynne called the owner of the yard who rang for the emergency services. The land ambulance arrived promptly, but, because of the location and severity of injuries, called for the Sussex Air Ambulance.

Tina had suffered life threatening head injuries. Her head had swelled up to double its normal size, her left eye was protruding out of its socket, her jaw had been shifted to one side and her nose had been broken. In fact, the doctors at the hospital said it was the most horrific horse related injury they had seen.

After spending quite a while attending to Tina, the air ambulance crew were finally able to prepare her for the journey. Tina was taken to the Royal London Hospital where she was scanned, stabilised and monitored. The following day she had lengthy surgery on her eye.

Tina was in The Royal London for 19 days. During this time, the doctors waited for the swelling to go down and monitored her brain activity. After 10 days, the swelling had gone down sufficiently to allow the doctors to start the facial reconstruction. This operation took 7 hours. The operation was a success, but the doctors had not been able to save the sight in her left eye.

We visited Tina only 4 months after her horrific accident, and were delighted at how well she is recovering. She will need further operations to complete the facial reconstruction, but Tina is adamant that the Sussex Air Ambulance has helped her immeasurably. As Tina said; ‘I have been told that the surgeons who treated me in the Royal London Hospital are amongst the best in the country, and the decision by the air ambulance team to take me directly to that hospital has had a positive influence on my recovery. The Sussex Air Ambulance is a wonderful organisation, staffed by terrific people’.

 

Share this story with your favourite social / bookmarking site.