Your support means we’ve now responded to 18,000 emergency mission since our first flight in 2007.
The past 12 months
In 2023 we were dispatched to 1,842 missions (up 28 on the year prior) – our busiest year since before the Coronavirus pandemic (2019).
December had the most call-outs (187) for the second year running, in a year in which the majority of incidents involved cardiac arrest, road traffic collisions and medical emergencies, such as seizures.
Other cases included falls from height, assaults and sporting incidents.
Our aircraft was airborne for 585 hours and our emergency response vehicles collectively covered 49,879 miles.
Patients from across the region were taken to hospitals including University Hospital Southampton, Portsmouth’s Queen Alexandra Hospital, Isle of Wight’s St. Mary’s Hospital and Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital – they even ventured as far as Morriston Hospital, Wales.
A life saved
Behind each take off and critical mission lies a patient, their friends and family.
Meet Louis, a 19-year-old from Southampton who sustained a series of devastating injuries when he came off his motorbike and hurtled through a barbed wire fence near Chandler’s Ford in June 2023.
Louis had broken his femur and sustained a traumatic brain injury – time critical injuries. The wired fence had also ripped off the skin and muscle from above his knee down to his lower calf, exposing his blood vessels and nerves.
Louis was unstable and had lost a lot of blood. Our doctor, pilot and paramedic team flew from our airbase in Thruxton, Andover. Upon arrival they sedated Louis and gave him an urgent blood transfusion.
Louis’ mum, Claire, who raised almost £800 at Dash in the Dark, said:
“The police called me at 6pm. I was hysterical. It’s the phone call no parent wants. I’ve donated regularly to Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance for many years but felt I needed to do something more, just to say thank you.”
It’s your support that fuels each flight – every day and every night.
Thank you for being there for us and the patients who desperately need our help.
Our CEO, Richard Corbett, said:
“The patients we have treated in the last year and, indeed, the years before it, have potentially had their lives turned upside down as a result of their illness or injury.
“It is only thanks to our incredible supporters who help us raise millions of pounds each year that we are able to play a part in the treatment and recovery of those who need us most.”
