Original subtitles

SIREN WAILS

JASON DONE: On land, sea, and air,

the front line of emergency rescue...

Ready, set, lift.

I immediately knew that we would be needing to take over her breathing.

...risking it all...

Probably the most unpleasant injury I've ever seen on a live casualty.

We were in peril, and it was getting worse.

Arghg

Good girl 9° Cl ' . IrgfirL 90°C' Qlrl.

...when every second counts...

Everyone, clear.

Deep breaths on the gas. SHE INHALES

We're thinking, at any given time, she could fall off.

...and every decision...

Head injury. Neck injury.

...could be life-changing.

It's nerve-racking at sea. You don't know where you're going to.

She's not moving.

I wasn't sure whether I was gonna end up over my head.

I don't want to contaminate.

And you try and stay strong,

but it's your child laying on the floor.

When we get involved,

it's because there's a matter of urgency needed.

In Cambridgeshire...

...air ambulance medics are called to a life-threatening emergency.

We've shocked him three times.

Only around 8% of patients will survive.

On the south coast, a lifeboat crew...

Breathe in again. SHE SOBS

...battle to get a casualty to dry land.

If it is a spinal injury,

worst-case scenario, they could be paralysed.

And in the Peak District,

a traumatic fracture for a fallen climber.

It was probably the most unpleasant injury

that I've ever seen on a live casualty.

MAN: Oh, it looks horrible. WOMAN: It does look horrible, yeah.

Well, I had to do a bit of a double-take.

It was quite a gory sight, really.

Buxton Mountain Rescue has a team of 60 volunteers

that respond to around 100 emergencies a year

in Derbyshire, Staffordshire, and Cheshire.

SIREN WAILS

I was sitting in the kitchen, just reading the newspaper,

and the text message came through.

SIREN WAILS

I was actually nearer to the casualty than the base,

so I was there very quickly.

KEITH: There's somebody on bikes there.

I was just down the road on an electric bike

when the call came through.

So I cycled off, thinking, "What am I going to find when I get there?"

We were told a climber has fallen at an old, disused quarry site.

But we had no specific idea

as to where the climber actually was.

Can we get round there?

The access to the casualty was quite difficult

cos we had to scramble up through the quarry onto the upper tier

where he was unfortunately located.

'People there sort of guided us in.'

So, as we approached the casualty site,

I looked across to get some idea of what we might be walking into.

And I had to do a bit of a double-take.

There was about three or four inches of bone

sticking out of the casualty's lower leg.

It was, erm, a bit of a deep swallow.

I've been walking since my mid-teens,

and I've been with Buxton Mountain Rescue Team for 29 years.

It was probably the most unpleasant injury

that I've ever seen on a live casualty.

The foot wasn't where it should be,

and, erm, yes, it was quite a gory sight, really.

Yeah, so, it's Charles, 57. He's not lost consciousness.

Reduced blood flow to the feet

can slowly start to kill off the cells within the foot.

So, ultimately, if it was not managed properly,

there was a risk that he could lose his foot.

How much pain are you in?

CHARLES: It's a dull ache at the moment.

Ancl are you allergic to anything? No.

As this was significant trauma,

and the casualty needs to be in hospital sooner rather than later,

so we called for an air ambulance.

We'll let the air ambulance medics assess your ankle,

and they'll advise what they think.

We've got to pretty much keep you comfortable till they come.

So, a nasty incident, but also thinking,

"|f there's been enough force for him to break his leg that badly,

"what else might have gone on?"

So, nothing pressing on the ribs? No, no.

'So I'm doing all these checks

'to see if there were any more significant internal injuries.'

Your foot looks... Yeah, it's got lots of colour in it.

Oh, it looks horrible. It does look horrible.

What I'm saying is it looks like there's blood flow

still getting to your foot beneath the break,

which is what we'd be concerned about.

Did you give a pain score, Charles?

Er, about... about seven or eight.

Would you like some pain relief?

In order to give him the best treatment,

pain relief's really, really important.

