Angela’s Story
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Angela Milling was having a girls’ day out when she collapsed in the street in the middle of St Austell town centre, suffering from a bleed on the brain.
It was the 6th of March 2013, Angela had been out for lunch and was shopping with her sister and niece when she felt a terrible crack to the back of her head, and started to feel sick. She exited the shop and fell to the ground, going in and out of consciousness. Angela’s sister called 999 and Cornwall Air Ambulance was tasked to the scene.
The crew stabilised Angela so she could be airlifted to Derriford Hospital. She said: “The only thing I remember is being put in the back of the helicopter and one of the paramedics saying, ‘Are you with us Angela?’ I said, ‘Where am I?’ And they said, ‘You’re in the air ambulance and we’re taking you to Derriford’. I think my response was ‘I’ve always wanted to go in a helicopter’ and then I passed out again.”
Angela had suffered a brain hemorrhage, she subsequently suffered a cardiac arrest and needed to be resuscitated. Luckily she did not require neurosurgery, but was placed into an induced coma for 10 days.
Angela has made a slow and steady recovery since the incident.
Speaking about how Cornwall Air Ambulance helped her, she said: “I wouldn’t have made it without them, it was life or death. At the end of the day, what would we do without this service? What we do in Cornwall without this helicopter? They’ve helped so many lives, and I’m one of them, and I’m here because of them.”
For her 60th birthday, Angela asked for donations instead of presents and raised over £300 for the charity as her way of saying thank you.
She added: “It means everything to me, I support the charity and do the lottery. I’m proud to be Cornish and I’m very proud of the air ambulance. When you’ve been in my situation, you don’t realise until you wake up and think what would we have done without them. I like that it’s the community spirit that keeps them going.”
You can help more patients like Angela by supporting Cornwall Air Ambulance here. https://cornwallairambulancetrust.org/donate/