Friday, April 16, 2010

** Former Colorado EMT credited with saving family of four from drowning

** Several UK air ambulances grounded due to ash from Iceland’s volcanic explosion

UNITED STATES NEWS

** A former Colorado EMT is being credited with saving the life of a Utah family, after he rescued them from drowning in the Colorado River last Friday. 9News (Jeffrey Wolf/April 14) said Ken Gross took to the water after watching the Broadbent family topple into the waves when their raft overturned. According to the newspaper, Gross pulled all four to safety, including a toddler and 11-month-old who had gone underwater for several seconds. Suffering from hypothermia and exhaustion, the family was transported to hospital in Moab where they were treated and released. Gross, meanwhile, who does not have health insurance, was also taken to the facility and treated for free.

UNITED KINGDOM NEWS

** Fallout from the eruption of a volcano in Iceland is being felt in Britain’s air ambulance community, with several services having to ground flights as a result of the circulating ash. The BBC (April 15) said the East Midlands Air Ambulance Service, which runs up to five times a day, has been relying instead on a rapid response vehicle to cover its 2,100 square mile area in Derbyshire, Leicestershire, and Rutland;the region has  a population of 1.4 million people. West Midlands, Thames Valley, Chiltern, Buckinghamshire, and Warwickshire services are some of the other organizations similarly impacted.