You're wincing a lot there. I've got some Entonox here.

It might just take the edge off it.

Is that gas and air? Yes. Shall we see how that works?

A nice, long, deep breath.

Hold it in for a couple of seconds, and then breathe it out slowly.

Don't pant with it, that's the main thing.

If you start panting, it doesn't do any good at all.

CHARLES INHALES DEEPLY

DELVIN: So, I found quite early on that he's a medieval historian.

So, what are you researching? I'm a historian.

It's parliamentary history. Oh, OK.

It's an interesting time to be a Parliamentary historian.

Ah, except I'm a medievalist,

so what's happening at the moment is not of immediate relevance.

Whilst we were talking,

it meant that I was able to see how alert Charles was.

'There's always a possibility in a climbing accident,

'there may be a head injury.'

So, the fact that he was lucid

encouraged me to think that he hadn't sustained a head injury.

How are you doing? CHARLES INHALES ENTONOX

CHARLES: Fine, yeah, OK.

You've got a strong pulse. CHARLES INHALES ENTONOX

I'll take that as a compliment. Yeah.

The casualty was very calm, wasn't screaming in pain,

was just quite calmly sitting there.

'But with a serious injury like that,

'we can only do the best that we can.'

How can we get them as quickly as we can

to the professional help that they really, really need?

Are you still with us, Charles? CHARLES: I'm fine, yeah.

KEITH: 'Unfortunately, after about 12, 15 minutes,

'we got a message back to say that the air ambulance

'couldn't get to the incident site because of low cloud.'

So that then sort of gave us a bit of a...

...a double-take moment, in that, "What are we going to do now?"

On the south coast, the Gosport and Fareham Inshore Rescue Service,

or GAFIRS, has a 51 -strong volunteer team.

I'm a paramedic with South Central Ambulance Service,

and in my spare time, I volunteer down here as lifeboat crew.

I'm a trainee lifeboat crew here at GAFIRS,

and I've been here for about a year.

So, turn your hands around. That's it.

I'm a naval architect in the docks, and I sort of do GAFIRS part-time.

When I first had a job on the boat, I was kind of a bit like,

"Oh, G0d...!" You know, it was a bit daunting.

But I guess the adrenaline sort of kicks in,

and, in a sense, it's kind of exciting,

the fact you're going to help someone.

We had a call come in from the Coastguard

of a suspected spinal injury not far from our location.

So we made best speed as we could towards the incident.

We were just given

a sort of location within the marina,

and given a description, "a white-hulled boat",

but there are lots of white-hulled boats in marinas.

So, it was quite hard to pinpoint the exact vessel.

Blue Moon, we're looking for. Blue Moon?

A blue canopy. Is that it, there?

Did you call the Coastguard? There's someone waving over there.

Yeah, he's outside. Over there.

OK, line on there, please, Ed.

As we approached the casualty vessel,

it was clear that the woman in the cockpit

was in significant pain.

Is it for you? Yeah.

I'm Rich. I'm one of the paramedics.

Do you mind if I have a quick feel? Yeah, no.

Any pain when I press in here? No.

I began my assessment of her

to try and identify what the problem was,

if there was anything immediately at risk.

So, it was a spinal injury.

It hurts down there.

just there? Yeah.

We were actually getting ready to go sailing,

and I was down in the main cabin of the boat.

I just bent over to get something,

and it was just like an electric shock.

It felt like I'd been tasered.

How was I going to get off the back of the boat

and down a ladder and into a dinghy to get back to shore?

And it's all sort of up this side here?

ANDY: 'So, I mentioned to call the Coastguard.'

Julie didn't want us to.

You know, she didn't really feel that it was, you know,

enough of an emergency.

But, you know, it definitely was.

Any pain when I press in here? It hurts down there.

Can I have the Entonox, please?

I could see straight away she was in a lot of pain.

'Ancl on the boat, we carry pain relieving gas.'

OK, pop that into your mouth. Take some slow, deep breaths.

It will make you feel all weird and giggly.

