The Charity Evening held recently to support the work of the East Midlands Immediate Care Scheme (EMICS) at the Cuisine of India Restaurant on Kelmarsh Avenue in Wigston, Leicestershire succeeded in raising more than £1000. All of the profits from the evening have been donated to the charity thanks to the generosity of the proprietor Mr Syed Rahman. As well as the profits from the event a number of generous donations have taken the total to £1,020.

Mr Rahman said of the evening, “I realise how very hard it is to raise funds for charities in these difficult times and I am so glad that the evening has been successful. I only realised this evening how valuable is the work of these volunteer doctors in helping to save the lives of the victims of serious road and other accidents. It was so good to see two of these patients here with us this evening. This event is part of our plan to raise over £100,000 for charity over the next 7 years”.

The two ex patients were, Miss Sarah Lee who was helped at the scene of a serious road accident by Dr Nick Foster in July 2004, and Mr Gary Boothroyd who was involved, as a cyclist in a collision with a motor vehicle in August 1998 and helped by Dr Nigel Callow. Both patients suffered such serious injuries that they needed specialist assistance by a doctor before they could be transferred to hospital.

Part of the success of the evening came from a grand raffle for which prizes had been donated by a large number of businesses in Leicester, Oakham and Wigston.

The evening was attended by 75 friends and family members of the organiser Mr Garth Lee and Drs Tim Gray, Leon Roberts, Peter Gordan and Simeon Rayner, four of the doctors who are volunteers with EMICS. Dr Gray, the chairman of EMICS acknowledged the hospitality of the restaurant and the support of the guests by saying “Thank you so much for turning out on a Monday evening in the middle of a recession to support a charity that not many have heard of let alone know what it does, your support is greatly appreciated it will make a difference to the work that we do. Thank you”.

A fund raising campaign was launched in 2008 year to generate the £75,000 necessary to equip 5 new doctors who had been recruited to help expand the service across the region. For further information about EMICS please go to www.emics.org.uk

Photographs of the evening can be viewed on the Cuisine of India website www.cuisineofindia.co.uk/album/300309/album/index/html and high definition images can be

obtained from Terry Emmony by calling 0116247 8776 or mobile 07714671234.

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A volunteer emergency doctor from East Midlands Immediate Care Scheme (EMICS) was on duty for much of Friday evening (20^th February 2009) at the scene of a road traffic collision which occurred at 17.40 hours on the A15 at Silk Willoughby, near Sleaford.

 Dr Mark Folman, a General Practitioner with a practice in Newark, arrived at the scene at which there was already a crew from East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS) present as well as a medical response team from LIVES, the Lincolnshire voluntary medics scheme. A Fire and Rescue crew was also in attendance as well as the police who had closed off the road to allow the medics un-distracted attention to the patient.

 The incident involved two vehicles at a high speed junction in which one of the cars rolled over. A number of people from the cars were involved in the incident and most were medically discharged at the scene. However one 30 year old patient was found, whilst being extricated from the vehicle to have significant head injuries so Dr Folman anaesthetised him at the scene in order to control his breathing and protect his brain until he could receive more specialist treatment in hospital. Emergency anaesthesia is normally done in a hospital environment but a number of the EMICS doctors, including Dr Folman are trained to do this procedure at the scene of incidents such as this. Dr Folman, together with LIVES doctor Dr Steele, accompanied the patient on the one hour journey by road ambulance to Queens Medical Centre at Nottingham. The patient’s condition was said to be stable at the time Dr Folman left the hospital at 10 pm to be taken back to his car at the scene by an EMAS crew.

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A volunteer emergency doctor from East Midlands Immediate Care Scheme (EMICS) was one of the first on the scene of an incident today (19^th February 2009) when a micro-light pilot crashed into a hedge shortly after take off in the Ilkeston area of Derbyshire.

