Divine intervention as Magpas air ambulance aids former vicar after fall on tennis court
A retired vicar who collapsed on a tennis court during a game and dislocated his replacement hip has given thanks to emergency services, club members and God following his ordeal.
Stewart Taylor, 73, was playing a doubles match at Cambridge Lawn Tennis Club when his fall left him in excruciating pain.
He said: “I was playing doubles, I was leaning slightly when I hit the ball – it would have been a forehand winner – and I slipped. My replacement hip came out and I could feel this excruciating pain. I thought ‘Oh no, what’s going to happen now?’
“I was lying on the court and the people around me asked what was wrong.They got Ali [Woollatt, social secretary] and the coach Teresa [Catlin] and they looked after me. They put an aluminium sheet under me and sheets over me to keep me warm and phoned for an ambulance.
“The ambulance took about two hours, it must have been a busy day, and the people that came were very good. They gave me morphine, I kept going out, and they said they would have to ask the air ambulance crew to come out.”
Stewart, who was vicar at St Philip’s Church in Mill Road for 30 years until retiring in October 2021, said: “Before the air ambulance arrived, Teresa asked me what was my favourite bible reading as she knows I’m Christian.
“I said: ‘The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures.’ I said I was lying in a green pasture and it was very damp.
“I was dozy from the morphine but remember hearing the helicopter circling before it landed. Magpas arrived and took over.”
The Magpas Air Ambulance crew were doctor Lisa Ramage and advanced paramedic Steve Chambers.
Stewart said: “The doctor said: ‘We are going to give you another drug, now start thinking some happy thoughts’. They gave me ketamine and I was out.
“My wife Sarah would have been there that day but wasn’t well, I said ‘I’m playing tennis, see you in a couple of hours’ as I went out, then she got a call about me and got my daughter Emma to come.
“She was there with my father-in-law David while they pushed my hip back into place. They said I had a look of pain on my face but I can’t remember a thing. When I came around, I knew I was OK, the excruciating pain had gone, and I was on a stretcher being wheeled out.”
An X-ray taken in hospital and seen by Stewart’s consultant confirmed there was no issue with the hip and he resumed playing tennis after a couple of months.
Looking back to that day in January, David, who lives in Milton, said: “The people at the tennis club were wonderful, they kept me cheerful. I am so thankful to Magpas for their expertise, and to God – I sent up a little prayer and the Lord always listens to your prayer.
“One thing you learn as a priest is to be calm in all circumstances and to trust in the Lord.”
