Two year old Louis was being looked after by his grandparents.
Bounding about with endless energy, Louis started playing hide-and-seek and ran into one of the bedrooms as his Nan turned her back for just a moment.
Suddenly she heard a big bang and ran in to the room to find Louis lying on the carpet with a heavy wardrobe on top of him.
The toddler had somehow managed to pull the unit on to himself and was knocked unconscious.
South East Coast Ambulance Service (SECAmb) paramedics Chris Bosworth and Phillip Richardson, and Emergency Care Support Workers Ben Marlow and Tina West, were first on scene.
Chris said: “It was instantly obvious that Louis had a substantial head injury with the high likelihood that he had fractured his skull.
“He was bleeding from his left ear and had a substantial heamatoma around his left temple. I cut Louis’s clothes off to see if he had any other injuries which thankfully he did not. The Air Ambulance team arrived pretty soon after my assessment. I then handed over to them before helping with the treatment they provided.”
Air Ambulance doctors Malcolm Tunnicliff and Simon Wood, and critical care paramedics Jez Loseby and Richard Decoverly, gave Louis emergency treatment at the scene.
They put him in an induced coma to protect his airway and take control of his breathing in an effort to maintain the correct pressure in his brain – an advanced medical procedure usually performed only in hospital.
Air Ambulance Pilot Captain Kevin Goddard then flew Louis to the specialist neurological centre at King’s College Hospital, in just 25 minutes.
Scans confirmed that Louis had a fractured skull and a bleed on his brain. The fracture had actually helped save his life because it released the pressure on his brain.
Louis’ dad, Peter said: “It really was touch and go. Louis is such a bright, lively and cheeky boy so it was horrible to see him lying there with tubes coming out of him.”
Louis spent four days in intensive care before being moved to a high dependency ward.
He was transferred to Pembury Hospital a week later and despite doctors’ fears of lasting brain damage, he has since made a full recovery.
