November 5, 2021 4.54 pm This story is over 27 months old

Air ambulance brings A&E to the front line

Saving lives across Lincolnshire

Each month in 2021, The Lincolnite and publishers Stonebow Media will offer our support to a local charity, with free advertising and promotion across our website and social media channels, to help them raise funds and awareness.

This month we’re supporting Lincs & Notts Air Ambulance (LNAA) – one of the UK’s leading Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) Charities, funded purely by the generosity of people.

No-one wakes up thinking they’ll need a critical care team landing by helicopter to save their life, but every day the doctors, paramedics and pilots at the LNAA take an A&E to patients who are having their worst day.

Whether in the home, by the roadside, in the countryside or along the coastline, their critical care team respond to emergencies of the most serious kind, providing medical interventions that can mean the difference between life and death.

They work closely with the NHS but don’t receive any direct government funding – they rely on the generosity of those who support them. This year LNAA needs to raise £7.4m to operate 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week, 365 days of the year to give patients like Joshua Marriott the best chance of survival.

One of the two LNAA helicopters | Photo LNAA

Joshua’s back was broken in several places after his motorcycle was in collision with a car. Also broken were two bones in his neck, both wrists, four ribs and he had suffered internal bleeding.

All he remembers at the scene is the emergency services and the arrival of the Lincs & Notts Air Ambulance, which had taken just four minutes to get to Joshua.

“The speed they got me to hospital was incredible – it took 13 minutes. If it wasn’t for the air ambulance I wouldn’t be here today,” he said.

Joshua and his partner welcomed their son Lorenzo to the world three-weeks-later, the same day Joshua turned 25-years-old, and just a few days after his release from hospital. Two weeks later Joshua picked his baby up for the first time.

LNAA responds, on average, to three missions a day but that average is likely to increase after the charity experienced its busiest summer on record.

In response to the easing of COVID-19 restrictions, and the anticipated influx of visitors to the Lincolnshire coast, LNAA launched a second helicopter to provide resilience for coastal communities from June to August. The crew responded to 481 missions over the three-month period.

The charity relies solely on donations | Photo LNAA

The incidents the crew attend most are cardiac arrests and Road Traffic Collisions. Others can include falls, equestrian and farming accidents, assaults, drowning and accidents involving walkers and cyclists. It’s the early intervention by a doctor and paramedic crew, along with the speed of the helicopter when dispatched, that makes the difference – a doctor can administer drugs and carry out surgical procedures that can’t be done by paramedics alone.

The team at LNAA are in the process of becoming clinically independent so that they’re able to not only deliver the best care to patients but so they can continually improve through training, development and upgrades.

For more information or to get involved with LNAA click here, or you can make a donation here.


The Lincolnite will also be supporting LNAA at our annual Bangers & Fizz Charity Quiz on November 25. If any company would like to make a donation to our raffle please contact us at [email protected]