A28 horror crash
Four people were critically injured in a high speed crash involving two cars on the A28 Canterbury road between Sarre and St. Nicholas at Wade on the evening of the 5th June. Fire crews, ambulance staff and a SIMCAS (South East Coast Immediate Care Scheme) emergency doctor worked hard to successfully rescue them.
Dr Alan Jones, a retired A&E Consultant, provided advanced medical care at the roadside alongside 4 ambulance crews and a CCP (Critical Care Paramedic) responder. The scene which faced Dr Jones when he arrived was that of 4 trapped casualties. He described the scene as “a nightmare with the cars so badly deformed they could not be identified.”
All four victims had serious head injuries, in addition one of the drivers had pelvic and foot injuries whilst one of the passengers also had critical chest, abdomen, pelvic and leg injuries. The other driver had critical abdominal and pelvic injuries whilst the remaining passenger suffered abdominal and spinal injuries.
The whole fire, ambulance and SIMCAS team worked to save the lives of the victims and Dr Alan Jones of SIMCAS said “the treatment in situ and the extrication all worked like clock work.” The casualties were so entrapped, it took 90 minutes to get them all out of the wreckage.”
The life saving treatments that Dr Jones was able to administer included intravenous sedatives and pain killers and fluids to help stabilise the patients and airway devices to keep them breathing thought out the prolonged entrapment as well as, with the CCP from SECAMB, an ultrasound machine to scan the patients abdomens and lungs for immediately life threatening injuries. The patients were transported by road to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Hospital, Margate for on going treatment where their condition was later described as critical but stable.