King Edward VII’s Hospital – There for Veterans in their time of need
Everyone at the Centre for Veterans’ Health, feels honoured to be this year’s Civvy Street Magazine lead charity for the Armed Forces Day commemorative edition. Through this opportunity, we aim to spread awareness of our charity far and wide, ensuring that every Veteran and their family knows that they can turn to us in their time of need.
Jamie’s Story
King Edward VII’s Hospital was proud to help support SAS (Reserve) Veteran, Jamie Hull, after he recently broke his arm, but this is only a small part of Jamie’s incredible journey.
From force to Forces
It all started at the freshers’ fair at university. Jamie had been in the police but returned to university aged 25. Before he knew it, Jamie was on a weekend of selection for the Cambridge University Officer Training Corps. And he loved it. Jamie, still a part-time student, trained for a year, including the Parachute Regiment training course, which he passed alongside full-time Soldiers. This took him on to the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst to become a Second Lieutenant. He then received a recommendation for the UK Special Forces, travelling the world with the 21 SAS (Reserve), from the Arctic to the mountains and the jungle. “But I was still only soldiering on the side,” explains Jamie. “I considered doing it full-time, but I also had another ambition…”
Learning to fly
“My grandfather trained as a pilot at the end of the Second World War. As a young child, he would tell me stories about flying and he would take us to Luton Airport to go plane spotting.
I thought, one day, I’d like to do this myself. I want to fly.” And so, in his early 30s, Jamie decided to go to flight school.
Fire in the sky
After a month, Jamie had become a pilot in command (PIC) – able to pilot a light aircraft solo.
“I was keen to get my flight hours up,” says Jamie. “I’d just had lunch, got my permissions, checked the radar and was ready to head up.”
Jamie hadn’t been in the air long when he noticed that the engine was on fire. This was no drill. He had to get this aircraft down. Jamie steered in and out of the wind as he returned to approach the runway, but, as he turned into the wind and saw the runway, he could see that the fire had breached the cockpit. “I looked down and I could see the fire building up around my feet and ankles.”
He descended quickly as the fire only grew within the small two-seater cockpit. At 500 feet up, the fire was lapping his midriff. Jamie knew he wouldn’t make it back down to the runway in order to exit the cockpit so made a quick decision to ‘ditch’; bring the plane down low to a grassy area and once the plane is low enough climb out onto the wing of the plane and make a jump.
At 100 feet above the ground, flames lapping his chest, Jamie removed his headset, unbuckled his harness, and opened the left-hand canopy door. 60 feet, 50 feet… “The flames were now lapping my face. I’m hyperventilating and breathing out of the side of my mouth in an effort to protect my airway. I closed my right eye to protect it, but needed my left eye to see where I was going.
At about 15 feet, I was doing about 30 knots. I’m out of the cockpit but now I’m still being lashed by the flames that are coming off the propeller. I kept my eyes on the horizon and I leapt.”
Jamie’s injuries were extensive and profound. As well as many broken bones and lacerations, Jamie had also suffered 63% third and fourth-degree burns – “the latter being when the burns are down to the bone. My shins bore the brunt of that – spending the longest time in the flames before I was able to get out of the fire.” Jamie had a five percent probability of survival.
Rescue operation
Emergency services quickly arrived on the scene and Jamie was airlifted to a nearby hospital. Clinicians quickly put Jamie into a medically induced coma where he remained for six months while surgeons operated, and his body started to heal. Overall, Jamie was an in-patient for two years. Over the course of the following seven years, he had 64 surgeries under general anaesthesia.
Another knock
16 years later, in March of 2023, Jamie was skiing in Norway. “I was involved in a freak incident and had a high-speed fall in which I broke my humerus – and it was a nasty break.”
The NHS was still reeling from Covid19 and the waiting list for treatment was long. “I was out of action, and it was tough on me. it was depressing and I was struggling,” says Jamie.
Centre for Veterans’ Health
After a few months, the SAS Regimental Association helped Jamie contact a surgeon, Mr Peter Riley at King Edward VII’s Hospital. Peter spoke with Jamie and examined him before recommending a titanium plate.
Mr Riley told Jamie about the Centre for Veterans’ Health at King Edward VII’s Hospital, explaining that he could apply for financial help and that he would support his claim. Jamie applied and the panel quickly came back to him to inform him that the Centre for Veterans’ Health would provide 100% of the costs.
“I was amazed. It meant the world to me.”
Jamie came in for surgery on 13 July 2023. The surgery was a success, Jamie was discharged and within five days he was up to his old tricks, this time doing the International Four Days Marches Nijmegen in the Netherlands.
“The speed with which it all happened was remarkable. From application to surgery and discharge was about five weeks. And it was a big surgery. It was a bespoke piece of titanium and eight screws; state of the art. It was incredible.
I am very grateful to King Edward VII’s Hospital for all the great work they do for Veterans like me. After my accident in Florida, I had built a very active life and my skiing accident stopped all of that. I had lost my confidence, I was broken and depressed but through genuinely world-class surgery, care and financial support, King Edward VII’s has made me the double comeback kid.”
King Edward VII’s Hospital and the Centre for Veterans’ Health are both proud to help Jamie and Veterans like him, and are humbled every day by their tenacity, stoicism and strength of spirit.
For further information tel: 020 3918 6478
King Edward VII’s Hospital, 5-10 Beaumont Street, Marylebone, London, W1G 6AA
