The daughter of a man who received the first pre-hospital blood transfusion in the North, is running a marathon in aid of the charity that helped her dad.
Jill Dempster, from Armadale, will be tackling her first ever marathon in Loch Rannoch, Scotland, in October and has chosen to raise money for the Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS).
In January 2015, Jill’s dad John McNeil, aged 58 at the time, was involved in a serious road traffic incident on the A1 in Berwick when his work van collided with an oncoming lorry.
He sustained multiple severe fractures, including his collarbone, hip socket, both femurs, sternum, and vertebrae, as well as collapsed lungs, lacerations to his scalp and liver and a hematoma near his right kidney.
The critical care team from GNAAS, which included a doctor and paramedic, flew to the scene and put Mr McNeil into a medically-induced coma and gave him a blood transfusion.
This was the first time a blood transfusion had been given to a patient outside of a hospital setting in the North of England, after GNAAS began carrying red blood cells on board their aircraft in the same month.
Following treatment on scene, Mr McNeil was airlifted to the Royal Victoria Infirmary (RVI) in Newcastle and spent four weeks in ITU and HDU, undergoing several operations to save both his legs, before spending a further two months in the trauma ward.
He was then transferred to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh to be nearer to family and friends and underwent another operation on his right leg.
Afterwards he spent around three months in St John’s Hospital for rehabilitation before finally being discharged and returning to his home in Armadale.
Speaking about Mr McNeil’s recovery, Jill said: “My Dad is well and living life to the full considering his trauma and severe injuries.
“His recovery was long and painful. He had to learn to walk again with many months of physiotherapy. Although dad recovered, he has his limitations and is now on a waiting list to have ‘a revision distal femoral replacement’ on his right leg.”
Jill has now signed up to her first marathon, which takes place on 12 October and has set herself the target of raising £800 to support the work of GNAAS.
She said: “I decided to take on a marathon as running is a massive challenge for me. It’s something I would never have thought of doing or even pursuing however I wanted to do something for the charity that was out my comfort zone.
“If it hadn’t been for GNAAS medics going above and beyond on the day dad had his accident, he would have lost his life.
“We, as a family, are so grateful and because of this, my dad walked me down the aisle on my wedding day.”
Share
