Ben V’s Story

Teenage cyclist Ben Venskus thought it was safe to cross a busy road near his home in Little Eaton near Derby but his view of the traffic was restricted due to a nearby parked car.

There was a collision with an oncoming car and the impact flipped Ben into the air, broke his bike in half and smashed his cycle helmet. He landed on the road unconscious. Thankfully he had no visible injuries but he suffered multiple bleeds on his brain.

Within minutes an ambulance arrived at the scene and shortly afterwards the Derbyshire, Leicestershire & Rutland air ambulance landed on waste land adjacent to the road.

Ben’s eye, verbal and motor responses had dropped to a life threatening level so the critical care paramedics who were on board the helicopter quickly intubated and sedated him at the roadside.

“That’s what saved his life as ambulance staff aren’t able to administer this treatment to patients. If the air ambulance hadn’t attended the accident we would have lost our son,” says Ben’s Mum Kerry.

Ben wasn’t transported to hospital by air as the crew were concerned about a mechanical fault which had appeared when the helicopter landed. He was taken to the Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham by road ambulance.

“That didn’t matter because by then the air ambulance crew had saved Ben’s life by putting him into the induced coma,” says Kerry.

Ben spent five days in in the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit before regaining consciousness. When he woke he was unable to speak and could only communicate by the squeeze of a hand.

“We thought we would never get him back again but he improved a little every day and amazingly he walked out of the hospital two weeks after the accident.”

“We are so lucky that Ben is still here with us and we are very very grateful that he is. I am so aware of what the air ambulance crew did for him. They saved his life,” says Kerry.

Just two months after the accident Ben went back to school.

Described by his Mum as being “very determined and strong-willed” he has made a full recovery and is now very careful to cross the road at a place where he has a good view of the traffic in both directions.