“The survival rate for the sort of incident I experienced isn’t very high, so I am very lucky.” - Robin
Just as we have celebrated 50,000 missions, professional diving instructor Robin marked a milestone of his own – 2,000 dives around the world. Then he became one of our lifesaving mission numbers.
After 2,000 dives worldwide over 18 years, advanced scuba diver Robin never expected he’d be the casualty of a UK based training exercise. While assessing another diver 30 metres under water, Robin lost consciousness. His co-diver, paramedic Ruby Wood, performed a controlled buoyant lift to get him to the surface as safely as possible.
Your local Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Rutland Air Ambulance (DLRAA) was called to the scene while Ruby and staff at the Cove administered CPR. When the critical care crew arrived, Robin had regained consciousness, but the risk of decompression sickness was high. Symptoms only present themselves 48 hours later and often too late. It was vital to get Robin to a Hyperbaric Unit and recompression chamber as quickly as possible.
In just 32 minutes, Robin arrived by helicopter at Hull Royal Infirmary. A journey that would’ve taken over two hours by land ambulance. After tests and a night of oxygen and observation, Robin was discharged the next day.
“Without the helicopter taking me to Hull, I would have been in a land ambulance on oxygen for over two hours. If anything had gone wrong in that time the situation would have been a lot more serious.” he says.
Robin’s experience confirms his belief that people take your local air ambulance for granted and don’t believe they’ll ever need its services.
“What happened to me proves that you can’t think that because you have done something safely, repeatedly, you won’t have an accident. We are not in control of circumstances, and you just don’t know if you are ever going to need the services of an air ambulance, the emergency services, or a hospital.” he adds.
Robin could share his story personally and positively because of people like you. He’s here to tell it because you made his lifesaving mission possible. Thank you for your support. We simply couldn’t do this without you.
Donate to our lifesaving missions today and help more people like Robin reach more milestones.
