Amanda Owen has revealed her son Miles 'nearly died' after a medical emergency in 2022, when he was airlifted to hospital by the Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS). The star of Our Yorkshire Farm and Our Farm Next Door spoke emotionally about the incident during the first episode of the new series of the More 4 show, which aired on Monday night.
Miles' Brush With Death
In the episode, Amanda and her son Miles, now 19, spent time together painting a newly refurbished room at Anty John's, a disused barn on the Ravenseat farm which Amanda hopes to turn into a permanent home. Miles told viewers: “Today, I’ve come here with mam and we’re gonna do a bit of painting. It’s a big step in the process, it’s starting to feel more like a home and we’re just getting nearer and nearer to the finished project so, it’s exciting stuff.”
Amanda then opened up about Miles' incident, saying: “Me and Miles we’re pretty thick together, Miles went through a stage where he was diagnosed with Diabetes Type 1. So that was quite a scary moment, you know, he nearly died. Which was pretty big. But now to see him and him being so strong and so assertive and so positive about everything, that’s wonderful.”
Air Ambulance Rescue
In 2022, Miles suffered a diabetic emergency on the farm and had to be airlifted to hospital by GNAAS. During an episode of Reuben Owen: Life In The Dales on Channel 5 last year, Miles recounted the story of his medical crisis to raise awareness of the work done by GNAAS, and met the crew who saved his life. Amanda and Miles were seen driving to the GNAAS base and watching the aircraft land on the helipad before reuniting with the crews for a tour of their lifesaving kit.
Posting on Instagram, Amanda said: “Tonight’s episode of Reuben Owen: Life In The Dales is a challenging one. It has taken until now to share what happened in December 2022 when there was a big emergency on the farm. Miles wanted to share what happened to him hopefully to raise awareness of Type 1 diabetes and diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), which is a potentially life-threatening acute complication.”
Dad Clive's Account
Amanda's husband Clive Owen described the day as “potentially one of the worst days of my life”. He said: “I thought, because he’s been ill I’ll let him have a rest for an hour before I wake him up to do his work. Finally when I did come in about half past nine, he was laid out on the stairs. Couldn’t stand, his head back, struggling to breathe, and you could see there was something wrong here. So, panic stations.”
Amanda added: “It was definitely an emergency but we didn’t know to what degree. And we know, it’s two hours to get to a hospital in the car.” Clive agreed, adding: “It’s very remote, everybody else can have an ambulance in 10 minutes, for us it’s about an hour.”
Miles was stabilised by the air ambulance crew and taken to hospital in just 17 minutes. He told the show: “It’s just a blur to me but I owe my life to them so I think it would be good to say thank you because that’s the least we can do isn’t it.”
