Episode 13 Countryside 999

Rural Britain has some of the most challenging environments in the world.

In Scotland, the mountains, lochs and coastline encourage tourists

and locals to get out into the wilds.

But with that comes danger.

Are there any injuries with those in your party, over.

The emergency services north of the border have to deal with

extreme challenges every day.

We've just got a vehicle that way that we just want to look at.

From severe weather and treacherous terrain...

You feel it crack, yeah?

..to covering huge distances on country roads

with time against them.

OK?

-Is she usually a lot more responsive?

-Definitely.

They work around the clock,

battling against some of the most difficult situations.

We'll be right at the heart of the action.

Side by side with Air Rescue saving lives.

On the road with paramedics caring for the injured

and following the police fighting crime,

as the emergency services work together

to pick up, patch up and protect the public in rural communities.

This is Countryside 999

Coming up...

traffic police in Dumfries are on a stakeout for drug dealers.

That's our boy that we've been waiting on.

Rural paramedics help a coal worker in agony.

What would you give your pain as a score out of ten.

It's about nine.

And the Royal Navy helicopter crew race to a sick man who's all at sea.

54-year-old male who's got chronic abdominal pains on our vessel.

The UK not only boasts more than 6,000 islands,

it has some of the most breathtaking landscapes in the world.

But that doesn't mean our rural regions escape

problems found in our cities.

Every year, millions of pounds' worth of drugs

are seized from ports and motorways.

In the countryside, the police have to be vigilant

in their fight against drugs.

In Dumfriesshire, the traffic police keep watch over a network

of country roads, but patrolling the M74 is also a priority.

The motorway bridges Scotland and England, and drug traffickers

regularly travel up and down the UK on this route.

PC Ally Bell, known in the force as the human sniffer dog,

has an uncanny ability to hunt out drugs.

15 years in road policing means his hunches usually pay off.

Bingo.

Tonight, Ally's on patrol with PC Callum Kingstree,

determined to track down drivers on drug runs to and from

known hotspots in Manchester and Liverpool.

They head for the motorway, to spot-check southbound cars.

I think he might be a candidate.

We'll have a wee look and see what he's doing up in Scotland.

He's from Oldham.

According to records, the car owner is 150 miles from home,

so they decide to pull him over.

Just a routine check, nothing to worry about.

Is it your car, is it?

The driver gives details which are different to the police database.

And he says he's from Edinburgh, not Oldham.

Carrying around your birth certificate is unusual,

but in the drug world, dealers often demand to see them for ID.

Ally suspects there's more to this man than meets the eye.

He runs a check on his background.

Thank you, I've one person, I'm looking for any previous conviction.

Thanks very much.

Although he's been done twice before for selling drugs,

they have nothing on the suspect tonight and let him go.

But since he's heading south,

Ally's got a feeling he may be up to his old tricks.

I was of the opinion that he was travelling

to the Manchester or Liverpool areas,

to be involved in some form of drug activity,

and if I think that I can disrupt that

and get a result when he comes back, I will wait on him.

So PCs Ally and Callum start a stakeout.

Five and a half hours later, Ally's hunch pays off.

They spot the same car, returning to Scotland.

Lights, camera, action.

That's our boy that we've been waiting on.

We'll just get a stop on the Misuse of Drugs Act now, and detain him

and we'll take him back to Lockerbie and have a search of his car.

So the wait was worth it.

The driver is pulled over for the second time tonight

at around 11pm.

All right, pal, how are you getting on?

Good listen, I'm just going to detain you at the minute

under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, for the purposes of a search.

OK?

Going to caution you at this time, you're not obliged to say anything.

Anything you say, though, may be used as evidence.

OK, you understand that?

Yeah.

Out you come.

Just come round here for me now.

The driver is handcuffed and taken back to the station.

He's put in a holding cell and searched.

Ally and Callum then examine his car.

Eventually, Ally finds a white substance

wrapped in Clingfilm on the driver's side.

A wee lighter up there.

They suspect this small bag contains amphetamine.

But the search for a bigger stash of drugs is less fruitful.

All right, we've checked just every void in the car.

