Security and defence editor Deborah Haynes has written an account of the incident, which she said started when she felt queasy on the ferry over to the island.
After thinking this might just be sea sickness and going for a swim, she vomited on leaving the water and took to bed when she returned to the hotel.
The next thought was food poisoning, but a day later, although she was no longer vomiting, she said she felt ‘increasingly wretched’ and started to think it might be a recurrence of aHUS – a rare disease she first experienced in 2017.
Atypical Haemolytic Uremic Syndrome affects the immune system and destroys blood cells as well as damaging vital bodily functions.
In Mrs Haynes’ case, her kidneys were later found to be failing.
Sark has about a dozen community first responders and first on the scene was Harald Rauser, who said that when he arrived to find Mrs Haynes in a room at Stock’s Hotel she looked very pale and unwell.
By that time Sark doctor Bruce Jenkins had alerted the island’s ambulance service. He had been called by Mrs Haynes’ husband and then carried out a urine test which raised sufficient concern for him to tell the visiting couple to pack their bags while he arranged for an emergency evacuation to Guernsey via the Flying Christine III ambulance launch.
‘He saved the life of that patient,’ said Mr Rauser. ‘He made the right call at the right time.’
Mrs Haynes described the efforts of Dr Jenkins, the volunteers and the medics at University College Hospital in London as ‘heroic’.
By the time she was taken from the hotel Mrs Haynes had already contacted the hospital to tell them she suspected an aHUS relapse.
‘This quick response by the NHS and a network of volunteers meant I was taken from my sickbed in Sark to life-saving treatment in London in barely 11 hours,’ she said.
She spent nearly two weeks in hospital, including one in intensive care.
She shared her story as part of aHUS Awareness Day yesterday and appeared on Sky News to talk about her experience.
Mr Rauser said the speedy response in Sark highlighted how well different voluntary groups work together in such a small community: ‘Our heartfelt thanks go to Deborah Haynes for sharing her powerful story, which shines a light on the challenges and triumphs of emergency response in such an isolated setting,’ he said.
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