Episode 6 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.

Steady. He's on the life raft.

The emergency services north of the border have to deal with

extreme challenges every day.

There's a car upside down.

From severe weather and treacherous terrain...

Hello?!

..to covering huge distances on country roads

with time against them.

The GP's upgraded the call to an emergency.

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...

the Royal Navy helicopter crew race to a man

who's suffered a massive heart attack.

Clearly, with the state of this patient,

the imperative is to get him to hospital as quickly as possible.

Traffic cops are called to a major collision.

Yes, roger.

And it's snow-mageddon on the slopes

as ski patrol face their busiest day of the season.

The British countryside makes up a massive 86%

of our nation's landscape and is home to over 10 million of us.

Rural living is officially good for our health.

Studies have shown those of us living in the countryside

can expect to live longer than our urban counterparts.

But, when things go wrong,

getting swift access to emergency care can be difficult.

Longer journeys to hospital come with increasing risks for patients,

making getting to remote places quickly

one of the greatest challenges faced by our rural emergency services.

HMS Gannet.

Home of the Royal Navy Search And Rescue team,

based near Prestwick on Scotland's West Coast.

ALARM

It's 12:30pm.

Scramble ASAR, scramble ASAR.

The crew have a call-out.

A man has suffered a heart attack and needs urgent air evacuation.

On duty today as part of the four-strong crew

is observer, or navigator, Florry Ford.

We've just been tasked to assist with the transfer

of a 67-year-old male post heart attack.

He's at Campbeltown, just down here at the moment,

so a relatively short transit.

The medical team have gone across from Glasgow,

but they're unable to take him back in the Helimed,

so we're going to go and pick them and him up

and take them back to Glasgow.

Rescue 177's ready for departure.

Rescue Helicopter 177 is airborne in less than 15 minutes.

The helicopter is heading 37 miles east to Kintyre,

to the region's main town, Campbeltown.

40 miles long and only 11 miles wide,

Kintyre is an isolated peninsula of farmland and rugged coastline.

It's over three hours' drive from Glasgow.

With a man's life in danger,

air evacuation is the fastest means of getting him to specialist care.

Assisting pilot John Wade is co-pilot Craig "Sweenos" Sweeney.

We're en route to pick up a member of the public from Campbeltown

who's post-cardiac arrest at the moment.

The helicopters are very important in this environment,

because you can see there's lots of water, lots of islands

which have got hilly ground and, clearly,

with the state of this patient,

the imperative is to get him to hospital as quickly as possible.

The patient has suffered a major heart attack.

An air ambulance, or Helimed,

has already been dispatched from Glasgow,

with two A&E consultants from the Emergency Medical Retrieval Service.

But, on arrival,

they found the patient was too big to be transferred by Helimed.

The Navy Sea King helicopter

can carry up to 20 casualties in its spacious hold.

It's the best aircraft for the job.

A road transfer by ambulance would be out of the question.

That's Prestwick airport, where we're at,

and the casualty's over here on Campbeltown.

You see the distance is not that significant, however,

when you look at the roads to get down there,

it's about 120 miles one way to come all the way round,

so from a road move point of view, 120 miles, even with a blue light,

on these roads is going to take you a fair few hours,

and then you've to recover the patient back into hospital, as well.

Every two minutes, someone in the UK has a heart attack.

The first 60 minutes are crucial for the patient

to receive emergency care.

Easier for emergency services to address in urban areas

than in remote, rural locations.

The patient desperately needs

the specialist care available in Glasgow,

and the Navy helicopter looks to be his only means of getting it.

Rural emergency services face unique challenges,

whether attending medical emergencies by air

or preventing ones by road.

In south-west Scotland, the Dumfries & Galloway traffic cops

safeguard a network of rural roads covering an area the size of Devon.

Preventing accidents is high-priority.

The region contains three of the busiest freight roads in Scotland.

One of the most notorious is the A75,

a trunk road shared by locals, lorries and tourists

bound for the ferry ports of Cairnryan and Stranraer.

It's the early morning shift for PCs Stevie Kerr and Scott McCready.

They're conducting safety checks in an unmarked car

at a dangerous junction on the A75.

It's well known to Scott and the traffic team.

It's the start of the working day for many rural commuters,

and it's not long before the pair spot their first offender.

The car overtook the lorry on the white lines.

It's the red Volvo V70 estate, which is in front of this lorry now.

It's just sitting behind that van.

The duo give chase to the red Volvo.

Crossing double white lines is risky.

The road is busy with oncoming HGVs heading to the ferry ports.

He could have endangered his life and that of other road users.

That's a section of the road coming down there where there's

plenty of road markings, plenty of visibility

for the double white lines.

It's time to heed the voice of the law.

Morning.

OK, we were sitting in the junction back at Hargrove Crossroads.

You know where we are there, yeah?

You'll realise why we've stopped you, then,

because as you came towards that junction you overtook

in contravention of the double solid white line system there.

Do you mind taking a wee seat in the patrol car for a few minutes

just until we sort things out.

It's a wee bit quieter and safer, OK?

Cheerio.

