Episode 6 Close Calls: On Camera

A close call, a moment of danger...

when life can hang in the balance.

A split second where the outcome could go either way.

I was rooted to the spot with fear.

The difference between disaster and survival.

My heart's dropped. This was a big crash.

These are the people that have been there and lived to tell the tale.

I need an ambulance.

15 minutes and your number would be up.

Their instincts and resources, coupled with the quick thinking

of others, helped to pull them through.

Could have gone wrong. Could have easily gone wrong.

And their dramatic experiences recorded on camera.

I think there were several things that could have killed me,

should have killed me, and didn't.

It's a day they'll never forget.

The day they had a close call.

Today on Close Calls -

a powerboat racer loses control in a bid to break a world record.

The boat takes off, flies through the air and somersaults at 130mph.

The driver's son is in the crowd.

I just broke down instantly.

Also today, at 4am a desperate 999 call is made at this house.

A man wakes to find his 24-year-old girlfriend isn't breathing.

Now, listen carefully...

And a family car in flames.

Terror for a dad, his ten-year-old son and a pal on a footy trip.

All told, from turning the engine off to have been engulfed in flames

it must have been less than a minute.

The Lake District, Coniston Water.

A 58-year-old powerboat racer is attempting a world water speed record.

Footage recorded by a spectator

shows the craft travelling at over 130mph.

Speeds he was doing was just unbelievable.

This was the last run on the last day of the whole week.

It's the same stretch of water where racer Donald Campbell crashed

and died in a record attempt almost 50 years ago.

And it looks like there's a danger of history repeating itself.

My heart's dropped. This was a big crash.

I just broke down instantly.

Before the record attempt at Coniston, Keith Whittle

had been racing powerboats for 25 years.

And in this super fast catamaran, he's attempted many speed records.

Well, it all started with my father.

He was the timekeeper at a local hydroplane club

and I used to go down there with him every fortnight during the summer

and help him wave the flags and generally help round in the timing hut.

And following in the family's wake, Keith's son, Sam,

is also just starting out in the world of pro racing.

Yeah, I think he's my hero.

He's taught me so much with racing and taught me

a lot of ways how to drive a boat and how to race a boat.

And also fix them, at the end of the day, if they go wrong.

It's one of those sports that just gets hold of you, I think.

It's just like a bug, almost.

So it was natural the pair travelled up together to the Lake District

when Keith decided to compete in the Coniston Powerboat Records Week,

a special event held annually.

It's a week where you've got timekeepers timing, rescue,

so anybody with any boat can go and take a world or national record.

There isn't another event in the world like it.

Keith will be using Pepstar, a catamaran that used to belong to

a friend and former powerboat racer Andy Elliott who was also part of

the team helping Keith's attempt to be a record-breaker during the week.

There were three records that he was going for.

For me the important one's Formula Two.

That's a world-renowned series and I think it was 128mph.

Put the biggest propeller in you can get and just fly the boat.

And where better than Coniston Water?

It's where the man who inspired Keith, Donald Campbell,

broke the world water speed record four times.

I can't even put myself in the same breath as him.

What we do is not even in the same league.

The records he was going for in the '60s, with half the technology

that we've got today, is just mind-boggling.

But it was also on Coniston Water that,

in 1967, Donald Campbell was killed travelling at more than 300mph

trying to break his own record.

Boat safety may have improved dramatically

but it is still a dangerous sport.

Wife worries more than me.

But, yeah, I know the risks and you just hope they don't happen, I suppose.

And at the Coniston Records Week, at first things go

well for Keith and his team.

They break two world records,

including the much coveted Formula Two speed record.

But, on the last day, just as they were about to pack away, disaster.

Keith's record is disqualified

because his boat has the wrong type of starter motor.

But he refuses to be beaten, especially when he takes another

look at the lake and is struck by the stillness of the surface.

"Look at the water," I said, "That water is...

"like a millpond." I said, "I think I can put this engine back together,

"we'll get this in 20 minutes.

"Let's get out there and get that record back."

The event closes in less than two hours so they quickly

fit the correct starter motor and get the catamaran back on the water.

Keith was a bit angry,

just trying to calm him down because these boats are fast and you want to

be in the right mental state and, to be honest with you, he wasn't.

This footage, shot by a spectator,

shows Keith setting off on his fateful run.

And, at first, his frustration seems to be helping him

as his 200 brake horsepower boat rips across the water at a blistering pace.

He completes his first run at a speed of 132mph, world record pace.

Yet, for the record to be officially recognised,

he needs to reach the same speed on a return run.

But the boat's starting to misbehave.

Very difficult boats to drive when you're set up for records

because the propellers you have to put on it, the boat doesn't like.

It just wants to try and throw you out.

At that point it was like a bucking bronco, it was just,

the propeller was just taking the boat over, there was nothing I could do.

