Geoff Cole

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Type of incident – accident at home

Date of incident – 13/05/2008

Time – 11.00am

Location – East Preston, West Sussex

Geoff Cole, 48, was cleaning the outside of his upstairs windows at home, when his ladder slipped. Geoff fell two storeys and landed on paving stones below. Geoff’s wife, Sharon, was helping him at the time and she immediately rushed to his aid. Her first reaction on seeing Geoff was to assume that she had lost him; such was the extent of his injuries. Sharon called the emergency services.

First on the scene were two paramedics. By this time, Geoff was screaming because of the pain in his back and blood was pouring from his head injuries. Due to possible spinal injuries, the paramedics called for the Sussex Air Ambulance.

The air ambulance crew were able to stabilise Geoff in the land ambulance, before transferring him to the helicopter, and then flying him to the Royal London Hospital. Geoff remembers very little about the whole episode and has only a vague recollection of a surgical procedure which took place later that day in hospital.

Geoff had suffered extensive injuries; a punctured lung, cracked vertebrae, two contusions of the brain, dislocated shoulder, damaged elbow and a burst eardrum. Geoff was discharged 5 days after the incident.

We met Geoff only 4 weeks after his accident and he is still suffering the after effects. He gets tired very quickly, walks very slowly and gingerly, and still has pain in his chest and shoulder. He is due to begin physio shortly and will have further x-rays in the future to determine the time it may take him to fully recover.

Both Geoff and Sharon are incredibly grateful at the speed and expertise that the Sussex Air Ambulance crew displayed. As Sharon says; ‘what would we do without them? The crew at the air ambulance were incredible.’ Geoff adds; ‘I assumed it was part of the NHS, I didn’t realise it was publicly funded. Its just a great organisation and I’m grateful that they were there when I needed them. A very, very big thank you guys and we will be endeavouring to raise awareness of the importance of this service through any means possible!’