You have to be careful with back injuries

for the fact that, if it is a spinal injury,

the worst-case scenario, they could be paralysed,

depending on where the injury is.

Ambulance? Not at the moment.

Let me have five.

On this occasion, I ruled out that it was a spinal injury,

and it was more of a muscular injury.

Have you ever hurt your back before? Not like this, no.

So, what I want you to do is just stay nice and relaxed.

So, what I think you've clone is you've pulled a muscle in your back.

The gas helps the muscles to relax,

if we can get you to take it slow enough and deep enough.

Nice, slow, deep breaths.

So, when we gave her the gas,

initially trying to get her to take the slow and deep breaths,

she was struggling with and she was breathing it in a bit too fast.

Keep going on there.

'So it didn't have the effect

'as quickly as I hoped it would have clone.'

JULIE SOBS Deep breath in again.

SHE SOBS That's it, right.

The whole situation was just all becoming very overwhelming.

All right, just try and sit down, pop that on there.

No, I can't sit down.

So the next big challenge was,

"How are we going to get her off the boat she was on?"

Coming up... WOMAN OVER RADIO: Cardiac arrest.

...the air ambulance are called to a life-threatening emergency.

WOMAN: Hello, sir. Open your eyes for me, please.

Only around 8% of patients will survive.

And the lifeboat crew struggle to stretcher off the injured sailor.

I remember standing there, thinking, "This is gonna really hurt."

And lift.

jULlE CRIES OUT Well clone. You did really well.

JASON DONE: In Cambridgeshire, air ambulance medics

have been dispatched to a life-threatening emergency.

When we arrived, there was a collapsed gentleman.

We've shocked him three times.

Only around 8% of patients will survive.

He currently does have a pulse.

It's just like a big dream. Well, more like a nightmare than a dream.

Magpas provides an air ambulance service for the East of England,

and all its work is funded by public donation.

We have cardiac arrest. Thank you.

When the call came in, it only told us

that it was an approximately 60-year-old gentleman

who had had an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.

The first thing we'll do is decide

whether we need to go by helicopter or by car.

Drive? Yeah, I think so.

'It was only St Ives, which is very close to the base.'

STEVE SPEAKING

It's gonna be about six or seven minutes.

Seven minutes, OK.

In comparison to the Ambulance Services,

we get called out for what we like to call level-three tasking,

which are extremely sick patients -

they need stabilisation, some of them may need our help

with supporting their breathing, their circulation.

I'm an international medical graduate.

I went to med school in India,

so the career has been quite the journey

across several countries and cities.

So, landing this job was quite a proud achievement.

Good morning, team. Hi, my name is Harsha.

That's Steve from the Magpas Air Ambulance team.

Hi, guys.

This is a 60-year-old gentleman. He was out walking with his wife.

He suddenly felt a bit odd, and then just collapsed.

He's still in ROSC currently. He does have a pulse.

When we arrived,

there was a collapsed gentleman right in front of a shop,

and there were the East of England Ambulance crew,

the first crew on scene, present there.

On arrival, we found him VF. We've shocked him three times since then.

OK. He's type 2 diabetic.

Potential hypertension history, but we're not entirely sure.

We received a handover from the ambulance crew

that he'd suffered an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.

'He had some bystander CPR from members of the public.

'It was almost 20 minutes of his heart not beating.'

He received several defibrillator shocks from the ambulance crew,

and they managed to restart his heart.

60-year-old Greg was out shopping with his wife when he collapsed.

ALISON: 'It was a nice clay, and we went into town.'

So, we was going to the optician's to get his eyes tested,

and then we were gonna go for a big fry-up,

and we was walking along, and he suddenly said to me,

"I don't feel too good."

Ancl he just collapsed.

But it was horrible. His eyes were just bulging.

Ancl then they said, "Do you want to phone for an ambulance?"

Ancl I said, "Yeah."

Ancl within five minutes, everybody was there,

the police, ambulance, Magpas, the lot.

I was thinking, "What the hell?