Unfortunately, looks as though he's just got a bit of personal amount

but hey, it's better than nothing at the end of the day, isn't it?

And hopefully it'll pass the message on to him that,

if he is wanting to be involved in supply of drugs, not to...

not to come up our road, or he'll be harpooned again.

The white powder will be sent to the lab for testing.

But this driver now knows that Ally will be on his tail

if he suspects he's trafficking drugs through Dumfries and Galloway.

The emergency services face unique challenges in the countryside.

Despite vast distances and narrow rural roads,

they must still be on scene within minutes.

In Dumfries, former nurse and now paramedic, Elaine Main,

is on shift with trainee Keith Roxburgh.

'999 road activated.'

They've just received an emergency call

to a man who's injured himself at work.

We're responding to an emergency call, it's...

All we know is it's a 39-year-old man with a back injury.

We don't know anything about the severity,

but we'll soon find out when we arrive on scene.

12 minutes after the call,

they arrive on site and locate the casualty.

39-year-old Colin is in agony.

What's happened to you today?

Yesterday I was in hospital getting a bronchial,

or tube down my nose into my left lung.

But it's like my left... right lung, at the bottom,

is absolutely killing me.

Colin's been suffering for several hours. And it's taking its toll.

It started about ten o'clock.

Um, but I just...

I get a certain pain, I keep on working through it and...

But this is completely different from...

Completely different.

Can I just have a look at your chest?

-Very painful?

-Mm-hmm.

OK.

Pop this onto your finger, OK?

So the pain is more down this, here?

A bit further down, and round.

So, round...?

From about there, yeah.

What were you actually doing when the pain started?

I was actually driving.

Is there any pain going down your leg at all, or...?

-No.

-Any different sensation, pins and needles or...?

-No.

With no diagnosis so far, Keith prepares an ECG

to identify any problems with Colin's heart rhythm.

Basically we pick up the electrical conductivity of the muscles in the heart.

Usually you've got a degree of suspicion -

you know, his pulse might be irregular,

or he's complaining of pain or shortness of breath -

and you can use the machine just to help you confirm a diagnosis.

Right, just nice and still, OK?

Sometimes you can have the back of the heart being affected

and you can have back pain with some heart attacks.

Finding the cause of Colin's mystery pain is a process of elimination.

What would you give your pain as a score out of ten,

if ten was the worst pain you could ever imagine?

It's about nine.

I'm just drawing up some morphine just now, which I'm diluting.

Nice and still. Sharp scratch.

The morphine should give Colin immediate relief.

And what would you say your pain score was now?

It's about a seven.

It's helped?

It's a little bit better.

The team are reassured that Colin isn't suffering a major heart episode.

With his pain more manageable,

they must now get him to hospital as soon as possible.

It's only a short journey, but it's still a painful one.

15 minutes later,

Colin's transferred to Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary.

The hospital medics will run further tests

to get to the root of the problem.

Illegal drugs are as big a problem in rural areas

as they are in the cities.

And in Dumfries and Galloway, drug crime is on the rise.

I think he might be a candidate.

Now Ally's back on motorway patrol with PC Cammy Thomson.

Determined to hunt out drugs in their Border region,

they carry out random spot checks.

All right, pal? Nothing to worry about, just a routine stop.

Can I just get you to turn your music down for a minute?

Is this your vehicle, is it?

-Do you have your driving documents with you at all?

-Aye.

Where you heading to today?

Back to Alloa? Where've you been?

Right, what was that for?

Right.

Just, for the holidays, or...?

Right, OK. So when did you set off?

Right. Got your licence there, have you, pal?

How long were you down there for?

Couple of hours?

About an hour?

So you went down for an hour to visit your cousin?

Right.

Have you ever been in any bother with the police before?

Ally has a hunch that something's not right

about driver Adam's story.

Before you can search the vehicle, and search them,

you need to have a reasonable suspicion

that there's drugs in the car.

So if you can put together the plan that he's left his home address

to go and visit his relative,

and the timescale he gives is very, very short,

he's not going to drive from Alloa to Manchester for a half hour visit.

