A farmer who was flown to hospital after having his arm ripped off in a farm accident is urging people to support the UK's air ambulance services.
Jim Chapman of Long Itchington, Warwickshire was taken to hospital by air following a severe accident more than a decade ago.
The farmer was only 23-years-old when the accident happened on a farm at Brinklow Quarry near Rugby.
He was asked to empty water from underground storage tanks using a tractor and vacuum tanker.
When no water was being sucked up he left the tractor engine running, got down from the cab and went to check the machinery.
The fluorescent safety vest he was wearing got caught and in a split second it was wrapped around a rotating shaft.
He was flung from where he had been standing. The shaft ripped his shirt, jumper and his left arm completely off.
Following the accident, Jim has never forgotten how he felt when he knew an air ambulance was coming to the rescue.
“It was the best sound I have ever heard in my life. I knew that help was on the way and the situation I found myself in was going to be sorted out. I was immediately put at ease by the kindness of the crew and the care I got was fantastic,” he said.
Air Ambulance Week
Jim, now 36-years-old, is using his experience with air ambulances to urge people to support Air Ambulance Week from September 8th to 16th.
The fundraising initiative is crucial to the continued existence of charities like Warwickshire & Northamptonshire Air Ambulance (WNAA), which receives no government funding. Each lifesaving mission they fly costs £1,700.
It took just 10 minutes to fly Jim to hospital and on arrival he was taken straight into the operating theatre.
Unfortunately, the surgeons couldn’t save his arm and Jim had to come to terms with facing the rest of his life with a prosthetic limb.
The accident proved to be life changing in more ways than one for Jim, who went on to become an ambassador for the Farm Safety Foundation, National Chairman of the National Federation of Young Farmers’ Clubs and was awarded the MBE for services to farm safety in 2012.
'Vividly remember'
Nowadays, alongside running his farm, Jim gives safety talks to the farming community around the UK.
“I relive my accident and the part the air ambulance played in it about 10 times a year. I still vividly remember the noise of the helicopter when it came in to land and even now when it flies over I am immediately taken back to that day,” he says.
Talking about his accident is a powerful way of conveying the importance of farm safety and Jim doesn’t shy away from describing the experience in graphic detail.
He is also keen to promote the vital part the air ambulance played in rescuing him and the speed at which the helicopter got him to the lifesaving medical treatment he needed.