"This is happening to somebody else, not me." Do you know what I mean?

"What do I do?"

I just felt so useless cos I couldn't do anything.

'He was still in a critical condition.'

He still hadn't woken up properly.

Probably gonna land escort to Papworth.

But I'll keep you updated.

'We moved Greg into the ambulance, where we could do a full assessment

'away from prying eyes on the high street.'

HARSHA: 'The concern is that he's been in cardiac arrest.'

We don't want it to recur.

Ancl even if it does,

we would want to be fully prepared to deal with that situation.

Hello, sir. Can you open your eyes for me, please?

'My biggest concern with this patient

'was that he was gonna re-arrest.'

And currently, only around 8% of patients

will survive an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.

So, immediately, the odds are against the patient.

In Portsmouth Harbour,

lifeboat crew are on an emergency call-out with Julie,

who's trapped on her boat suffering acute pain from a back injury.

SHE SOBS Breathe in the gas.

SHE SOBS That's it.

Right, deep breaths on the gas.

Julie and husband, Andy, didn't call for help

immediately after her accident,

which means she's been in severe pain for over two hours.

She wasn't taking the pain relief as quickly as we could,

or as deeply as I'd wanted her to.

It hurts when I put my leg down. Try now.

It really hurts. Keep going on there.

It means we'll need to get her to an ambulance

with something a little bit stronger for pain relief.

SHE INHALES AND SOBS

So, the next big challenge was,

"How are we going to transfer her from her boat onto the lifeboat?"

We had our basket stretcher...

...which we managed to get onto the cockpit of their boat.

Keep feeding, that's it.

'But it's quite a small boat.

'There's a safety guide rail down the side of the boat,

'which prohibited us from being able to lay the stretcher down flat.'

I think it's gonna have to come down into the...

Yeah, it's got gonna have to go sideways.

That meant that, with the casualty in the stretcher,

we wouldn't have been able to swing it off

without lifting it over the guard rails,

which would have been quite dangerous.

'We realised that, at the front,

'they were only held on with ropes or string.

'So I spoke to her husband,

'and he was in agreement that we could cut those ropes.'

Knife coming over. Thank you.

Cheers. Thank you.

I would have cut anything out of the way,

you know, with a hacksaw, whatever, to have got what they wanted to do.

Awesome. Thank you.

That's it. This wants to be loose now as well.

Cos it was horrible seeing someone close to you in so much pain.

'I was sat down at that point.'

The thing that was going through my head was,

"I don't wanna be stretchered off this boat."

RICHARD: All right, we're gonna kind of assist you into this.

'Ancl then they got me to stand back up again.'

I remember standing there, thinking, "This is gonna really hurt!"

All right, deep breaths on that gas for me.

Ready, set, lift.

JULIE CRIES OUT

Well clone. You did really well.

Lifting me to get into the stretcher was agonising.

JULIE PANTS AND GASPS

Right, do the straps for that end, please.

Keep going on the gas.

With Julie strapped into the stretcher,

the five rescuers must now carefully manoeuvre her onto the lifeboat

without damaging her back further.

Everyone happy? Ready, set, slide.

Ed, you're gonna have to come round to here.

Yeah. Well clone.

You did really well.

Right, you're on the boat now.

It was awful. SHE LAUGHS

All right, does it feel like it's kind of spasming up?

I don't know. You don't know?

I'm panicked. Don't panic.

You don't need to panic.

When someone's in that level of pain,

we reassure them, keep talking to them,

try and keep them nice and calm.

So, pop that into your mouth. Slow, deep breaths.

As if you're sucking a milkshake. That's better.

joking around with people can also show that we are,

as a rescuer, we're relaxed.

If we're relaxed, they can relax, as well.

Worse-case scenario, you'll start giggling your head off.

Ready, set, lift.

So, once we moored up at the pontoon,

our priority was to keep her comfortable.

We walked up to the local cruising club, Gosport Cruising Club.

Carry on.

Are you taking over? Have you got her?

