Vic’s Story – Bad Things Happen In Threes
‘In January 2024, my boyfriend Miles was in Florida playing a concert with his band. The night before flying home he called me. I told him about a couple of bad pieces of luck I’d had that day and he jokingly said, “Bad things happen in threes”.
It was just an off-hand comment, but it played on my mind. So, I was very relieved to hear from him after he landed safely at Heathrow. He said he was tired and promised to stop at the motorway services for a rest.
Miles never made it to the services. He fell asleep at the wheel and his car collided with a lorry, leaving him with a traumatic head injury. I’m just so thankful that a Thames Valley Air Ambulance helicopter brought a paramedic and a doctor to Miles’ side that day. The crew carefully extracted Miles from the wreckage of his car and gave him the care he so desperately needed.
They got him out of that car and intubated him so quickly. Controlling a patient’s airway and breathing in someone as critically ill as Miles can have a big impact on improving their chances of survival. I had no idea that air ambulance crews could perform that level of care outside of hospital. They literally brought the hospital to the roadside that day. It was a lifesaving intervention.
All I could think was, ‘is the person I love going to live or die?’
I got to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford to join Miles’ family as quick as I could. In my role as a theatre practitioner, I’m often part of the team who delivers unwelcome news to worried loved ones. But now it was me who was in neuro-intensive care anxiously waiting for answers. All I could think was, ‘is the person I love going to live or die?’.
I’m very used to seeing people with life threatening injuries and illnesses, but nothing could prepare me for the sight of Miles in that hospital bed, barely recognisable from the person who’d kissed me goodbye just a few days earlier. I can’t unsee the image of him in that bed, I will never forget it.
A week after the incident, the doctors told us that Miles wasn’t responding to treatment. They said, “we’ve exhausted all we can do for him. It’s up to him now’”
Miles was sedated for 20 days in total. But eventually, there were signs of
improvement. When he opened his eyes it was a feeling of pure joy.
Miles was discharged from hospital in February and, with support from
a community occupational therapist and a physio, he’s shown incredible
determination to get his life back. To describe his recovery as miraculous is the only word I can use.
It’s hard not to look at the Thames Valley Air Ambulance crew as anything other than heroes. How do you thank someone for saving the person you love? I don’t know how to express that in words. I will be grateful for the rest of my life.’
I’m just so thankful that a Thames Valley Air Ambulance helicopter brough a paramedic and doctor to Miles’ side.
Please enter the Thames Valley Air Ambulance Christmas Raffle today – and bring lifesaving care to more people across Berkshire,
Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire.