'That's raising your suspicion straightaway.'

Just jump out for me a minute.

Just watch yourself next to the road there, buddy, just stand in here.

The officers continue to question Adam,

and he soon gets stuck for answers.

Whereabouts did you meet your cousin? At his house?

What kind of house has he got?

Is it semi-detached, detached, bungalow?

-A house?

-Aye.

-All right. OK.

'When we stop him, he was nervous anyway,'

so if you can fire a few quick questions at him,

even very, very simple questions,

like, "What sort of house does your cousin live in?"

and you could see how difficult he found that to answer.

You know, it's not rocket science.

Adam, just listen to me for a second, all right?

Is there anything in the car that shouldn't be there?

The situation is getting more serious for Adam.

The British mainland has over 11,000 miles of coastline,

and emergency services covering the countryside,

travel massive distances to save lives on land and at sea.

It's 10.53 in the morning at HMS Gannet in Ayrshire.

It's the start of the Navy Search and Rescue crew's 24-hour shift.

ALARM BEEPS

In Brodick Bay? Right, OK.

An emergency call has come in.

Phil Gamble will be the Sea King helicopter's observer.

He gathers the necessary information.

We've got a 54-year-old male

who's got chronic abdominal pains on a vessel, a Fishery Patrol vessel,

that's in the vicinity of Arran, on its way to Ardrossan,

so we're going to go and take him off to the hospital.

The Fisheries Protection vessel with the sick crewman

is making its way from Brodick on the Isle of Arran,

to Ardrossan on the mainland.

It's 22 miles from HMS Gannet's base at Prestwick.

They don't yet know the severity of the man's condition.

So the nearest hospital, around 20 miles away, is on stand-by.

Winchman and Search and Rescue medic Lee Haggerty

will descend to the deck of the ship to assess the situation.

Phil contacts the ship's captain for an update.

The ship is out at sea,

and with the possibility of a man's life at risk,

the crew arrive on the scene in just 12 minutes.

Now they need to winch medic Lee Haggerty onto the deck of the moving vessel.

Lower the winch.

Two o'clock.

Right. Half past two.

12 yards.

Five yards.

Right.

Four yards. Three yards.

Continue right. One yard. Easy.

And steady there.

On the deck.

On board, Lee is led straight to the casualty,

Graeme, who's had serious health issues before.

As Phil repositions the winch, Lee prepares Graeme for the uplift.

Graeme, take your hat off. That'll go everywhere.

Have you put your glasses in your pocket? If you can.

-Absolutely fine on your feet to get a single strop?

-Yes.

Within half an hour of take-off,

the team have winched Graeme to the safety of the helicopter.

Now they need to get him to hospital in case his condition deteriorates.

Lee gathers Graeme's vital information to pass on to

the staff at Crosshouse hospital in Kilmarnock.

And in just ten minutes, Graeme is delivered into safe hands,

and the crew can return to HMS Gannet.

Whether by air or on land, when someone is in severe pain,

the emergency services speed to their assistance.

In Dumfries and Galloway, ambulance crews cover huge distances,

but their average response time for emergency calls,

is just ten minutes.

Paramedic Elaine is back on shift, this time with Paul McGill.

They're on their way to help a man with suspected diabetic problems.

He's in Lockerbie town centre,

14 miles from their Dumfries ambulance base.

Although it's outside their catchment,

Elaine and Paul respond to the call, as local ambulances are all busy.

We're going to somebody with diabetic problems.

I don't know if it's a collapse on the high street in Lockerbie.

Over three million people suffer from diabetes in the UK.

It's a disease that affects the level of sugar in your bloodstream.

Symptoms can range from mild dizziness, through to coma.

And it can sometimes be fatal.

Hello.

We'll get you into the back of the ambulance, I think, will we?

And you're struggling to walk...

When they reach George, he's conscious but dizzy -

a clear sign of hypoglycaemia or low blood sugar.

He's been diabetic for around 18 years.

How are you feeling just now though,

what's making you think that you're hypo?

Elaine takes a blood sample to check blood sugar levels.

Just a wee sharp scratch.

