Tuesday 24th September 2013 – 12.40pm – Claire Brown.
A Black Country builder has thanked the ambulance staff for their care after a seven foot wall collapsed on top of him.
On the 3rd June Peter Davies, 40 from Brierley Hill, was helping his brother to take down a brick wall in the graveyard of Spring Meadow Church in Old Hill when the wall became unstable and collapsed. Peter was buried face down, underneath a pile of bricks and rubble.
An ambulance, a responder paramedic, an area support officer and the Midlands Air Ambulance from Cosford with a MERIT trauma doctor on board came to his aid. Peter sustained a nasty leg fracture and a compression fracture of his spine in the incident. Ambulance crews gave Peter pain relief and oxygen before they got to work on cleaning and dressing his leg wound. Once immobilised onto a neck collar and spinal board Peter was rushed to hospital.
Peter, a self-employed builder, spent four weeks at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham where he underwent surgery on his leg and a further three days at Russells Hall Hospital. Peter and his wife, Debbie, visited the Trust’s Headquarters in Brierley Hill last week to meet the call taker and ambulance crews that helped that day.
Peter said: “I remember the wall falling down, I remember seeing the first paramedic, I remember the people in orange (air ambulance paramedic and doctor) and I remember asking if I was going to die and hearing the answer, ‘no’. That’s about all I can recall.
“I’m so glad that I’ve been able to come and say thank you to everyone in person, it’s a good feeling to meet the people who have helped you. Thank you for everything you did that day. Footballers get paid a lot of money but you are truly worth your weight in gold, ten times over.”
Debbie recalls the moment Peter’s Brother rang her to tell her about the accident: “Peter’s Brother said that he’d been injured at work, the air ambulance was there but told me not to panic…..so I immediately started to panic! When I got there, the ambulance crews were treating Peter and helped to reassure me that he was going to be okay.
“The accident has been a life changing experience for us. We can’t thank the ambulance service enough. I don’t think people realise what we’ve got in the NHS.”
Peter Boaz, a Birmingham based paramedic, was part of the ambulance crew that attended and said: “It’s humbling to see Peter and Debbie again and for them to take the time to come and thank us in person.
“We, as crews, tend to forget that once we leave a patients’ side at hospital they’ve often got weeks, months or even years of treatment and recovery ahead of them. Peter did really well that day and, despite his injuries, was in good spirits and managed to have a laugh and joke with us. We wish him all the best in his journey to recovery.”
ENDS
Notes to Editors:
Pictured in back of ambulance (left to right): Lucy Beardsmoor (Call Taker), Peter Boaz (Paramedic), Martin Eaton (Area Support Officer), Darren Roberts (Technician), Rachael Watkins (Responder Paramedic), Peter and Debbie Davis.