That is the question that Aldwyn, 76, asked himself after a fall a few months ago. I just need bedrest -this isn’t serious enough for an ambulance, he thought. But within a few hours, Aldwyn’s life was hanging in the balance.

Aldwyn was in Khandallah with his walking group like he was every Monday. He stepped onto the pavement, but as he did, he tripped on the edge of the kerb and fell down. ‘I remember struggling to get my arms out in time and hitting the kerb on my side.’

Aldwyn’s friend Loretta wanted to call an ambulance, but Aldwyn felt okay and got a taxi home. ‘It was just a fall’, he thought.

When Aldwyn got home, he told his wife, Janet, what had happened. He took some pain relief and headed upstairs for a lie down. Janet was not concerned and carried on with her day as normal.

About an hour later, Janet went to check on Aldwyn. Unexpectedly, Aldwyn said, ‘I think I need to go to ED.’ Janet wasn’t sure, but she trusted him; it wasn’t like Aldwyn to fuss over nothing. She called 111 and spoke to our call taker, Jessie.

Jessie takes thousands of calls a year, and many of them falls. Sometimes a fall is life-threatening. It was Jessie’s job that day to listen to everything Janet said, and work out whether Aldwyn’s life was in danger. Jessie recalls:

‘This was a very normal call for me, but what stood out was the fact Aldwyn wasn’t fully alert. That gave me a sense that something isn’t quite right.’

Jessie knew that Aldwyn needed a paramedic urgently as his condition was serious. She stayed on the line until paramedics arrived, so she could monitor the situation and be there to help Janet should Aldwyn’s condition deteriorate further.

‘What happened to Aldwyn shows that staying on the line was the right decision.’

Expert care starts with our call takers. The moment you call 111, the team use their expert knowledge to provide the right care and treatment, in the best possible time.

Just 11 minutes after Janet got through to Jessie, Paramedics Alesha and James arrived. They quickly assessed Aldwyn.

Alesha noticed how pale Aldwyn was: almost as white as the bedsheets. She knew this was serious.

‘Falls are really common, and if you’re not careful, you can miss things. That’s why we have to be so thorough.’

Alesha took Aldwyn’s blood pressure. It was well below the safe level.

Alesha’s training and experience meant she quickly recognised that Aldwyn had an internal bleed. They knew that Aldwyn’s condition was about to deteriorate very quickly, and they needed to make a plan to save his life.

Alesha tried to put an IV line in.  He wouldn’t survive without it.  But Aldwyn’s blood pressure was so low, they couldn’t access any veins.  Alesha had to make a decision:

‘We contemplated calling for back up, but time was critical, and we decided Aldwyn needed to get to hospital now.’

Alesha didn’t know whether Aldwyn would survive, but she knew she was giving him the best care she could on-route to hospital, and that getting him to hospital immediately would give him the best possible chance.

It takes expertise and experience to get life-saving decisions right.

Alesha called ahead to the Emergency Department so they could be ready to treat Aldwyn as soon as he arrived. Now it was time to care for Janet too. Alesha didn’t know for sure what would happen to Aldwyn. She knew she had to prepare Janet for the worst-case scenario.

‘When someone is as unwell as Aldwyn, you can’t sugar-coat it; we know when it’s bad. We want to prepare you for what’s coming, without alarming you.’

Expert care doesn’t stop with the patient, it means caring for your family too.

They arrived at the hospital within minutes and after emergency surgery, and a massive blood transfusion, Aldwyn was out of danger.

Aldwyn doesn’t remember anything other than the bright lights. Janet remembers more, but it was hard to take in:

‘After a while a doctor came over to me and indicated that it was very serious and they weren’t sure if he would pull through… but it didn’t really register, it was crazy.’

Just hours before, Aldwyn had walked himself upstairs to bed. How had it come to this?

We do know when a fall is more than just a fall.  People trust us to make that judgement every day, and we train our people to provide the very best medical care – be that over the phone or in person.

Looking back, Janet just remembers feeling numb. Some parts felt like a bad dream.

It’s hard to imagine how Janet must have felt. One minute, her husband ‘just’ had a fall, and the next she is sitting at his bedside in ICU, wondering if she’d dreamt it. It’s hard to believe that something as simple as a fall on a kerb could put Aldwyn’s life in such danger.

Aldwyn and Janet contacted us because they wanted us to know that without the expert care of Jessie, Alesha, James, and the hospital staff, Aldwyn wouldn’t be alive today.

At Wellington Free Ambulance, we are always striving to provide world-class care to everyone who needs us. Thanks to your incredible support, we are able to continuously train and develop our call takers and paramedics to make sure more people like Aldwyn survive in emergencies.

To help more people like Aldwyn, visit our donation page.