He escapes court prosecution, but is hit with a £60 fine,

three points on his licence and some stern words from PC Stevie.

Their first offender dealt with before breakfast,

it's not long before Stevie and Scott are on the tail

of another driver chancing it on the A75.

This time, it's a lorry heading for the ferry port at Cairnryan.

On this road, lorries are limited to 40.

We can see here that we're sitting at just bang on 55 mph.

PC Scott hits the sirens.

But the driver seems oblivious to their presence.

Morning.

Stopped you for your speed today.

Travelling at 54 mph.

-50?

-No, the speed limit is 40 mph on this road.

The trucker is speeding to make the 10:30 ferry to Ireland.

Scott wants to see the records of his journey.

Tacho chart, open up.

Your tachograph.

Open it. Just give me the box, give me them all.

Is this your paperwork for the load?

If you'd like to take a seat in our car at the moment

we'll get some details from you there and examine your tachograph, OK?

Most HGVs have a tachograph -

a recording device on the driver's dashboard.

It monitors speed, distance and the amount of rest

a driver takes during a 24-hour period.

What we're going to do is have a look behind the dash.

Here there should be six screws

on the plaque here and on the dashboard.

There's only two holding it in,

so an indication it has been removed recently.

Suspecting tachograph tampering, Scott calls Stevie into the cab.

Steven, there's only two screws holding this in.

Aye, let's just pull it.

-Where's he?

-He's here.

See, its armoured cable's fine, the seal there...

-The seal's up. Is there anything round the back of that there?

-No.

It turns out the tachograph is intact,

but it reveals the driver is long due for a break.

OK, we're going to take you around the bypass and park you up.

Big roundabout, turn right?

Yeah, follow me, OK?

The trucker has blown his chances of making the 10:30 ferry.

What's going to happen now,

we're going to park him up for 11 hours,

whereby he can't drive the lorry until he's had the full rest.

He was looking to get to the 10:30 boat,

and we stopped him at 8:30,

so he just did not have the time to get there.

So, he was rushing on all the time for a boat that he probably

wasn't going to make in the first place, and if he was going to make it

he'd have been speeding all the way along the 75,

and that's the kind of vehicles we want to target.

With the driver parked up for his required rest,

and a white line ignorer given points and a fine,

Dumfries traffic cops Scott and Stevie have done their bit

to prevent accidents on the A75.

Roger, AJ, currently on scene.

But it's a very different story for fellow traffic cops

John Parry and Scott Burnett.

They have to deal with the disastrous consequences

of icy weather on a smaller country road.

Further up the West Coast, the Royal Navy Search And Rescue team

are racing to Campbeltown on the remote Kintyre peninsula

to pick up a man who's suffered a major heart attack.

The individual had had a heart attack earlier in the day,

and with anything like that

time is muscle,

so it's really important he gets care quickly.

The 67-year-old needs to be transferred to Glasgow's

Golden Jubilee Hospital for immediate cardiac care,

but he's too big to be transported in the Air Ambulance

already on site.

So, the Navy Sea King helicopter is on its way.

Its roomy hold can take up to four stretchers,

so it's more than capable of accommodating him.

We'll be landing shortly, over.

50 minutes after leaving the Ayrshire base,

the crew reach Campbeltown hospital.

OK, good line in. Follow along 60 yards.

-Well clear tail, well clear right.

-Well clear left.

With no helipad, they need to land in a nearby field,

guided by the same flare used for the Glasgow Air Ambulance team.

And you've got three foot tail, two, one...

Tail on now, now, now. Tail's down.

INAUDIBLE

Retired fisherman David has been brought in

to Campbeltown Hospital by local paramedics

who responded to his 999 call.

David's heart stopped,

but the ambulance team managed to get it started again.

Miraculously, he's now conscious and surprisingly relaxed.

Around him, the team of ambulance and hospital medics join forces with

the navy crew to form a plan for getting David on to the helicopter.

They use a piece of equipment known as a Patslide

to relieve the stress on David

and take the burden of manual lifting off the team.

Let's get the gentleman onto his right on three. One, two, three.

OK, happy and back down on three.

-Do you want me to slide over?

-No, no. You stay where you are.

We'll do everything for you.

On three, everybody set? One, two, three.

That's excellent. Thanks, guys.

Are you all right, sir? You just relax now.

We'll get this mattress shaped around you.

He's then zipped into a rescue bag, which should make it easier

and safer to transport him.

David lives just a mile away from the ambulance station.

Any further and the outcome could have been very different.

He was reached in just two minutes by local paramedic Scott Ramsey.

It's the best result you can get under the circumstances.

He was definitely at the right place at the right time.

He got the right treatment.

Hopefully, he'll make a rapid recovery once they get him

into proper definitive care.

David is still not out of the woods.

The cardiac arrest will have taken a massive toll on his body.

He'll need close monitoring throughout the helicopter journey until

he's handed over to the specialist cardiac care team in Glasgow.

Later, it's a combined effort to get heart-attack victim David

to hospital.

And emergency services face

treacherous road conditions at a head-on collision.

