PARAMEDICS believe their new specialist team trained to work in the most dangerous situations have proven they will save more lives.

In a recent incident, South Central Ambulance’s Hazardous Area Response Team (Hart) was able to treat a worker while he was trapped in a South Oxfordshire grain silo, rather than wait for him to be freed by firefighters.

The Oxford Mail reported last month how emergency services were called to Winterbrook Farm, Blewbury, on January 11, to rescue a man was started sinking inside a grain silo as he emptied it for cleaning.

Now the ambulance service has revealed the Hart team was able to start work on the man as firefighters fought to free him. Previously paramedics would have waited until he was removed from the silo.

Hart manager Paul Haly, who attended the incident with five other ambulance staff, said: “Previously we would not have had the training or specialist knowledge and skills to work in that sort of environment.

“At the silo, we were able to conduct a rapid assessment of any injuries. We worked together with firefighters for the first time in the county.

“The fact that we can now work alongside other emergency services to provide a medical assessment in these situations could, potentially, save lives.”

Hart’s body camera was also used, allowing patient assessment by a doctor specialising in emergency medicine.

South Central Ambulance spokesman James Keating-Wilkes admitted the operation saved the man’s life.

He said: “He was quickly buried, almost to his chin, before the grain was stopped.

“Oxfordshire firefighters stabilised the sinking man, allowing their specialist rescue team and Hart paramedics Daryl Toogood and Marcus Lawrence, wearing personal safety equipment, to climb into the silo to reach the man and start clinical treatment.

“With difficulty breathing and pain in his legs due to the weight of the grain, the patient was assessed, treated and monitored over the next hour while firefighters dug away the barley and cut an exit in the side of the silo.”

Once out of the silo, the patient was laid flat on a stretcher and taken to the waiting ambulance before being taken to the John Radcliffe Hospital, in Oxford.

Watch manager John Walker, who is based at Didcot fire station, said: “The Hart team were training in the area at the time so they responded very quickly.

“We made it safe for them to assess the casualty while we carried out the physical rescue.”