Oil worker stayed with his colleague

Sat through the night at his hospital bed and flew south with him in air ambulance
A COURT heard yesterday how a concerned oil worker rallied round, after one of his colleagues was seriously injured in a nightclub incident.
Jonathon Rydlewicz accompanied Aberdeen man, Paul Aitchison in the ambulance which conveyed him from Wick's Waterfront nightclub to Caithness General Hospital, sat by his bed through the night, and went with him on an air ambulance flight to Aberdeen the following day. Only then did he part company with the badly injury Mr Aitchison as medical staff took him the rest of way to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.
Mr Rydlewicz, 35, was giving evidence on the final day of a trial in which Wick man Craig Johnstone, 32, is accused, on indictment, of assaulting Mr Aitchison by pushing him once, causing him to fall and hit his head on the floor of the Silver Darlings section of the nightclub complex, and lose consciousness, to his severe injury and permanent disfigurement and impairment.
Mr Rydlewicz and Mr Aitchison were among a group of oil workers whose helicopter had been grounded at Wick on August 23, last year. They had gone out on the town and visited pubs, ending up at the Silver Darlings.
Mr Rydlewicz, a safety officer, told the jury that up until the incident, the atmosphere was good and everyone appeared to be enjoying themselves. He said that the first he knew of trouble was when he turned round and saw 'Paul' on the stone floor although he did not see how it had happened.
Mr Rydlewicz told the jury: "Paul was unconscious and there blood coming from one of his ears.
Fellow oil worker James Hewison, 33, said he saw Mr Aitchison get pushed "quite hard" but didn't see who had pushed him.
Mr Hewison went on: "He fall backwards, hitting the floor and could not get up. I knelt down beside him...there was blood coming from the back of his head. Someone put him in the recovery position until paramedics arrived.
Wick engineer Thomas Fraser previously told the court that he thought he saw Johnstone, of 10 Coghill Street, Wick, push Mr Aitchison but was more concerned for the latter after he landed on the floor. Other witnesses spoke to the accused being present that night but didn't see who had pushed Mr Aitchison who remembered nothing about it.
He spent three weeks in hospital and was off work for several months and has only recently returned to completing full shifts offshore. The incident, he told the court, had had an adverse effect on his personality and he was paranoid about going out socialising, fearing he might be assaulted again
Mr Aitchison added that he was abrupt and "snappy", his sleep patterns were erratic and he was apprehensive about mixing in company.
The Crown and defence have closed their cases and the jury is expected to retire tomorrow.