Retired Leicestershire teacher grateful for air ambulance after Croft Quarry incident

Retired teacher Rae Scott was enjoying her daily exercise and sketching at Croft Quarry in Leicestershire when she slipped on muddy ground and dislocated and broke her right ankle.

“I lost my footing going down a slope and there was a horrible cracking sound. I tried to lift up my ankle, but it just flopped, and I couldn’t walk,” she says.

Rae – who was with a friend – called 999 and a land ambulance was sent to the scene. However, the nearest it could get to where the accident happened was about a mile away.

For operational reasons and partly due to the remote location, the Warwickshire & Northamptonshire Air Ambulance was deployed.

The helicopter was able to land in a field a few hundred yards from where Rae had slipped, and the crew located her with the help of two ladies who were walking their dog. The ladies then walked to the two nearest places the land ambulance could get to.

The air ambulance critical care crew climbed over a fence and crossed a bridge to get to Rae. They used a special vacuum splint to support Rae’s injured ankle and gave her gas and air for pain control before helping her slide on her bottom down to an area of level ground.

She was then put onto a stretcher and the air ambulance crew, including the pilot, carried her to where the land ambulance crew were able to meet them.

“It took about half an hour and I felt so guilty about them having to take me so far along a rough and in many places, waterlogged path. One of the air ambulance crew carried the gas and air in case I needed it and at one point two walkers helped with the stretcher,” says Rae.

She was taken in the land ambulance to Leicester Royal Infirmary where she was treated for the dislocation. The next day she underwent an operation to put metal supports in her ankle joint.

After three nights in hospital, Rae was discharged and she has been recovering well at home in Bitteswell near Lutterworth since the accident happened in March (2020).

“I am very grateful to the air ambulance team who were wonderful to me. They were very friendly and so reassuring.”

“I can’t understand why a service as essential as the local air ambulance is a charity and not funded by the government. I am so grateful for what they did for me and if sharing my story is something I can do to raise awareness of and funds for their wonderful work then I am happy to do it,” she says.

Being able to share patient stories is what makes it possible for the charity to raise vital funds to remain operational. The charity relies on its patients -like Rae- coming forward and urges anyone who has had a personal experience with one of its local air ambulances to get it in touch by, clicking here.