Tyrone man helps raise £10,500 for life-saving air ambulance team

A YOUNG bricklayer from Tyrone has thanked Air Ambulance NI after the Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) was tasked to his workplace following a serious fall.

On July 22 last year, Peter Quinn was working on the second storey of a building in nearby Moortown when he fell, plummeting 20 feet to the ground below. The Ardboe man’s work colleagues at the building site phoned emergency services and HEMS were dispatched by air ambulance alongside their colleagues from Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS).

The air ambulance helicopter touched down in a field across from the building site.

Fearing Peter had sustained a serious spinal injury, the medical team of HEMS assessed and treated him at the scene before carefully stabilising him and loading him onto the helicopter.

The flight from Moortown, on the western shores of Lough Neagh, to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast took just nine minutes, a fraction of the time it would have taken by road.

But for Peter, the journey is a complete blank.

“I don’t remember the fall, the helicopter, or anything at all,” he later admitted. “The only thing I briefly recall is being lifted from one stretcher to another on the Royal Victoria Hospital helipad.”

The trauma team at the Royal Victoria Hospital confirmed that Peter had sustained a fracture to his L1 vertebra in his lower back. Peter spent a week in hospital under the watchful eyes of the medical team before being discharged with a body cast, which he wore for the next three months.

Thankfully, Peter did not sustain any permanent damage to his spinal cord. With the support of his family, friends, and the community, he made steady progress and Peter is now back on his feet and has returned to work.

Grateful for the life-saving intervention of the air ambulance, Peter, his family, and friends wanted to show their thanks and support Air Ambulance NI Charity.

A Christmas quiz was planned in Ardboe Community Centre on December 28, alongside a raffle of prizes kindly donated by local businesses and individuals. The event was a resounding success, raising an incredible £10,545 for the charity.

Peter said: “I would like to thank everyone who helped me on the day I fell. I would also like to thank my family and friends that helped me organise the fundraiser especially Madoch, Ciaran, Donal, Connor, Charlie and Jude. I am also grateful to the business sponsors and to everyone who gave so generously.”

Damien McAnespie, fundraising manager for Air Ambulance NI, said: “The donation of £10,545 will fund the service for over one day, potentially helping to save the life, brain or limb of another two individuals in the region – individuals like Peter who was out doing his day’s work and who never expected he would need the service. Thank you to everyone who donated in support of Peter and Air Ambulance NI.”