A Sussex man who fell from approximately 40 feet into a
basement flat area in Hove was delighted to meet two paramedics who
were part of the team who responded to his neighbour’s 999
call.
Just over two years ago, Daniel Cheetham from Hove, now 30, a
recruitment agent for the pharmaceutical industry, fell from the
window four floors up, in the early afternoon. “I really don’t
remember anything at all of the incident itself,” said Daniel, “but
it has been on my mind ever since to thank the medical people who
came out to rescue me and now that I have recovered enough, I
wanted to thank them in person.”
A neighbour, who is a firefighter, saw Daniel’s fall and raised
the alarm rushing out to help him. An off duty doctor had just
walked passed and also stopped to help.
Clinical Team Leader Liam McDine, who normally works in the
Worthing area had been sent to a job in Brighton but he was stood
down, and on his way back to base he received a call that a man was
unconscious. Liam, who reached the incident in less than two
minutes after receiving the call said: “This is a job that I can
distinctly remember from being first on scene. When I arrived I
didn’t know yet what had happened and to be confronted with a crowd
around a seriously injured man was totally unexpected. It was
immediately clear this was serious and that I needed urgent
back-up.”
Several other ambulance crews were dispatched to attend,
including the air ambulance service. SECAmb student paramedic Scott
Fraser and his crew mate soon arrived at the scene.
Scott said: “Daniel had suffered severe trauma and showed
obvious injuries across his body. When we got there Liam had
already prepared him for receiving drugs to combat his pain and to
assist with blood clotting, in case of internal bleeding. We
boarded him and we were ready to move him. Although he was
semi-conscious, we were satisfied his condition was stable
enough.”
Air ambulance medics carried out further checks and treatment
before Daniel was taken by road ambulance to Brighton’s Royal
Sussex County Hospital. He was later transported to St. George’s
hospital in London where he received specialist treatment for the
next six weeks followed by a further four weeks in the Royal
National Orthopaedic Hospital (Stanmore) in spinal rehabilitation.
It was found that
Daniel had suffered a spinal cord injury from a broken back,
multiple fractures to his left arm and wrist, and numerous
fractured ribs.
“I needed four weeks of rehabilitation to re-learn the smallest
of things like walking and making a cup of tea,” said Daniel. “But
I have been so extremely lucky that I received immediate help from
two members of the public, then the ambulance and air ambulance
teams were with me so quickly and I did not have any internal organ
damage.”
“I will have to live with the life-long consequences of the
accident and I have learnt to accept that. I was a keen runner
before but due to my injuries I’m no longer able to do that, so
I’ve now taken up cycling which I’m really enjoying. I have
learnt a lot about myself over the course of my recovery, and the
whole journey has helped me refocus on what is important in life. I
have realised that, over everything, what’s most important is
friends, family and unrelenting positivity. That’s what’s helped me
come back to as normal a life as possible. I hope to be
raising money through my cycling this year to support the SECAmb
services who looked after me in those critical first minutes.”
After two back operations and three operations on his left arm,
Daniel received the all clear last December. He’s back to
working all the hours he did before his accident and has accepted a
move to Boston, USA with his company.
Both Scott and Liam were amazed to see their patient in such
remarkable good health following the traumatic injuries they dealt
with.
Liam said: “We were just doing our job and somehow you get used
to not knowing, not having feedback about your patients. It’s great
to see how well Daniel has recovered and how positive he is about
everything.”
Scott added: “It’s been fantastic to see him face-to-face and to
know that our interventions made a difference and helped Daniel to
get back to where he wants to be. We wish him all the very
best for his new life in Boston.”