Our very own Ashley Stowell, HATS Group Clinical Director who when driving home on the motorway recently, encountered a serious three vehicle Road Traffic Accident (RTA), with a car having been crushed between two lorries. Ashley immediately left his own vehicle and ran between the traffic to reach the scene of the accident to take stock of the situation and provide emergency medical support.
Once on the scene, Ashley found that the car was severely damaged and as a result, the driver of the car was both unresponsive and trapped, with life threatening injuries – including a crushed pelvis, crushed chest, deflated lungs, and facial injuries.
Without thinking, Ashley reattached the drivers face which had been severely lacerated. The driver’s breathing also stopped soon after Ashley arrived, so he performed CPR chest compressions in his endeavour to keep the driver alive.
Whilst these actions alone scaled remarkable levels of heroism, what made Ashley’s actions even more impressive, is that without any due concern for his own welfare, Ashley conducted all of this whilst stood in neat fuel, which was now puddling dangerously: he also had to contend with a number of idiotic drivers of other cars trying to squeeze past on the small area of the outside lane which remained unblocked. Finally, to cap everything off, when the Emergency Services arrived, the car engine of one of the vehicles involved in the accident caught fire, which Ashley used his personal fire extinguisher to extinguish.
Immediately following the incident, Ashley received correspondence from the Chief Superintendent of the Police Operational Command which concluded “I would like to express my sincere gratitude to you, as your decisive actions and swift decisions undoubtedly saved Mr X’s life”.
It was only following an additional medical led enquiry into the incident, that we have become aware of the true extent of Ashley’s actions on that fateful day and as a result, last week Ashley received a phone call informing him that he has been awarded a Commendation Medal and Award of Bravery. For those not aware, this is an award issued on behalf of the Queen and which is granted “for bravery entailing risk to life and meriting national recognition”.
Ashley will be presented with his award during a formal ceremony in July, but for now I’m sure that everyone across HATS we are delighted that we have Ashley within our ranks and we are all extremely proud of his actions saving another person’s life that day.
Many, many congratulations from all of your colleagues at HATS Ashley!