 Dr Andy Davies, who is a General Practitioner with a practice in Ilkeston and an EMICS volunteer, was called by the East Midlands Ambulance Service at around midday to attend to the pilot at the scene of the incident. He arrived within 12 minutes whereupon he began to calm and stabilise the patient. The patient, a 60 year old male, was diagnosed to have a broken lower leg which was splinted before he was transported to Derby Royal Infirmary by road ambulance. The incident occurred near Park Lane Farm on Park Hall Lane, between West Hallam and Mapperley

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Two Charities emergency doctors work in tandem

Doctors from two local charities – East Midlands Immediate Care Scheme (EMICS) and the Derbyshire, Leicester, Rutland Air Ambulance (DLRAA) were kept busy earlier this week (Tuesday 10^th February 2009) following a series of accidents.

Dr Pam Hardy, a volunteer EMICS doctor in North Derbyshire, who also works on the Air Ambulance, came across a road traffic accident on the M1 (J29-28) at approximately 06.40 on her way the work on the helicopter service. Despite significant damage to a car that had spun out of control on the wet and icy roads, the single occupant was able to be treated and discharged from scene.

Once at work the air ambulance was tasked to another road accident related to the icy conditions, this time in Barnsdale, Rutland, where Dr Tim Gray, another volunteer EMICS doctor in Oakham, was already on scene assisting crews in treating the driver trapped in his van. The two doctors worked with land crews, air ambulance paramedics and Leicestershire Fire & Rescue Service to free him from the wreckage and he was flown to Leicester Royal Infirmary with suspected neck and chest injuries.

On the way back to base, at East Midlands Airport, the air ambulance was tasked to an industrial incident in Loughborough, where a man had been trapped by a steel girder and sustained severe leg injuries. This time Dr Nick Foster, another volunteer EMICS doctor from Kegworth, was on scene along with ambulance and fire crews. The man had been freed from the situation by his work colleagues prior to treatment. Thanks to the skills of the air ambulance pilot Captain Shaun Tinkler-Rose, the air ambulance team was able to land close to the incident in the industrial estate and the man was flown to Queen’s Medical Centre, in Nottingham.

Doctors from the two organisations (EMICS & DLRAA) – both of which are funded entirely by charitable donations – work closely together in terms of training and education, and some doctors work for both charities – having their own cars fully equipped with medical kit as well as blue lights and sirens to respond to emergencies at any time of day or night, and also do shifts on the air ambulance.

Dr Pam Hardy said: “although we meet on regular occasions at organised events and training sessions, it is unusual to meet quite so often on operational jobs and great to be able to work together in this way putting what we train for into practice.”

Dr Nick Foster also attended two further road traffic collisions on the evening of the same day.

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Medical volunteers assist the injured at scene of glider crash
Two volunteers from the East Midlands Immediate Care Scheme (EMICS) were again on duty on Sunday afternoon (18th January 2009) to assist an injured passenger and his pilot when their glider aircraft crash landed on Abney Moor in the Derbyshire Peak district.  
The EMICS volunteers were Dr Pam Hardy, whose full time post is as Consultant in Emergency Care and Mr Andy Lee who works fulltime for Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service and is an EMICS volunteer.
Despite the remote location to the two volunteers were on the scene within 15 minutes as the first medical response team. The Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service were first on the scene.   The rapid response from all the emergency teams and the speedy medical assessment from the EMICS team enabled the injured patient to be immobilised at the scene and to be transported, by ambulance, to Chesterfield Royal Hospital within just 40 minutes of the crash call at 16.15 pm. The pilot was discharged without serious injury by ambulance staff at the scene.
The scene of the incident was exposed moorland, in biting wind and with darkness quickly approaching.  
All doctors in EMICS are volunteers who attend emergency incidents at the request of and in support of staff from the East Midlands Ambulance Service. A fund raising campaign was launched earlier last year to generate the £75,000 necessary to equip 5 new doctors who have been recruited to help expand the service across the region.  Anyone wishing to support the work of EMICS can obtain further information from the office by telephoning 01572 759680 or by visiting www.emics.org.uk