Hampshire And Isle Of Wight Air Ambulance Completes 15,000 Flights

The life-saving Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance charity recently deployed its aircraft for mission number 15,000.

Doctors, dispatchers, pilots and paramedics from the charity responded to a patient who required emergency critical care following an incident in Hook on Wednesday 1 April.

The team provided treatment to a patient before transferring them to hospital in a road ambulance, to allow them to continue providing necessary treatment en route.

Since its first take off on 1 July 2007, the charity has responded to more than 23,000 emergency missions by air (15,000) and road (8,434) across Hampshire, the Isle of Wight and surrounding areas.

These include cardiac arrests, falls from height and assaults.

The doctors and advanced paramedics on board the helicopter and emergency response vehicles can carry out procedures that are usually only found in a hospital setting, such as a thoracotomy – a surgical incision to the chest wall used to treat life-threatening conditions – or a limb amputation, all at the side of the road, in someone’s kitchen, a busy shopping centre or a rural area.  

Each mission costs the charity on average £3,500 – which is funded entirely by donations from the public.

One of those 15,000 flights was to Carmen Wragg, who suffered a heart attack followed by a cardiac arrest in the St Mary’s Hospital car park, while she and her husband were holidaying in Rookley from their home in Redditch, Worcestershire, in June 2025.

Hospital staff performed CPR on Carmen and put her into an induced coma, before the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance transported Carmen to hospital, where she underwent an emergency procedure to have a stent inserted.

Carmen said;

“I was going around about my daily life without a care in the world. 

"And then everything went wrong — I needed a stent, urgently. So, they got me into a stable situation, critical but relatively stable.

"Time was of the essence, so they called the air ambulance because they couldn't take me by land or ferry. I may not have survived the journey because of the time. I needed to be treated rapidly.

“I know how important the air ambulance is and I've obviously got a huge appreciation for them.” 

Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance CEO Richard Corbett said:

“I am immensely proud of the efforts from everyone who has made this achievement possible. 

"For many of those patients, it will be the worst day of their lives. But thanks to the extraordinary dedication from hundreds of expert crew members, charity staff and volunteers over the years, coupled with the generosity of our wonderful supporters, our team can try and make that day slightly better and give those patients the best possible chance of survival and recovery.”

The service was recently rated ‘outstanding’ by the Care Quality Commission, who cited that crews were “exceptional at making sure people were at the centre of their care and treatment choices.” 

Visit www.hiowaa.org for more information.