On the floor. OK, ready, set, lower.

Once we got her into the clubhouse in the shade,

she started to relax a lot more than she was out on the boat...

Oh!

You did really well. That's it, you're there.

...to the point where she was then able to sit herself up.

LAUGHTER

It's good to have you laughing. That's all I want.

That's my job half clone if I can get you giggling.

From seeing her being in a lot of pain and crying, effectively,

to seeing her laughing was definitely a morale booster.

Are you ready? One, two, three, up we go.

'It was a great relief.'

It meant that I'd been able to help her quite well.

Ancl it also prevented the ambulance from coming out

to give further pain relief.

There we go. Well done.

'I think they do a fantastic job.'

It's amazing that people give up all this time to do this.

Do you want an arm?

I still feel quite embarrassed that I called them out.

'It was definitely right to call us.

'Otherwise, she would have been on that boat

'for a significant amount of time.'

She may have been OK in a couple of days,

but you don't want to be on a boat for a couple of days.

From a trainee perspective, Rich was happy with what I'd done,

which was great.

Coming up...

KEITH: No, I want it over the wound.

...a nail-biting challenge for mountain rescue.

I've assisted with straightening ankles before.

This was something way beyond what I've ever experienced.

And in Hampshire...

You could see the panic in his face.

...a jet Ski dangerously adrift

in one of the world's busiest waterways.

The chances of a container ship

being able to change their course is slim to none.

JASON DONE: The GAFIRS lifeboat team

covers Portsmouth Harbour and the eastern Solent,

a narrow stretch of water between the mainland and the Isle of Wight.

It's a busy patch,

with huge tankers and ferries vying for space with smaller vessels.

And one of them's just called the Coastguard

needing urgent assistance.

It was around about ten o'clock on a Monday morning.

Ancl we get the initial page, which just says, "Get moving," basically.

I was working at home. I think I was in a meeting, actually.

So I made my excuses at work

and then proceeded down to the lifeboat station.

They told us that there was a jet Ski that was adrift.

And do you have an updated position? Over.

They were close to a main shipping channel in the Solent.

MAN OVER RADIO: Seven, seven, zero. Minus one, decimal, two, two, three.

They are in a position where they could be blown

into incredibly dangerous situations.

And that's why we had to get them under tow

and get them out as quick as we could.

Are you all good? Yeah.

So off we went at probably about 39, 40 knots.

Not every lifeboat goes to break downs.

When we get involved, it's because there's a matter of urgency needed.

So, our main concern as we were going out there

was their proximity to the Channel.

The Solent feeds into the English Channel,

one of the world's busiest shipping routes.

With around 500 vessels, including 100,000-tonne tankers,

passing through it every single day.

You've got the entrances to Portsmouth Harbour,

with big ships coming in and out daily.

Southampton Water, at the other end of our patch,

equally busy with huge container ships.

Couple that with lots of ferries,

it can be a very busy and a dangerous place to break down.

Ancl these big tankers, they sometimes take a mile to stop.

If they did stray into that,

the chances of a container ship being able to change their course

is slim to none.

Ancl that makes that situation very dangerous

and a very real threat to their lives.

The jet Ski has no power and is drifting into a shipping lane.

It's vital the crew tow it to safety,

but they've got to find it first.

And, you know, you're going at 40 knots across the Solent,

and there was a bit of a swell, so you're bobbing up and down,

and it is like spotting a needle in a haystack.

We had a job previously with a 26-foot yacht,

and that was hard to spot with light glare from the sun.

Ancl then the problem was, obviously,

spotting a very small jet Ski from a distance.

Every hour, huge ferries and tankers

pass through the deeper southern Channel

perilously close to where the jet Ski is adrift.

A collision could be fatal for the jet skiers.

'When we got to the two guys on the jet Ski,

'the front guy mainly, he was worried about where he was.'

You could see the panic on his face.

Their impeller had fallen off,

so that's quite a severe mechanical failure.

You're not gonna get that fixed on the water.

Mechanical break down. Prop's come off.

