A North Yorkshire pensioner has spoken about his lucky escape after a log-cutting accident lead to him needing aid from the Yorkshire Air Ambulance.

Forester and landscape gardener Trevor Dawson was cutting sycamore using a high-pressure log splitter machine when he was hit in the chest by a 20kg lump of wood.

As a result of the impact the 75-year-old was thrown backwards and received severe bruising both internal and external.

Trevor was able to phone a farmer friend who was nearby who found him in agony before calling the emergency services.

Yorkshire Air Ambulance dispatched one of their two helicopters to the remote location near Skipton and flew Trevor across to the nearest major trauma centre in Preston.

The Northern Echo:

“It happened so suddenly – one moment everything was great and then the machine spat out this log and the next thing I know I’m on the floor. I really thought it was the end of me because the pain in my chest was terrible,” said Trevor from West Marton, near Skipton.

For Trevor, the air ambulance was the difference between life and death. “There was no way a road ambulance could have got to me. Yorkshire Air Ambulance were just fantastic,” he said.

The Yorkshire Air Ambulance is an independent charity which needs to raise £19,000 every day in order to keep both of its air ambulances maintained and in the air, providing coverage to more than five million people 7 days a week and 365 days a year, from its two bases near Wakefield and Thirsk.

Although independent, doctors and paramedics working for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance are seconded from the Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust.

The Northern Echo:

It’s not the first time that Trevor has reason to be grateful to the rapid response charity – his wife Elaine was also airlifted a few years ago following a bad horse-riding accident. He added: “I’ve had a few accidents before but nothing as horrendous as this, and it was such a relief to see the air ambulance land."

It took Trevor over a month to recover from his injuries. His accident features in tonight’s episode of Helicopter ER, the award-winning Really TV series which follows the life-saving work of Yorkshire Air Ambulance.

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