‘I thought we lost him’: Man recalls moment an air ambulance saved his two-year-old son’s life

A father has told how the North West Air Ambulance crew saved his two-year-old son's life after he was struck by a car and sustained life-threatening injuries.

Rob Baron's two-year-old son (now four), Henry, endured horrific injuries when his head went under the wheel of a car on Cowm Park Way, in Whitworth, while out on a walk with his mum and aunt on 20 October 2021. He suffered from multiple facial and skull fractures, chest and lung injuries, internal bleeding and a lacerated spleen.

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Henry’s aunt Beth described the horror that unfolded, she said: “Me, Henry and his mum Alex went for a walk at teatime. He was walking between us and just playing. He suddenly took a tumble onto the road as a car was coming past and his head went under the wheel.

“My gut feeling was that he was dead. His mum Alex picked him up and she was screaming.”

Rob, a senior school nurse in Rochdale, picked up the story when he arrived at the scene. He said: “When Alex explained to me what had happened my heart just sank, and I thought we had lost him.”

Air ambulance paramedics raced to the scene, performing a blood transfusion and minor chest surgery, where he was taken directly to the nearest children’s major trauma centre.

Dr Ed Dennison Davies, part of the North West Air Ambulance Charity team who delivers enhanced pre-hospital care at the roadside, said: “When we arrived Henry was already in the ambulance.

He had significant head injuries. There was blood in his airways, and he wasn’t responsive.

“He immediately needed emergency anaesthetic and we had to give him a blood transfusion to ensure his blood pressure and heart rate were