You do that quite often, aye.

George forgot to check his blood sugar when he woke up,

so it could have been slowly dropping all day.

But he carries an emergency supply of sugar.

George's blood sugar reading isn't dangerously low at the moment,

but his drowsiness is a concern.

As time passes, George becomes more and more lethargic.

Elaine needs to boost his blood sugar level.

Open your eyes a wee minute.

I'm nearly blind, by the way.

OK, right, well, it's just... If you feel here, it's just...

-I know what it is.

-A tube of gel.

-Yeah.

OK, well, if I give you this, you can just

put little bits into your mouth.

If George's blood sugar plummets like it did when he was out

in the town centre, he could end up slipping into unconsciousness.

The combination of the sugary gel and oxygen is bringing George

round again, and restoring his sense of humour.

Are you allergic to anything, George?

-Anything medicine-wise?

-No.

George normally manages his diabetes with insulin.

When did you start taking insulin?

But it's crucial to balance that with food, or a hypo is inevitable.

So when did you last eat?

Last night. You've not had anything to eat today.

It's three o'clock in the afternoon. Did you not have any lunch?

No.

Nearly at Dumfries hospital, Elaine rechecks his blood sugar level.

It's gone back down to 7.6 from 8.1.

It must just be dropping, so, do you want to take some more of this stuff?

He's given a second tube of glucose.

That it?

Thank you.

You're welcome. I'll pop this back on.

Not eating anything today and then not checking his blood sugar,

led to George's bad turn in town.

Fortunately, the ambulance crew got to him

before his hypo became severe.

They'll just monitor him, monitor his levels.

From the history that we've been given this morning it does look like

it's purely because he's taken his insulin and he hasn't fed himself.

Any diabetic would tell you that just doesn't work.

Just a few miles south,

on the motorway bridging England and Scotland,

driver Adam is being questioned by

Dumfries and Galloway Traffic Police.

He was stopped at random by PCs Cammy Thompson and Ally Bell.

They throw him quickfire questions about where he'd been,

leaving him flummoxed.

What kind of house have you got?

Semi-detached, detached, bungalow?

-A house?

-Aye.

-OK.

Ally thinks he's onto something.

-Is there anything in the car that shouldn't be there?

-Aye.

-What is it?

How much is there?

-Nothing in your pockets?

-No.

Adam's been stopped in his tracks.

He's taken to Lockerbie Police Station

to be charged.

Just stand there.

What we're waiting for is the authority to give you a full search.

Do you want to grab...shorts and T-shirt out for him?

-Right.

-Ta.

He's then taken to a holding cell.

Back at the charge bar, he's cautioned.

Section 14 of the Criminal Procedure of Scotland Act 1995

for being concerned in the supply of controlled drugs.

OK?

That gives us the power to hold you for up to 12 hours,

while we make further enquiries. You understand that?

I'll caution you again. You're not obliged to say anything

but anything you say may be used as evidence. Do you understand that?

Was there anything you want to say at this time?

-No.

-Good. You understand how we're going?

-Aye.

INDISTINCT TANNOY

We'll put you back in a cell while we search your car. OK?

Outside, Cammy takes photos of Adam's car for evidence.

They make a thorough search of the car

but both know where they're likely to find the drugs.

Lo and behold, there's the 15-ounce stash of cannabis

Adam admitted to.

I can usually identify who I want to stop

and are more likely to be bringing drugs into Scotland.

It's something I enjoy doing

and I feel it's rewarding for myself

to get a good case.

With an estimated street value of between £2,000 and £3,000,

Adam's got some explaining to do.

It's been all go for the emergency services in Scotland's rural areas.

Graeme was kept in hospital overnight.

After more routine tests,

he was given the all-clear to rejoin the ship at Troon.

It turned out Colin the coalman had kidney stones,

a very painful condition.

He was kept in hospital for two days.

George was also kept in hospital for a night.

He's now fully recovered and is taking more care when he goes out.

Adam was released on bail.

He later pleaded guilty to being involved in the supply of drugs

and was sentenced to 200 hours unpaid work.

And you thought it was quiet in the countryside(!)

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