UPDATED: LIFE-THREATENING EMERGENCY IN SANDOWN SEES AIR AMBULANCE SCRAMBLED

The Hampshire & Isle of Wight Air Ambulance has been scrambled to Sandown this morning (Thursday) where medics are treating a patient with a life-threatening medical emergency. Having made the short trip from Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth, the helicopter touched down at the rugby club ground off Station Approach at just before 10:40. On the ground, blue-light colleagues from the Isle of Wight Ambulance Service have been joined by the flying doctors in treating a patient. A Critical Care Paramedic and 2 ambulance crews are currently present in the car park of the rugby club although the incident is understood to have occurred elsewhere in the local area. UPDATE @ 11:10 – The air ambulance has taken off from Sandown without conveying the patient and is now returning to base at Thruxton, near Andover. The incident is drawing to a close with the critical care paramedic redeployed to another emergency.