![\"Tom](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/0_Tom-and-Jill-Hadden.jpg\")
Tom Hadden with his daughter Jill<\/p>\n\u201cMy story could have ended very differently\u201dTom Hadden with his daughter Jill<\/p>\n
This Christmas as he puts up decorations with his family, Co Tyrone<\/a> man Tom Hadden is reminiscing exactly eight years after a life-changing road traffic collision that left him with catastrophic leg injuries.<\/p>\n Tom from Dungannon<\/a> was at work driving the bin lorry for Mid Ulster District Council. the same as he\u2019d done for 35 years. But on November 9 2017 his everyday routine was turned upside down when while driving his bin lorry down a country road, another truck collided with his vehicle.<\/p>\n Accompanied by his colleague, Nigel, the pair had completed their round and were on the return trip when they noticed a lorry coming in the other direction at high speed.<\/p>\n READ MORE: ‘Listen to your body’: Mum-of-two’s warning to others after shock pancreatic cancer diagnosis<\/a>READ MORE: ‘I had to learn how to walk again after frightening MRSA fight’<\/a><\/p>\n After the impact, all Tom, 58, remembers is Nigel getting out of the lorry and calling for help, which arrived in minutes. Nigel also called Tom\u2019s wife Carol who recalls hearing Tom\u2019s screams of pain in the background and she immediately rushed to his side.<\/p>\n When the Helicopter Emergency Medical Service arrived, Tom was in a great deal of pain as he had sustained a multiple crushing injury to his right leg so they worked to help ease this by providing sedation and advanced pain management for extraction.<\/p>\n Once free from the vehicle, he was then flown by the air ambulance to Craigavon Area Hospital<\/a> and rushed into surgery. He needed a number of serious surgeries on his leg and admits he feared the worst. thinking that he wouldn\u2019t walk again.<\/p>\n Tom added: \u201cWithout the Air Ambulance <\/a>and early intervention from the medical team it could have been a very different ending for me. I\u2019m deeply grateful to the Air Ambulance \u2014 the swift intervention from the medical team quite literally changed the course of my life.<\/p>\n \u201cI also want to honour the dedication of every medical professional who has helped me along the way. Without their combined care, my story could have ended very differently.\u201d<\/p>\n As the festive season approaches and families across Northern Ireland <\/a>like Tom’s prepare to celebrate, Air Ambulance NI is making an urgent appeal to the public: help keep this vital service flying this Christmas<\/a> and beyond.<\/p>\n While many of us enjoy the holidays, the Air Ambulance will remain operational every single day \u2014 ready to respond when tragedy strikes. The service expects to be tasked over 60 times this December alone, delivering pre-hospital critical care at the scene of serious incidents across our province.<\/p>\n The HEMS is called out twice a day on average, bringing a consultant and paramedic directly to those who are critically ill or injured. Flying at 180mph, they provide emergency treatment that often means the difference between life and death.<\/p>\n Kerry Anderson, Head of Fundraising at Air Ambulance NI, said: \u201cThis is a critical service that never stops. The Air Ambulance delivers advanced care directly to the patient, whether that\u2019s at the roadside, rural area or the heart of Belfast City Centre<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThis advanced pre-hospital care saves the lives, brains, and limbs of people in our communities and families. But it\u2019s not only the medical crew who save lives \u2014 it\u2019s people like you who make it possible. Every donation, every fundraiser, every act of support keeps our helicopter in the air for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n Be is your home for all things lifestyle – from health and beauty, to work life and parenting, careers and cooking to fashion and features, and everything in between.<\/p>\n So to make sure you don’t miss out on the things that matter to you, we’ve created a brand-new newsletter pulling the best of Be’s content together twice a week.<\/p>\n To sign up, simply enter your email address here<\/a> and we’ll do the rest.<\/p>\n For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage<\/strong> here<\/a> and sign up to our Be lifestyle newsletter<\/a> for all the latest showbiz, fashion, beauty, family features and more.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cMy story could have ended very differently\u201dTom Hadden with his daughter Jill This Christmas as he puts up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":590020,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[33444,83309,35745,80196,146750,84431,390,1144,455,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-590019","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-air-ambulance","9":"tag-belfast-city-centre","10":"tag-christmas","11":"tag-co-tyrone","12":"tag-craigavon-area-hospital","13":"tag-dungannon","14":"tag-family","15":"tag-northern-ireland","16":"tag-real-life","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115602635058330068","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=590019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/590020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/0_IMG_2931.jpg\")
The Air Ambulance being tasked to a critical call(Image: Stock image )<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/0_MISS-NIJPG.jpg\")
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