Helicopter Emergency Service
The paramedics and specialist trauma doctors attached to London's Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) come to the aid of more than 1,000 victims of serious accidents a year in the capital.
The team, based at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, can get to major incidents within the M25 in an average of 14 minutes.
The specialist trauma doctors can administer drugs, insert a tube to help a patient breathe and even perform openheart surgery. The service can fly victims to the nearest specialist hospital to give them the best chance of survival.
High-profile success stories include Stephen Niland, whose life was saved when Dr Heather Clark performed openheart surgery on the floor of the pub where he had been stabbed.
Last year a 15-year-old girl sustained a fractured skull, brain haemorrhage and a stroke down her right side that left her paralysed. Within 40 minutes of a 999 call, HEMS doctors had stabilised her, put her on a mobile life-support machine and airlifted her to the Royal London.
The teenager spent three weeks in a coma in intensive care. She was expected to be unconscious for at least six months but was discharged from the hospital two months after the accident. She is now studying for GCSEs.
The HEMS team also respond to 999 calls in a fast-response car three nights a week, and when the helicopter is not available.
