Date of incident – 10/10/07

Time – 10.30am

Location – Chailey, Nr Haywards Heath, East Sussex

Atamjit Gill was driving near her home, when, due to adverse weather conditions, she suddenly lost control of her car and plunged down a bank. The car smashed into a tree with such force that the driver’s door was bent inwards, breaking two of Atamjit’s ribs. The roof was crushed by a low hanging branch which meant that Atamjit had to clamber over to the passenger side to escape.

The story is even more remarkable because Atamjit not only had her 2 year-old daughter in the back, but was also 34 weeks pregnant at the time. Thankfully, the rear of the car was not damaged by the accident and Atamjit was able to get her daughter out safely.

After a short while, two women stopped to help, and the emergency services were called. Because of her pregnancy, the Sussex Air Ambulance was called and landed in a nearby field. It was decided that, due to Atamjit’s condition, the Royal Sussex in Brighton, was the most appropriate hospital.

Atamjit was very frightened to be transported to hospital by helicopter but as she said, ‘they explained what would happen and how I would feel. It was a bizarre experience but the crew were so professional, calm and understanding’. It took them just 10 minutes to get to hospital, where the crew had ensured a medical team would be ready to receive her.

Thankfully, her unborn baby was fine and, in fact, Atamjit was allowed home that day. Atamjit recuperated well at home and we are delighted to report that she gave birth to a baby boy on 12 November 2007. We’ll leave the last word to Atamjit, ‘the Sussex Air Ambulance is a service that is under funded, under-publicised and under-supported. One never knows when either they or a loved one may need the superlative level of expertise and care afforded by the air ambulance service. I cannot praise the Air Ambulance enough, nor stress how important it is that the residents of Kent Surrey and Sussex have this facility availableto them.’

 

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