Man reunites with Great North Air Ambulance Service paramedic

Charlie Hird, 64, from Alston, was on a group walk near Hallbankgate when he was injured after trying to help a couple being attacked by a cow.

He said: “The cow was going berserk. I thought somebody’s going to die.

Charles Hird and paramedic Lee Salmon (Image: Great North Air Ambulance Service)

“So I intervened to try and draw the cow off, and in doing so I stepped back into a gutter and the cow followed me, stumbled and fell on top of me.

“The cow stood up and that's when the cow stood on my femur. At the same time she also brought one of her legs forward and clipped my head, giving me a big gash down the side of my head.

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“I tried to stand up, and as soon as I did, I realised my leg was broken because I came crashing back down to the ground again.”

Carole Grahame, Charles Hird, Trisha Davies, and Tigger, the ladies who helped Charles on the walk (Image: Great North Air Ambulance Service)

Charlie managed to crawl away and was spotted by his fellow walkers, who called 999.

“I heard the helicopter and that was quite an amazing thing. It's just a beautiful feeling to hear the helicopter coming because you know it's help. I can't put into words how I felt about that.”

The Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS) and the North West Ambulance Service arrived to help.

Great North Air Ambulance Service helicopter at Hallbankgate (Image: Great North Air Ambulance Service)

He said: “After they started to work on my leg, they tried to take my boot off, that made me scream for the first time.

“So the doctor from GNAAS said, ‘I'm just going to give you a load of ketamine’, which knocked me out and they worked on my leg and got me onto the helicopter."

After arriving at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle, Mr Hird was given a 50/50 chance of losing his leg.

GNAAS helicopter at Hallbankgate (Image: Great North Air Ambulance Service)

Mr Hird spent more than two weeks hospitalised, before beginning a long period of physiotherapy to help him walk again.

A year later, Mr Hird reunited with paramedic Lee Salmon who treated him.

Mr Salmon, head of operations in Cumbria for GNAAS, said: “His actions that day may well have saved a life as he bravely intervened, to his personal detriment.

“Every year we attend a significant number of incidents involving cows with calves at foot, and it’s often so serious that there is little we can do."