Kildress girl says thanks to ambulance crew[19/07/2010]

On Friday 2nd April 2010, Cookstown Ambulance crew, Gary Morrow and William Chambers attended a serious Road Traffic Collision on the Drum Road, just outside the town.

As they approached the incident, they were met with a scene familiar to ambulance personnel throughout the country. A small car had been in collision with a Large Goods Vehicle which had been travelling in the other direction. As a result of the incident the lorry left the road and ended up in a nearby field.

The car, driven by a young female, had been damaged quite extensively and it was obvious to the crew that time was critical to the girls chances of survival. They immediately set about treating her more serious injuries while working to free her leg which was trapped in the foot well of the car.

On hand to provide vital assistance was a family GP from Dungannon, and two European doctors who were holidaying in Ireland at the time. Working as a team, they extricated the young girl from her car and transferred her to the ambulance to take her immediately to Craigavon Area Hospital. Such was her condition that the GP travelled in the ambulance to assist the paramedic throughout the journey.

So began the road to recovery for Aisling Potter, a 23 year old fun loving girl from Kildress.

After stabilisation in Craigavon Area Hospital, Aisling was transferred to the RVH in Belfast where, as a result of the swelling in her brain, she spent two weeks in a coma in the Intensive Care Unit. She had also suffered serious leg injuries and had a pin inserted in her thigh as well as being in a cast for broken bones in her knee cap and foot.

Aisling was then transferred to the Brain Injury Unit at Musgrave Park Hospital where she spent another number of weeks recovering.

While Aisling was recovering in hospital her friends and family had to come to terms with the fact that here was a young girl, full of life and recently returned from America where she had worked with under privileged children and also played Gaelic football for Fermanagh ladies, who was fighting for her life.

As her recovery started to take hold and accelerate they planned the party of all parties for her. At the party, a raffle was held and raised a sum of money which Aisling decided she wanted to use to say thank you to the ambulance crew to whom she believes she owes her life.

She recently visited the ambulance station on crutches and met with Gary and William handing over a cheque for £500 to the NIAS charitable fund. Although on crutches, her spirit shone through as an inspiration to the ambulance crew.

She told the crew that she "just wanted to say thank you for everything you did and I know how lucky I am to be here today and that is because of what you did."

Paramedic Gary Morrow, acknowledging the generosity of the donation, said, "really the only thanks we needed was to see Aisling fit and well and a million miles away from the girl we dealt with at the side of that road on Good Friday. For her to come here and take time out to say thank is just unbelievable"

All too often ambulance crews deal with the most serious incidents on our roads. They do their job in the professional manner expected of them by the public and then, when they have transferred the patient to hospital they are ready to deal with the next call from wherever it comes and whatever it entails.

They do not do the job for thanks, but when someone takes time to say so, it is greatly appreciated and a great lift to the staff involved.