'Air ambulance saved me when I had minutes to live'

A man has recounted how air ambulance paramedics saved his life after a brain haemorrhage when he was told he had minutes to live.

Jonathan Moran, from Peterborough, called 999 in September 2022 moments before losing consciousness, with the emergency services breaking down his door to save his life.

The East Anglian Air Ambulance (EAAA) intubated Moran and he was transferred to Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, where he spent nine weeks in a coma, underwent surgery - and had to learn to walk again.

"I was told by one of the critical care paramedics I only had about four minutes left to live, I honestly think if the air ambulance was not there I would not be here today," Moran said.

The EAAA operates 24 hours a day, covering Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk, with bases located in Cambridge and Norwich.

The service submitted plans to move from its current site at Cambridge City Airport to Fulbourn, and the application was approved on 8 April.

A fundraising appeal has now been launched to raise £8.2m of the £14m needed to purchase the land and build the base, including helipads, medical stores and staff accommodation.

Moran, who was 36 at the time of his medical emergency, later found out he had a haemorrhage on both sides of his brain and three aneurysms.

Recalling the days leading up to his stroke, he said: "I had a slight headache, but it got progressively worse.

"I woke up about midnight sweating and I couldn't really move, and the pain was crushing and unbearable, and at that point I knew something was really wrong.

"It is a horror story, quite frankly."

He temporarily lost his sight and spent a total of nine months in hospital, before returning home in June 2023 and going back to work a few months later.

Moran urged people to donate to the fundraising appeal as "without the support you cannot save people's lives".

"They are an essential service we do need, as you do never know when you will need an ambulance, I certainly did not know, and at the end of the day my daughter still has a father - thanks for the air ambulance," he said.

Its chief executive Matthew Jones added that the new Fulbourn site would allow them to "meet increasingly complex operational needs".

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