Aimee’s Story
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In 2022 Cornwall Air Ambulance was tasked to 127 road traffic collisions, one of those was to help Aimee McGall when she was involved in a crash on the A30 between Bodmin and Launceston.
The 18-year-old care worker had just left work on 10th November and was driving to her boyfriend’s house, when she was hit by another car. Her vehicle crashed into the central reservation at Plusha.
Emergency services were tasked, including Cornwall Fire & Rescue Service, Devon & Cornwall Police, South Western Ambulance Service and Cornwall Air Ambulance, with critical care paramedics Thomas Hennessy Jones and Lisa Ball attending in a Rapid Response Vehicle due to the weather conditions.
On scene Thomas and Lisa checked Aimee’s vital signs and worked to identify her injuries, there were fears she may have been suffering from internal bleeding. She needed to be given a strong sedative so she could be safely extricated from the vehicle. The crew canulated Aimee and administered ketamine. Once she was cut out of the car, a full assessment was carried out and she was placed onto a scoop stretcher.
Aimee was conveyed to Derriford Hospital via land ambulance. Thomas travelled with her, monitoring her observations and making sure her condition did not deteriorate. She had suffered multiple injuries including a five-centimetre tear to the body’s main artery, known as a thoracic aorta dissection, a broken collar bone, three broken ribs, she had damaged a kidney and her liver, shattered her pelvis in four places and damaged her optic nerve causing partial blindness in her right eye. Aimee underwent several surgeries and spent a total of two weeks in hospital.
Her recovery has been a long process and involved having to learn to walk again. Eight months on since the incident, she has now been signed off from her physio but is still waiting to find out if she’ll be able to drive again.
Speaking about her incident appearing in the latest series of Cornwall Air 999, Aimee said: “It was really weird because I don’t remember any of it, but it was actually what my car looked like and how they had to get me out, I thought I’d gotten out on my own but they had to cut me out and carry me. They’re amazing really, if they didn’t come and help me I would have died.”
Aimee’s mum, Cath, added: “I think they’re amazing, this isn’t the first time my family has had to use the air ambulance, my mum was taken quite ill when I was younger, and the air ambulance had to come out and help her. I just think it’s something you shouldn’t take for granted, and if you get the opportunity to support them you should, because if you did need them and they may not be there, it’s just not worth thinking about. It has been humbling to think of the work they all do. It’s something we can’t ever afford to lose.”