Mercy dash saves Loch Ness tourist
Highland News: by Jenna MacCulloch 28/07/11

A LOCAL man has been hailed a hero after a mercy dash saved the life of a French holidaymaker who had received a potentially deadly mosquito bite.

Ron Blanchard (60) rushed a lifeless Gilbert Kohler (65), who was stranded in Drumnadrochit, to Raigmore Hospital where an A&E doctor said he only had an hour to live.

The drama unfolded when Mr Kohler, of Paris, woke up with a fever whilst he was on a sailing boat holiday on Loch Ness, accompanied by his wife Dominique (63) and a group of close friends.

Mr Kohler, who is still recovering, told the HN: "One night I scratched a mosquito bite on my arm. It bled a little bit. A week later I was on holiday and I woke up on the boat with a strong fever and my arm badly swollen during the night. In two hours time the situation became really serious.

"One of our friends is a doctor and when he saw my arm he decided right away to dock the boat in Drumnadrochit in order to find a way to reach a hospital as quickly as possible."

Luckily for Mr Kohler, Mr Blanchard of Muir of Ord, who is a builder, was working on a conservatory at Temple Pier, Drumnadrochit, on June 20 when he became aware of the emergency.

He said: "We were having our tea when this French lady came running up the road and she was asking for help. She said 'do you know of a taxi, I have to get my husband to hospital?'"

Mr Blanchard took Dominique Kohler back to her husband, who was waiting nearby with a group of friends, where they had docked their boat.

He said: "She was asking me to phone a taxi. One firm said there wasn't a taxi available and another firm said a taxi was going to be an hour.

"The bloke really didn't look well, he was very grey. There was a doctor within the group of people Gilbert and his wife Dominique were sailing with and he said Gilbert needed to go now, and it would take too long to sail to Inverness and get a taxi from there."

Mr Blanchard told the group he would drive the stricken French man to hospital himself.

He said: "I just told them to get in the van. The man was grey looking and I just thought, this man has to get to hospital, so I drove them there myself."

But because Mr Blanchard was in such a rush to get Mr Kohler to hospital, he parked in Accident and Emergency, reserved for ambulances at Raigmore Hospital.

He said: "I went into hospital and the doctor said he probably only would have had roughly an hour to live if he hadn't been brought to the hospital for treatment. His arm was very swollen and the poor man looked very sick.

"Gilbert's wife kept asking me if I wanted money, and I was telling her of course I didn't. Because of where I parked I had to leave but I managed to take a note of their home phone number in France."

He said a few weeks later he managed to ring the family in Paris. "I spoke to Gilbert's wife. She was very emotional and told me that Gilbert was in hospital still, but that he was alive and doing okay.

"I just hope if I was on holiday and me, or god forbid one of my family, were ill, somebody would do the same for us. You can only do the best you can and this was the right thing to do."

Mr Kohler, who spent 10 days in Raigmore Hospital and a further three weeks in a hospital in Paris, said without a doubt Mr Blanchard saved his life.

He said: "I would like to thank from the bottom of my heart the man who saved my life that day. Ron Blanchard. He did not hesitate a second and drove us directly to Inverness and Raigmore Hospital."

He added: "It appeared I had caught a bad bacteria in my arm which was killing me quickly. When I came into Raigmore, doctors said I had a matter of hours. One month later I am alive! And I have one bit of advice, if you bleed even a little bit when you have been bitten, always disinfect right away."

The Frenchman also praised the efforts of the doctors and nurses who battled to save him.

He said: "I would like to testify the extraordinary effectiveness of Raigmore Hospital. The devotion and kindness of the nurses, as the quality of the care contributed to it."

Dominique said: "My husband didn't realise that he was so ill because the fever was too strong and he was very weak. Ron Blanchard drove not too fast because he said to me that the road is dangerous and there was also police by the road.

"But he was very concerned for us and spoke to me so gently, this is something that I noted, he was sincerely anxious for us."

She told the HN she was very glad to speak to Mr Blanchard on the phone after the incident.

She said: "We were very happy to tell "thank you". We will so happy if he'll come with his wife to Paris!"

Una Lyon, who is lead nurse for Raigmore Hospital, said: "We are delighted that his care and exper-ience of Raigmore Hospital and the Scottish healthcare system was so positive."

Ron Blanchard, who saved the life of French tourist Gilbert Kohler whisking him off to Raigmore Hospital. Picture: Katy Sutherland.

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