Leicestershire Schoolboy Saved by Air Ambulance

The story of how a Leicestershire schoolboy’s life was saved by the crew of the local air ambulance has been featured on the BBC One Show.

Ryan Mullins (14) – who sustained a serious brain injury and nearly lost his life after a collision with a car whilst riding his bike home from school – was reunited with the crew from Warwickshire & Northamptonshire Air Ambulance who treated him at the scene of the accident. Due to the seriousness of his injuries, and his declining condition, Ryan was put into an induced coma by the air ambulance doctor. He had a fractured skull and collar bone and was fitting.

It took the air ambulance just five minutes to fly from their base in Coventry to Hinckley but it was decided not to fly him to Birmingham Children’s Hospital – the nearest paediatric intensive care unit – as it was getting dark. The air ambulance crew accompanied Ryan in the land ambulance and his mum Nicola Jordan followed in a police car.

“We were told later that if Ryan was not put into the induced coma by the air ambulance doctor he would not have survived. It didn’t just save Ryan’s life but prevented the whole family from having a life of trauma and sadness if we had lost him,” she says.nnAt the time of the accident Ryan was being bullied for wearing a cycle helmet so he didn’t have it on – which meant his skull took the full impact of the fall when he hit the ground.nnMinutes before the accident Ryan had phoned Nicola at work to tell her he was on his way home.

Not long after that her husband Paul got in touch to say there had been a serious road accident and to warn her colleagues about traffic delays in the area.nn“I said in jest that I hoped it didn’t involve Ryan and Paul said of course not. Then 10 minutes later he phoned back to say it was Ryan. I was in shock. I work five minutes away and a colleague drove me as close to the accident scene as she could get, I then ran the rest of the way crying. I wasn’t allowed near Ryan, it was horrific,” says Nicola.

She and Paul spent three weeks constantly at their son’s bedside, spending only a few hours with their daughters Cerys and Phoebe who were being looked after by friends and relatives.

“The doctors told us that because Ryan had suffered a serious brain injury they could not predict what the outcome would be. An MRI scan revealed that he had had lots of small bleeds on the brain. It would be months and years rather than days and weeks before we knew what the long term damage was,” explains Nicola.

However, despite this frightening prognosis, when Ryan was taken out of his coma he made incredible progress and was eating, drinking, talking and walking within three days of waking up. He was discharged from hospital three weeks after being admitted and after physiotherapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy was well enough to go back to school eight months later.

Ryan says he is “very grateful” to the local air ambulance for saving his life. “I think all the crew are incredible,” he adds. He didn’t miss out on a helicopter flight after all and viewers of the One Show saw how he was treated to a ride into the skies by Heli Air when he met the crew at WNAA base.