It was just an animal, you know, it was an animal of a boat.

Watching on from a safety boat is qualified doctor Ray Dawes.

He's part of the volunteer rescue team.

These speeds, they can easily take off or crash because of the water.

The boats are going very, very fast. Although they're by themselves,

they're not going to collide with other boats, probably,

but they're on the edge and at any moment a disaster could strike.

Inside the boat, Keith knows he has to reach a certain speed

before it aquaplanes and can move smoothly over the water.

He has a kilometre run up to the starting gates.

It must have took me nearly a kilometre to settle it

and it had to run 100mph before it would even settle.

And then it just... Like a magic needle just stop! And then settle

and away you go and then you can start to set your boat up

ready to go through the gates.

The run looks smoother now but inside the Pepstar,

with the boat pushed to its limits, Keith's finding it hard to control.

I knew that the boat was on the ragged edge.

The propeller was taking the boat

and the boat was just crabbing across the lake.

Bearing down on the finish gate, Keith can feel the boat slipping away.

I had to just stick with it until I got through the gate before

I could do anything, I just touched the throttle and it just went.

Keith's boat has lifted off, going at 132mph.

Flipping twice in the air before crashing back into the water

upside down.

The stunned spectator filming takes a while to realise

what's just happened.

He searches for the crash scene.

Ray sees it all from the rescue boat.

This was the last run on the last day of the whole week.

And this was a big crash.

Keith's son, Sam, and friend Andy

are standing on the pontoon where the boats are launched.

The accident's happened out of their view.

We hear the engine and we hear the silence so we knew he'd crashed.

Sam was beside himself at that moment.

I just broke down instantly, I just couldn't believe, you know,

what to think, what to do, I just broke down.

Someone next to me just to told me, "Everything will be OK,

"don't worry," trying to support me.

As they get near, the rescue team fear what they'll find.

The forces involved are astronomical on the structure of the boat

and on the driver.

And apart from the risk of injury from crashing itself,

there's, unfortunately, the risk of drowning.

But as they approach they see something moving in the water.

A bright orange dot comes out from under the boat.

It's Keith's helmet. He's alive.

When we saw the boat was intact we felt better about it, we felt even

better when we saw him by the boat waving to us saying he was all right.

And miraculously, when the rescue team haul Keith on board

they find that not only has he survived this horrific crash,

he's also come out of it relatively unscathed.

Keith was a bit bewildered,

he wasn't quite sure exactly where he was on the course.

Keith's son, Sam, and friend Andy wait anxiously for news.

I saw him come back on the rescue boat and he walked off fine,

he's up and standing and I ran up to him and gave him a hug.

I just couldn't believe what actually happened.

Sure, I was aching, had some bruising of the ribs

but other than that I got away with it scot-free.

You know, it could have been a lot worse.

But there's a final bit of good news.

Keith's told that, despite the crash,

he's recorded an average speed of just over 132mph,

shattering the Formula Two world record.

Fantastic speed.

The speed he was doing was just unbelievable.

That will take a long time to be broken.

That was just coming through the gates

when it took off. And the old timekeeper even today, he said,

"I'm not sure if you went through upside down but it all counts," he goes.

"You've still got your record!"

Coming up on Close Calls -

firefighters tackle a car fire as a family watch on.

They've escaped the flames with moments to spare.

I was rooted to the spot with fear.

Ilkeston, Derbyshire, 4.30am and a man dials 999.

It's the most terrifying phone call of his life.

I thought, right, this is serious. She's dying.

24-year-old Joanna appears lifeless.

Now it's up to her boyfriend Andrew to keep her alive.

Joanna Mellor and Andrew Rayment live together in the town of Ilkeston.

We've been together nearly five years now.

We're pretty much best friends as well as partners,

which is really nice.

She's thoughtful, pretty, very animal orientated.

She's a nice person throughout, really.

The pair have a busy lifestyle, Joanna in particular.

If I'm not horse riding, I'm working normally so...

Then if I'm not working I'm seeing my friends and family.

You'd think she was one of the healthiest people you know.

She was riding all the time.

I remember her instructors saying, "Wow, you're as fit as a flea."

But Joanna's been keeping some health worries quiet.

I was experiencing palpitations but they wasn't something that

I would get, you know, every week or every day.

I wouldn't have one for a couple of months but because

I'm so full-on all the time

I never did anything about it.

Then, one Friday night, Joanna and Andrew were asleep with pet

Labrador Leo at the bottom of the bed as normal.

Leo is a clever dog and is a loving dog so

if you're having a bad dream or if you turn over at night he will get

up and he'll kind of just sniff you or put his nose on you.

And tonight, in the early hours, something causes Leo to stir.

It always alerts me

every time he does get up because he doesn't really get up for nothing.

It's when he got up that I heard Joanna's breathing was slightly erratic.

