Yorkshire Air Ambulance crew thanked by DIY accident victim

Keith Thompson slipped from a step ladder in Sleights, near Whitby, and suffered multiple injuries in June 2021

A retired engineer who suffered a near-fatal DIY accident while helping his daughter at her home has thanked air ambulance workers for saving his life.

Keith Thompson slipped from a step ladder while fitting a cooker hood in Sleights, near Whitby, and suffered multiple injuries in June 2021.

The Yorkshire Air Ambulance (YAA) flew 60 miles to get to the scene.

The 72-year-old said the crew had "played an utterly invaluable role in saving my life that day".

A retired electrical engineer, Mr Thompson, from Goathland, in the North York Moors, suffered a head injury and a lacerated wrist on the sharp cooker hood in the fall, which led to significant blood loss and damage to major blood vessels and tendons.

The substantial bleeding caused his blood pressure to drop to "a dangerously low level that posed a risk of shock and his vital signs were alarming", YAA said.

Paramedics treated the 72-year-old at the scene in Sleights

He was partially treated at his daughter's home before being flown to James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough, where he underwent emergency surgery on his wrist to repair the tendons in his hand.

Mr Thompson said: "I'm not one to be melodramatic, but with the amount of blood surrounding me, I could see my life slipping away right before my eyes. I knew I was in real jeopardy."

He said he was "immensely thankful" for the crew's "presence and expertise".

Mr Thompson said he had since decided to give up on DIY projects due to the loss of function in his right hand.

"I have so many DIY projects I want to finish around my home, but, for the first time in my life, I will have to entrust them to others, which is a source of deep sorrow for someone like me who has never relied on others for this type of work before."