Martin Smith, 87, was taken to the Alderney Mignot Memorial Hospital at about 10am on Sunday.
Mr Smith had a full knee replacement about three weeks ago and it was while he was doing his post-operation exercises on Sunday morning that he started experiencing chest pains.
He had a quadruple by-pass in 2002 and has a pacemaker. He also suffers from angina and thought it was this that was causing pain, but the fast-acting angina pain relief did not work.
‘He was in agony,’ said Mr Smith’s wife, Andree.
‘He told me to call the doctor, but they don’t do doctors’ visits here, so we had to get the ambulance.’
At the hospital it was found that Mr Smith had experienced a heart attack. Mrs Smith said she thought an attempt was made to fly Mr Smith over that day but it was not possible.
‘They arranged to fly him over on Monday morning, only to be told it might be in the afternoon,’ said Mrs Smith.
‘But it didn’t happen, so then they said Tuesday morning, but that didn’t happen either.’
It was then decided to have Mr Smith brought to Guernsey by sea.
With the St John Ambulance launch Flying Christine III currently undergoing engineering work, its role is being partly covered by Buz White using his boat Access Challenger. In bad weather the St Peter Port lifeboat is used.
Mr White said he was called at about 9.45am on Tuesday. He picked up two paramedic-trained nursing staff from the hospital to go with him to collect Mr Smith.
The boat was back in Guernsey with Mr Smith by mid-afternoon and he was taken to the PEH by ambulance.
Mrs Smith said the whole experience left her and her husband ‘gobsmacked’ because they understood that the island still had a dedicated medevac air service.
‘We thought it would be there when we needed it, but apparently it’s only when they can do it.’
Skybus is operating Alderney medevacs until Aurigny’s Twin Otter is equipped to carry them out. Skybus operates an Islander aircraft which has been approved by Guernsey’s Health & Social Care committee.
HSC director of operations Dermot Mullin said officers from the States worked closely with Aurigny to provide joint oversight of the contract and to support a reliable and resilient medevac service for Alderney residents.
‘We recognise how worrying any disruption can be for islanders, and we remain committed to ensuring that business‑continuity arrangements are as strong as possible to maintain continuity of care,’ he said.
‘We have been informed that the Skybus Islander aircraft was unfortunately unavailable on Sunday and Monday due to severe weather in the Isles of Scilly, which prevented it from operating safely. We understand the concern this can cause for those who depend on the service, and we want to reassure the community that contingency options, such as boat or helicopter transfers for emergency cases, are activated when needed to ensure urgent needs are met.
‘Work is also progressing to enable patient transfers using the Twin Otter aircraft, which will provide greater resilience in the future. Initial tests of the new loading process were successfully completed yesterday, and further testing and staff training will take place in Alderney tomorrow.’
Aurigny confirmed that stretcher lifts were now available in Alderney, Guernsey and Southampton to enable the safe transfer of patients onto the Twin Otter aircraft. They were trialled in Guernsey on Tuesday and will be in Alderney shortly. Once that is done the Twin Otter medevac services will be operational.
The airline also confirmed that weather conditions at Land’s End meant the medevac service was not available earlier this week.
The Islander will remain as a back-up medevac for the Twin Otter.