OK, get the tow ready, then. Yeah.

So, in this case, it was purely get them under tow

and take them back to where they'd started from, which was Calshot.

'The issue then is, "How do you do that?"

'Ajet Ski is very low in the water.

'The towing point is very low and usually under the water,

'and the lifeboat's a lot higher.

'So, it means that someone has to reach over the side

'and try and clip our towline on to it.'

There was some difficulty doing this

as the tow point was almost hidden under the front of the jet Ski.

'I had to do that more with feel rather than visually.

'I couldn't see the tow point.'

Time is of the essence because the jet Ski is adrift

close to a channel used by large ferries,

tankers and cruise ships.

'I did look east and west,

'and I couldn't see any inbound or outbound traffic.'

That doesn't mean that there wasn't one due to leave very soon.

So there is a very real need

to get them out of that situation quickly.

Yeah!

Fair play to him, he got it on, and then, once he's got that on,

I then take it, a very short tow, tie it off,

and I keep an eye on the tow.

Are you guys OK staying on there or do you want to go on here?

MAN: We're all right. All right.

Give us a shout if you're worried at any time, and we'll slow down.

Right, cheers. Right, let's go.

JONATHAN: 'So, what we can gather is

'the two casualties were father and son.'

It was actually a Father's Day present.

I suppose the idea of taking your clad out on a jet Ski

is actually a great idea.

My dad's 79, and he would still love to go out on a jet Ski

as a Father's Day gift.

But, sometimes, these things can go wrong.

I keep in touch with the jet Ski just by hand signals -

a thumbs up now and again gives them a bit of reassurance.

JONATHAN SPEAKING

My dad used to be in the Royal Navy,

so I think I would go out in the same way,

just maybe try and stay clear of the shipping channel.

In the Peak District,

Carina, Keith and Delvin from Buxton Mountain Rescue

are with 57-year-old climber Charles.

CARINA: Are you still with us, Charles?

CHARLES: I'm fine, yeah.

He sustained an open fracture,

where the broken bone has punctured the skin around his ankle.

Right, so, we wanna make sure

there's good circulation to the foot beneath it.

It's vital he gets to hospital fast.

But because of poor weather, the air ambulance can't land.

It's a very sobering moment

cos we don't know how long it's gonna be before we get any help.

'So we called for the Coastguard helicopter.'

Now, they can fly in worse conditions than the air ambulance,

but we don't know whether they might run into the same issues

with low clouds and not be able to fly through.

DELVIN: Keith, do we know anything about the Coastguard arriving?

It's been requested. That's all I know.

This was a fairly serious, maybe a very serious, injury

cos there is the potential to lose the foot.

So, we made the decision that we need to treat the injury,

straighten the foot, bandage it, and carry out the evacuation.

I think we're gonna have to get the stretcher in.

Yeah, we could do a roll backwards once we've sorted that.

Quite a lot of our training

is involving very difficult extractions of casualties.

Charles was lying on quite a blocky set of rocks,

so it was quite awkward.

So what we did, we laid out our vacuum mattress,

and we asked Charles to gently, if he could,

ease himself onto the stretcher.

Right, so don't move until we tell you to.

I've got your bad leg, Charles. OK, Charles, shift yourself across.

Move your body across.

That's brilliant. Excellent. Well done, Charles.

The vacuum mattress immobilises Charles

and helps protect him from jolting that could cause more injuries.

Now his ankle must be straightened and bandaged securely

to protect it from infection and further damage.

I've assisted with straightening ankles before.

This was something way beyond what I've ever experienced.

Put it here? No, I want to over the wound.

I don't want to contaminate.

My mountain rescue skills,

they've proved to be invaluable over the years.

On one occasion, my daughter came off her horse,

and I had to give her first aid.

She wasn't breathing, and I saved her life.

Is that OK, Charles? Are you still OK?

Ready to lift?

And... lift.

'Once Charles had been stabilised and lifted onto the stretcher...'

And lower.

