Biker reunited with doctor who gave him roadside blood transfusion to save his life

Dale Campling was riding his bike on the B6480, between Giggleswick and Settle, when he was involved in a crash with a car in August 2023.

The 32-year-old was helped by a passerby who spotted his neck was bleeding and called for an ambulance.

Yorkshire Ambulance Service and Yorkshire Air Ambulance both attended the scene, but requested assistance from Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS) as they had a doctor on shift.

The critical care team from GNAAS spent more than an hour helping Dale, from Bradford, at the scene, which included giving him a life-saving bloof transfusion and putting him into a medically-induced coma, before he was flown to Leeds General Infirmary.

It was two-and-a-half weeks until he woke from the coma, and says while he cannot remember what happened, the actions of the passerby and the medical team on the roadside saved his life.

He said: “There was a gentleman who was going to the Lake District for the day and he was passing by. He came to the scene and saw I was losing a lot of blood out of my neck and called for an ambulance. He took his jumper off and held it against my neck to stop the bleeding.”

Dale’s mother Helen Campling, added: “The officer from Yorkshire Police and paramedics have said that if he hadn’t done that, the outcome could have been a lot different, and he did an absolutely brilliant job.”

Dale added: “I’d had multiple surgeries and when I woke up in ICU there were tubes everywhere, and I was thinking, what is going on?

“For me I was only just finding out what had happened, while everyone else I knew I had been dealing with the aftermath for two and a half weeks. Visibly I only had a broken arm and neck lacerations, but I had a lot of internal injuries.

“I was on a breathing tube which was changed to a tracheostomy, I had a lacerated inferior vena cava, which is a large vein in the abdomen, lacerated liver, shattered spleen and a lacerated kidney, and I’m still under various departments for medical tests and operations.”

Helen said: “He’s got a lot of fatigue and can’t go back to work yet, but from where he was to where he is now is just amazing. Everybody involved in his care from start to finish has been great.”

More than a year since Dale’s incident, he visited GNAAS’ base with his family and was reunited with the doctor who treated him on scene and accompanied him to hospital.

He said: “Meeting Philip was great. I really appreciated the time he spent talking and answering questions about my accident, showing us the helicopter and all the equipment on board. I can't thank Dr Philip, paramedic Ian and pilot JJ enough, and thank you to everyone at GNAAS for all the amazing work they do.”

Philip added: “It was fantastic to meet Dale and see how he’s doing. It’s rare that I get to see my patients again after they’ve been taken to hospital, so it was lovely to meet him under better circumstances and see the positive impact we’ve had on his life.”