CREW members from Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance have been given an award for their efforts at a complex incident in which a man lost an arm.

The crew won the Special Incident award at the Air Ambulance Awards of Excellence ceremony.

The incident, in January 2012, saw the crew called to a grain silo in Stoke St Gregory where a man had his arm trapped in machinery more than 40ft in the air.

Pilot Max Hoskins, along with paramedics Greg Peacock and Steve Freeman, assessed the scene with Greg climbing up to assist the patient.

Max then flew the helicopter to Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton to collect a specialist team of emergency doctors to perform the amputation.

When the man was finally released after more than an hour in severe pain in a precarious position, the crew flew him to Musgrove for further treatment.

Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance spokesman Tracy Bartram said: “We were represented in three categories and winning the Special Incident Award means so much to the charity and the crew.

“We are thrilled the panel recognised the exceptional efforts of our team at the scene and the part they played in ensuring the patient was flown to the hospital which could best meet his needs.”

  • THE victim in this incident, who does not wish to be named, is understood to have made a good recovery.