'..our job was really to get him to the helicopter landing site,

'which was probably about half a mile away from where he'd fallen.'

So it is a very, very intensive job, needing a lot of people.

We had to walk along the top of one of the quarry cliffs,

but we had to make sure that

we were not getting too close to the edge of the cliff.

The ground was very uneven, very awkward terrain.

As we had just crossed over the boundary fence from the quarry,

we were alerted that the Coastguard helicopter was arriving.

HELICOPTER BLADES WHIR

MAN: ls Charles a local gentleman? No, he's from Cambridge.

The doctor and the paramedics arrived at the same time,

and they were able to make Charles more comfortable.

Whenever a helicopter comes in to take a seriously injured

or seriously unwell casualty, it's a great relief to us.

Watching the helicopter go off, you know you've done your job,

and you're now passing the casualty down the chain.

'We need to act. We need to act fast.'

A great sense of relief that we've got him away to hospital

in the most efficient way that we could.

Ancl I think, on reflection back, it was a sense of a job well clone.

CHARLES: I had an operation where they put a temporary frame,

an external frame, on my leg to basically hold it all together.

I also had to have...

a sort of minor skin graft operation a few clays later.

Charles wore the leg brace for eight months,

but was rock climbing again less than a year after his accident.

It's lovely to see our casualties and hear that they are back,

particularly, I suppose, to the activities

that they were undertaking when the accident occurred.

That he's physically and mentally able and happy

to carry on climbing is great news.

I've always appreciated their work.

Ancl I feel extremely grateful.

We get all sorts of accidents, all sorts of traumatic accidents,

but we have to take these things in our stride, really,

because we've got the job to do

and we know that the patient's safety is absolutely paramount.

KEITH: 'We're proud that we make a difference.'

For our casualties, it's probably the worst clay of their life so far.

Certainly, we made a difference to Charles on that clay.

Coming up...

Can you put out your tongue for me, please?

...it's touch and go for air ambulance patient Greg.

This patient is extremely critical.

On a score of one to ten, how bad is the pain, sir?

Eight. Eight?

We don't know what's going on there. Like, has he had another one?

STEVE: His heart's briefly stopped.

The ambulance crew's managed to restart it.

They said that he'd practically cited.

JASON DONE: 60-year-old Greg has suffered a cardiac arrest.

The first paramedics on the scene resuscitated him.

But complications can happen quickly after a heart attack,

and they can often be fatal.

Once he was in the back of the ambulance,

I went ahead and reassessed him.

It is still crossing my mind that this patient is extremely critical.

Worst-case scenario would be that he would have another cardiac arrest,

and we would be unsuccessful in restarting his heart.

Hello, sir. My name is Harsha.

I'm one of the doctors

from the local air ambulance crew, Magpas.

I'm just going to quickly assess you.

Can you put out your tongue for me, please?

Very good. That's good... That's good.

It was just about getting a thorough examination in,

basically identify what his level of consciousness was.

Was he breathing for himself?

Did he need our help with his blood pressure or circulation?

WOMAN: Long QT.

Greg was attached to a cardiac monitor

by the Ambulance Service,

so we're constantly keeping eyes on the monitor

to make sure he doesn't re-arrest.

On a score of one to ten, how bad is the pain, sir?

GREG: Eight. Eight?

OK, we're going to get you some pain medication and other things.

ALISON: Well, we met at school.

We were boyfriend and girlfriend

in the first year of secondary school.

Then we sort of lost contact.

I got talking to him again through Facebook.

This was about, what, nearly 40 years later, I think.

I remember the first date.

I remember him walking up the path with a great big bunch of flowers.

I'm thinking, "Oh, my God, what do I do?"

And then we went out for McDonald's.

And then we just clicked. And the next thing, we got married.

Greg has been in the ambulance for 15 minutes.

The Magpas team have administered drugs to manage his pain

and help to prevent another heart attack.

But he's still in a critical condition.

At this point, having identified how sick the patient is,

Steve and I had a quick discussion.

