Rob Horne

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Type of incident – road traffic collision

Date of incident – 22/10/2007

Time – 1.15pm

Location – Fleet, Surrey/Hampshire border

Rob Horne was driving, with two friends as passengers, when he suffered a very serious crash. The exact cause of the accident is still unclear, but Rob remembers the car sliding out towards the middle of the road as he went round a corner. Following Rob was another car with his friends in, and they recall watching the car flip 8ft in the air. Rob’s car ended up smashing into trees, with the car landing on the drivers side.

When Rob’s friends in the other car got to them, they found all three unconscious. Gradually, Rob’s two passengers’ regained consciousness, but Rob did not and his friends were concerned that his breathing was laboured and he was losing a lot of blood.

The emergency services were called, but Rob was pronounced dead at the scene by the land ambulance crew. By this time, the Surrey Air Ambulance had arrived, and Dr Zane Perkins insisted that the air ambulance crew be given an opportunity to operate on Rob. They were able to extricate Rob from his car and discovered that both his lungs had failed. The air ambulance crew performed surgery on Rob at the side of the road, and were able to inflate his lungs and re-start his heart. The crew believe they had to resuscitate Rob 12/15 times and as they took off were not sure whether they were carrying an organ donor or a patient.

Rob was taken to the Royal London Hospital and straight into casualty. Rob remained in ITU (Intensive Therapy Unit) on life support for six days and then in a coma for a further six weeks. As his consciousness improved, his serious brain injury meant he had to re-learn many simple things like eating and walking. His short term amnesia was extensive, from about two weeks before the crash and a total of about eight weeks afterward

From Royal London, Rob was transferred to Frimley Park and then onto The Wellington, a neurological hospital, in St Johns Wood. It was here that Rob started rehabilitation including speech and language, physio and occupational therapy. From The Wellington, Rob moved to Banstead Queen Elizabeth Brain Injury Clinic where he was to remain for 3 months. At Banstead, Rob was in constant rehabilitation, with the eventual aim of returning him to a position where he could resume his previous life.

On 25 April 2008, Rob returned home, an experience he describes as ‘amazing’, but which he found strange at first. Rob’s mother, Kim, feels that although there are slight differences in Rob’s character, he is still the same person he was before the accident. As Rob says: ‘I can’t thank Surrey Air Ambulance enough. Its very difficult to thank people for saving your life and as much as we’ll try to raise money for the service, you can’t measure what they do’. Kim added ’they gave us our son back and we cannot thank them enough. Without their efforts at the crash scene, we would have lost Rob.’