Family's misfortunes featured on TV show

Emily Moffitt, her partner Ross, and their boys Oscar, 3, and two-year-old Oliver set out to enjoy two outdoor breaks.

However, both ended with a call to the Yotkshire Air Ambulance (YAA).

Emily’s camping disasters featured in Monday’s episode of Helicopter ER – the award-winning UKTV programme which follows the life-saving work of the YAA.

The first trip nearly ended in tragedy when the family’s gas stove exploded.

Emily said: “I was finishing cooking up breakfast when all of a sudden the stove went pop and there were flames.

“I was sat on a camping chair and the boys were next to me and I instinctively stood up and turned to protect them.

“I got them over the windbreak to safety and then realized that my legs were on fire and dropped to the ground.

“I think with all the adrenalin I didn’t initially realise how bad it was but then when I tried to move away my jeans were stuck to my legs.

“The pain was just terrible.

“An off-duty nurse who was there cut my jeans off and wrapped my legs in cling film and soaked them with a hosepipe until the air ambulance arrived.

“Everyone at the campsite was amazing and I can’t thank them enough.”

YAA paramedics applied special burn shields to her legs before Emily was taken by road to hospital in Harrogate.

She had intensive treatment in the burns unit for flash burns to her legs and right hand but thankfully did not require skin grafts.

After recovering from that ordeal the family decided to give camping another try and last summer went away for a weekend to a campsite near Ampleforth.

Emily, from Acklam, Middlesbrough, said: “We took a hot plate instead of a gas stove and everything was going well until Oliver became ill.

“He was on his Dad’s knee when he suddenly vomited and went floppy.

“He wasn’t responding to us and his eyes rolled to the back of his head. It was just the worst experience of my life, so frightening.

“There was no phone signal so his Dad ran with him to the main park reception who dialed 999 and the Air Ambulance arrived to us again.

“The Air Ambulance got to us a full 15 minutes before the road ambulance and we are just so very grateful to them.

“It’s just the peace of mind knowing that if you need them they are there – although we’re not planning any more camping trips.”

Thankfully by the time the air crew arrived little Oliver was starting to recover from his fit – a febrile convulsion brought on by tonsillitis – and he was taken by road to hospital in York.