Even after Andrew shakes her, Joanna doesn't respond.

Didn't know whether she'd had some type of fit or anything in her sleep.

Worried, Andrew dials 999.

Emergency dispatcher Katie Willmont takes the call.

Worry soon turns to panic.

It was when I was giving the address details to

the operator on the phone that Joanna stopped breathing altogether.

At control, Katie's training kicks in.

That's when it kind of went, right, OK,

now we need to start CPR to help her as quickly as possible.

Katie has already pressed a button

to send crews rushing to the address.

But now she has to tell Andrew how to perform CPR on Joanna,

who is dying in front of him.

He's the only person in the room that can help Joanna at this moment in time.

I have to keep him calm and give him proper instructions

so that he knows what he has to do to help her.

He was obviously scared and terrified.

And he kind of stopped for a moment and then I said to him that we need

to do this together to help her, it's her only chance of survival.

From then he kind of kicked in and did everything that,

you know, that he needed to do.

En route in the ambulance is paramedic Glenn Radford and his crewmate.

They've been on the move from the minute Andrew gave

the couple's address at the start of his call.

It was about 4.30 in the morning.

We had a call come through saying that a 24-year-old female had

gone into cardiac arrest.

Initially, disbelief.

It's very uncommon for somebody of that age to go into cardiac arrest.

But will they get to Andrew and Joanna in time?

Later, the paramedics arrive to shock Joanna with a defibrillator.

But even that doesn't seem to work.

At that point I was thinking, "I'm almost as good as a widow."

I'm sat down here and I'm thinking she's gone.

Close calls by definition are unexpected.

But they can happen on the most ordinary of days as this family found out.

Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire.

A family's car is burning out of control just yards from their home.

Dave Warwick, his son, Adam, and Adam's best pal, Alfie, have been

sitting inside the car before setting off to a football match.

It was like watching something out of a movie.

I've never seen anything like it in my life.

I was rooted to the spot with fear.

From turning the engine off to have been engulfed in flames

it must have been less than a minute. Less than a minute.

52-year-old businessman Dave Warwick juggles work,

home and running the local under-11 footy team, Acklam FC.

His son, Adam, is a stalwart of the side,

along with his best friend, Alfie Dadd.

Mum Michelle is one of their biggest supporters, home and away.

Dave and Adam love sport things together. Very typical father-son.

It's all about fun and football, really.

It's Sunday morning, match day,

and Dave and the two boys set off for the game.

But Alfie's forgotten something.

Alfie said, "Oh, I've left my boots at my house."

So, great, forgetful as ever.

So, we went to Alfie's house in the car, got his boots.

And they head off again.

But now Alfie's forgotten something else.

He forgot his jacket and it was still at our house.

So instead of going onto the motorway, I turned to drive

towards our house which is 30-40 seconds off the motorway.

They worry they'll be late for kick-off

but that's the least of their problems.

As we got to the house I could smell fumes.

And I thought to myself, "There's something wrong with the car."

Pulled up, turn the engine off, kids are sat in the back

and I've just seen the smoke rising through the vent on the dashboard.

Dave nips into the house to ask his wife, Michelle,

if they can use her car instead.

Michelle said, "OK. Take my car," so I went back outside the house

and I said to the boys, "Right, we need to go in Mummy's car."

Put them into Michelle's car and as I went to reverse out,

I noticed that the car that we'd been driving in,

the whole of the cabin was full of smoke.

It's less than 30 seconds since Dave got the lads out of the car

and now he fears he needs to call 999.

And he come bursting through to the kitchen saying,

"Ring the fire brigade, the car's going to blow, it's going to blow!"

And she panicked a little bit, sort of half believing me,

not believing me. I said, "No, ring the fire brigade."

So I picked up the phone straight away

and at that they'd said to me, "Oh, is the car on fire?"

So I thought, "I don't want to answer yes or no without actually

"seeing it," so I walked through to the front bedroom.

And just at that, the whole car just exploded

up in flames in front of my eyes.

I was like, "Yes, it's definitely on fire."

Michelle takes a snap of the blaze on her phone.

The speed of the fire was frightening.

Had Alfie not forgotten his kit,

all three would have been caught in the car on the motorway.

I was rooted to the spot with fear. I felt trapped in the house.

I could feel the heat coming off it and right underneath the big tree

which I was expecting to just burst into flames any minute.

All told, from turning the engine off to have been engulfed in flames,

it must have been less than a minute. Less than a minute.

The fire service arrives and, from the safety of a neighbour's garden,

Dave films them battling the blaze on his phone.

The fire brigade were fantastic.

The guys just went to town and got the hosepipe out

and it was out within 30-40 seconds.

But the resilient youngsters are still keen to get to the match

and so is their manager.

We took a decision, we said, "Look, there's nothing more we can do.

