Bravery Award for BASICS doctor

A BASICS doctor, Peter Gordon, who assisted paramedics in their race against time to save a man trapped in his blazing lorry cab in September last year, has received a commendation for bravery.

Dr Gordon was one of the team of 10 which attended the horrific crash on the A14 after a lorry smashed into a heavy goods vehicle, sending it crashing into a van and jack-knifing across the carriageway. The first paramedics on the scene, who this week received bravery awards, ran up and down a queue of traffic asking drivers for fire extinguishers to put out the flames which were engulfing the lorry driver who was screaming in terror.

One of the paramedics honoured, Ian Pratt, based at Corby, said: "In the 19 years I have been in this job I have never seen anything like it. The cab of one lorry was ablaze and so was the back of the other lorry. When I first saw it, I was praying that we would be able to get our guy out. We felt helpless because the patient was trapped and burning and was still conscious. It was a horrible experience but it turned out well. You don't think about the danger, you're just totally focused on the job."

While Kettering paramedics Jackie Luck and Andrea Clarke and other motorists desperately tried to free the driver, Mark Gregory, an operational support manager, ran up and down the carriageway, asking other lorry drivers for their fire extinguishers in a bid to fight the blaze.

Firefighters arrived soon after and managed to free the man from his cab where he was treated for moderately severe burns and both a fractured leg and an arm. Dr Gordon said "We were also very concerned about the smoke this man had inhaled and used the Police helicopter to get him rapidly into Intensive Care, where he was ventilated."

The driver spent a week under sedation before making a full recovery, along with the driver of the heavy goods vehicle who was run over by his own vehicle and thrown to the side of the road. East Midlands Ambulance Service presented the group with chief executive's commendations in recognition of how staff risked their own lives to treat the casualties.

The other staff to receive the award were Jackie Luck and Andrea Clarke, paramedics at Kettering station; Mark Gregory, operational support manager; Tim Craddock, a community paramedic at Kettering station; Marilyn Tuckley, an emergency care assistant at Wellingborough station; Alan Burton, a technician at Kettering station; Stuart Smith, an emergency care assistant at Kettering station and Keith Rutherford, a paramedic at Kettering station.