We decided this gentleman definitely needed

to go to our nearest hospital as soon as we could.

Hello. Is this the Papworth cardiology registrar?

Hi, my name is Harsha.

I'm one of the doctors from the Magpas Air Ambulance team.

I have a 60-year-old

who's had an out-of-hospital VF cardiac arrest.

We would like to get him across to your team, please.

Greg's wife has been joined at the scene by her daughter.

He don't drink.

Cos it makes him feel dizzy. Yeah.

When I saw Keisha come running, lthought

"Thank God, somebody's sort of with me,

"you know, family and that."

He was in the ambulance for quite a long time.

So then me and Mum started panicking.

Obviously, we can't see through the door,

so we don't know what's going on in there.

Like, has he had another one? Or has he, like, died or something?

It is just like a big dream. Well, more like a nightmare than a dream.

But it's just so scary.

Sorry.

STEVE: Where was the family?

MAN: Sitting there. just these two?

Then Steve come over, and he was chatting to me,

telling me exactly what was going on and what they were gonna be doing,

which was good.

What's your names? Alison. This is my daughter, Keisha.

Hiya. My name's Steve, one of the paramedics from the air ambulance.

So, I understand you know what's happened today.

So, his heart's briefly stopped.

The ambulance crew's managed to restart it. Yeah.

Dealing with relatives is actually the hardest part of my job.

Erm, cos you need to explain to them that

their loved ones are quite often critically unwell,

and people react differently.

But I always try and treat everyone

with the same level of respect and compassion as I can.

I believe one of my colleagues is gonna run you down to the hospital.

Yeah, thank you.

While I went to speak to the relatives,

Harsha made a phone call

to the Cardiology Department at Papworth Hospital.

HARSHA: And the PCA team will be ready for us?

OK, perfect. Thank you.

Bye.

Accepted. We can start moving.

It's now vital that Greg gets to hospital immediately

to undergo further tests and treatment.

'Greg was as stable as he was going to be.'

I've always got in the back of my mind

that he could re-arrest at any point.

And we were prepared for that,

so we left the defibrillator pads on,

and we had the monitor right next to us, should the worst happen.

ALISON: They said about going to the actual hospital.

Ancl I didn't know what I was gonna expect when I got there.

Ancl when we arrived at the hospital, Greg was sitting up in bed,

but not with it, of course,

and they said that he'd practically died.

I didn't have a feeling at all. I didn't get no pain, no nothing.

just my eyes went funny.

Everything literally just went blurry for a split second.

The next thing, I woke up in the back of the ambulance.

Greg's diagnosis was that he had a blockage

in the main artery that runs down the front of his heart.

So he had suffered a heart attack,

but Papworth were able to put a stent in, unblock the artery,

and he's made a good recovery.

'It's still a bit uncomfortable. Alison, she just looks after me.

'She won't let me do anything, which is a bit of a pain.'

You know, cos I can't be waited on hand and foot,

I've got to do stuff for myself. But I'm slowly getting there.

He keeps trying to do things. I keep going, "No, don't do that!"

But I said, "Yeah, you can start making me

"a cup of tea and coffee, if you want.

"You can lift a kettle."

It's great to be a part of a team that's saved someone's life.

There's nothing more rewarding than that.

To know that your efforts have made a difference

and that someone's been able to go back to their family

and spend their time together,

it's always welcoming news for us.

How are you doing, Greg?

A bit fuzzy. A bit fuzzy? All right, mate.

The care I got from the air ambulance,

it was excellent.

I couldn't thank them enough.

ALISON: They were absolutely brilliant.

If it hadn't been for them, Greg would definitely not be here now.

This is where he's landed.

A motorcyclist versus a car is quite often life-changing.

The sea state was horrendous.

We are gonna need to ditch the anchor.

We can't sit out here like this.

Hold up, guys, before you wander off into the mist.

Anybody on the hill for any period of time,

our biggest concern would be hypothermia.

The paramedics are on scene. Head injury, previous spine injury.

My mind was very much on how we get them out of there.