"The fire's been put out," so we went to the match.

Alfie was excited, Adam was still shaking.

The boys didn't play in the first half, played in the second half.

We won the game 6-1 so it was all smiles at the end of the game.

But when they get home, the realisation sets in.

Had I not turned to come home and had Alfie not forgotten his jacket,

I'd have turned left and gone onto the motorway

and I've got absolutely no doubt in my mind that we'd have been

driving on the motorway and the car would have set on fire.

Back to Ilkeston, Derbyshire.

24-year-old Joanna has suddenly gone into cardiac arrest during her sleep.

Guided by emergency call taker Katie Willmont, her desperate

partner, Andrew, is giving her CPR in an attempt to keep her alive.

She would take a breath every 15 seconds like a...

HE INHALES SHARPLY

And that would be it. There would be no exhale.

And you can actually hear, between breaths,

you can hear the death rattle, what people call it.

Just from providing CPR.

RASPING

And I think at that point I think she'd totally... She was gone.

She was clinically dead.

Joanna's body won't give up. There's still the faintest sign of life.

But Joanna's breathing is not effective enough to keep

a sufficient oxygen supply to her brain.

The length between each breath started to get longer and longer.

She's fading again.

And in the middle of this last-ditch attempt to give Joanna

mouth-to-mouth, their dog, Leo, starts barking to announce

the arrival of the ambulance crew.

BARKING

And when paramedic Glenn and his crewmates see Joanna,

it's clear there's no time to lose.

The young lady was on the floor

and it was quite apparent that she wasn't breathing.

And it did appear, at first sight, to be a cardiac arrest.

They reach for a defibrillator machine.

Put the pads on the patient's chest and assess the rhythm.

We could see that she was in ventricular fibrillation or VF

which basically means that there's electrical chaos in the heart,

that the heart isn't actually pumping or doing anything,

it's just quivering.

They use the defibrillator to give 24-year-old Joanna an electrical charge

hoping it will shock her heart back into a normal rhythm.

But it's not working.

I think after the second defibrillation in the bedroom

I come out of the way cos I didn't want to hinder their job,

what they was doing.

All I can keep hearing is... I'm sat on the settee behind you

and I can just keep hearing them defibrillate after defibrillate upstairs.

At that point, I was thinking, "I'm almost as good as a widow."

I'm sat down here and I'm thinking she's gone.

The defibrillator hasn't brought Joanna back to life.

So the only hope is to get her to hospital as soon as possible.

Now in the ambulance, her heart may not be beating but, while it is

still quivering, paramedic Glenn refuses to give up hope.

It's a good thing in that there's something happening

in her heart and she's got a fighting chance.

We personally delivered, I think it was eight shocks in total

prior to arriving at the hospital.

And it's after the eighth shock that, amazingly,

faintly, Joanna comes back.

Her heart was making an effort to beat.

We could very faintly feel what we call a carotid pulse,

so a pulse here.

We had a listen and we could hear her heart beating.

At hospital, Joanna is rushed straight into the Resus Department.

In my experience, very, very rarely do we get people back.

Doctors manage to stabilise Joanna.

They diagnosed that she has a rare heart condition,

Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which, thankfully, they can treat.

Against all odds, Joanna has survived.

But after being clinically dead for 40 minutes,

her recovery is still far from certain.

He was explaining, obviously, there's

a high possibility of neurological damage.

She could come out of this brain-damaged.

So, nobody really knew.

Joanna is kept under sedation for a couple of days to allow her

body and mind every chance to recover from the trauma.

And they brought her out, she didn't remember anybody but me

and her dad and as soon as I walked into intensive care

she actually said, she said my name, she says, "Drew."

And then started crying.

Thankfully, Joanna's condition improved day by day.

After two weeks, she's well enough to leave hospital

and go home where she is still recuperating.

I just feel fine. Just normal.

The only time I ever felt poorly was

when I came out of my cardiac arrest.

I remember my chest really hurting me.

But I got defibbed eight times so that's why they said that I'd

probably have quite a bit of chest pain.

Joanna was born with an extra electrical pathway in her heart

that caused her to short-circuit. It's now been removed.

My consultant says I can just live a normal life.

I am all fixed so my heart should just be normal like yourself's now.

The only thing Joanna hasn't been able to get back is her

memory of that fateful night.

If I did I think I would be an emotional wreck, to be honest.

Joanna knows she owes her life to partner, Andrew,

the paramedics and to Leo the Labrador

who woke Andrew in the middle of the night.

But also to emergency call taker Katie who talked him through the CPR.

I was so relieved when I was told that she'd survived.

I did get a bit of a pat on the back from the manager that night

and, yeah, it was really, really nice.

I don't know about you

but some of those stories made my hair stand on end.

But, thankfully, they all came through.

Join us next time to hear more stories from people who survived a close call.