Family's gratitude for air ambulance one year after accident

Sep 10 2010 by Rob Pattinson, The Journal

GRINNING as she leaps into her father’s outstretched arms, Nikita Battye has marked the anniversary of the freak accident that left her fighting for life.

The five-year-old had to be airlifted to hospital after she was kicked in the head by a horse close to her home in the remote village of Butterknowle, near Bishop Auckland, County Durham.

Only the quick-thinking of a Great North Air Ambulance Service doctor saved her life as she was treated on the living room floor.

Last night Nikita’s parents said they would be forever grateful to the air rescue team and medics at James Cook University Hospital, Teesside, who gave them their daughter back.

Father John, 46, a community garden manager said: “It still terrifies me thinking about it, it was such a horrible experience. It’s something I never want to have to go through again.

“Nikita is fine now, she’s back to normal singing away in the garden, playing.

“We’ll always be so grateful to all of the medical staff, but it’s my firm belief she’s alive today because of the air ambulance. If they hadn’t got a doctor here I don’t think she would have survived.”