The FEC HEMS-Station® Solar Plus, installed at Aylestone Hill park in Hereford, UK, for the Midland Air Ambulance Charity (MAAC), continues to prove its vital function for the local community, in enabling a secondary landing site to function as a safe and effective 24/7 helicopter landing area for the seriously injured and critically ill.

Posted 9th February 2022

Teen Airlifted to Hospital as Air Ambulance Lands in Hereford

By James Thomas  @JamesThomasHere (Reporter)

The air ambulance landed at Aylestone Park in Hereford thanks to specially trained volunteer

A TEENAGER has been airlifted to hospital after the air ambulance landed in Hereford.

But it's thanks to volunteers that the lifesaving helicopter was able to land.

Aylestone Park shared pictures on Tuesday evening of the air ambulance at the park, off the A465, with West Midlands Ambulance Service saying a teenager was taken to hospital in Birmingham,

"We were called at 5.58pm to a medical emergency in Hereford," a West Midlands Air Ambulance spokesperson said.

"We treated one female teenager before she was airlifted to Birmingham Children's Hospital for further treatment."

But the air ambulance was only able to land after volunteers were scrambled to the park.

Aylestone Park Association said it has specially trained volunteers to set up a night-landing helipad when asked by the Midlands Air Ambulance.

In 2017 when the scheme started, the charity said it operates lifesaving service 14 hours a day, 365 days a year, flying full air ambulance missions in daylight.

But it can only fly between lit helipads after the hours of darkness until 9pm.

Julian Spiers, the airbase supervisor for the Strensham airbase, said at the time: “To support emergency pre-hospital patient care in more remote parts of our operating patch after the hours of darkness research was undertaken into locations to host temporary night-lit landing sites in Herefordshire and Shropshire.”

“Aylestone Hill was identified to support the regional trauma network after dark. As Hereford Hospital’s helipad isn’t currently night capable, the temporary landing site means we can reach and treat patients at a Hereford-based incident scene after dark.”

"We can then rapidly convey patients in critical need of specialist care to a major trauma centre, at either Bristol or Coventry.”

At each location, with assistance from trained local volunteers, coloured light units are rapidly deployed in an emergency to mark a safe landing area so that the charity’s helicopters can remain operational after nightfall.

Re-Published with the kind permission of The Hereford Times

See the FEC HEMS-Station® Solar Plus in action with the MAAC in the below video