Two vehicles have met on a bend, an icy bend.

Unfortunately, one has come off worse than the other.

But first, it's problems on the piste for the ski patrol.

Remote rescues pose some of the greatest challenges to

our rural emergency services.

Helicopters can be vital to getting casualties off a mountain quickly.

But they are not the only way.

Cairn Gorm Mountain, Britain's busiest snow sport resort.

It's World Snow Day,

a global celebration of winter sports held once a year.

It's set to be one of the busiest days of the season.

On duty today is ski patroller Justine Stewart.

Her job is to keep the slopes as safe as possible,

but the weather isn't helping. It's -8 with a wind-chill of -28.

The winds are picking up on the mountain.

The summit weather station is saying 60, gusting 70.

We're quite sheltered down here.

South-easterly winds, so it may not sound like it's sheltered

but this is sheltered in comparison to what it's like at the top.

The snow's been blowing down the mountain

so there are scoured areas of ice.

With such difficult conditions on the slopes, accidents can happen.

Any minor injuries are dealt with in a medical room by the ski

patrollers, who are all trained in advanced first aid.

The resort can deal with anything between five and 25 injuries in a day.

We do get a lot of casualties. Especially beginner snowboarders.

We get a lot of wrist injuries from those.

It's very difficult to say.

Unfortunately, we can't predict those things.

It's not long before Justine's first casualty of the day.

Skier Liz has injured her knee.

-Can you still wiggle your toes?

-Yes.

-Can you pinpoint the pain for me?

Or is it all over?

-It's here.

-Can we undo your boots?

I'll have a wee feel up here to check everything is in place.

Is the pain getting worse?

Justine has radioed for help and a sledge

so that they can get the casualty back to base as quickly as possible.

-This is Liz.

-Hi, Liz.

Liz has fallen and hurt her left knee.

They work quickly to get Liz off the mountain to reduce

the risk of hypothermia.

This just ties you in, Liz.

-You're still doing OK?

-Yeah.

We'll try to get you down as quickly as possible.

The sledge is the quickest way of getting Liz off the mountain,

but it's 2km downhill to the medical room.

Icy conditions and other skiers on the slope make for a tough journey.

Hey, guys. Can you just slow down?

Nine minutes later, they reach the base station.

-Can you still feel your toes?

-Yeah.

-If we can get you to swing out...

Perfect.

The medical room, also known as the Aonach room,

is the first port of call for all the slope's casualties.

Justine checks the extent of Liz's injury.

-Still sore there?

-It's not too bad.

That's me flicking a muscle. It's not bony here.

I think you might have sprained it.

Thankfully, Liz's injury appears to be relatively minor

and won't need treatment.

Now, Justine has to turn her attention to off-duty

police officer Scott.

He's come in worried he's dislocated his shoulder.

It's like someone's sticking a sharp needle into the ball socket.

Really sharp, when I try to push something.

Can I have a feel round here?

Because you're quite muscly around there, sometimes it tightens up,

especially if you have dislocated it.

I would expect you to have more pain if you have dislocated it.

It's a complicated joint in there,

so I think you might have twinged one of the joints.

I'll get some ice on it just now.

An icepack made with snow is applied to Scott's shoulder to

-ease his pain.

-Just going to rest it on there. How's that?

But then another call comes through on the radio.

I'm quite confident this gentleman hasn't dislocated his shoulder

that I've got just now.

There's a DEFINITE dislocated shoulder just coming in.

With Justine kept so busy in the treatment room,

it's unlikely she'll get back out on the slopes any time soon.

1500 people are on the mountain today.

And the casualties just keep coming.

From rush-hour on the slopes to rush-hour on the roads.

Earlier, traffic cops Stevie and Scott had a busy morning

enforcing the law on the notoriously dangerous A75.

I've stopped you for your speed today.

Inevitably, road traffic accidents do occur.

Dealing with the aftermath can be particularly

challenging on small country roads.

Dumfries and Galloway traffic police cover 2500 miles of public road.

They're a small team. One cop for roughly every 60 miles.

They also deal with one of the highest serious accident rates

per head of population in the UK.

SIRENS

Who was driving the car?

Stevie and Scott's colleagues John Parry and Scott Burnett

are attending a minor road accident in the centre of Lockerbie.

It's 8:47 - rural rush-hour.

I'm just regulating the traffic control just to make sure that...

there's not any further collisions.

The driver of the Renault, Jane, is uninjured but in shock.

Scott helps manoeuvre her to the roadside.

The traffic cops give a handover briefing

to other emergency services who have arrived and are now taking over.

OK, Jane. We're going to stand down and leave you with these officers, OK? OK, no problem.

John and Scott are freed up to respond to further incidents.

MESSAGE ON RADIO

And it's not long before an urgent call comes in

from the control centre.

Roger, AG. A74M southbound. Free to speak, go ahead.

One driver is trapped and unconscious

so this qualifies as a major road traffic collision.

The duo race back up the motorway to Lockerbie.

Last year, Dumfries and Galloway Police responded

to over 300 serious traffic accidents.

'It's not so much worry. Yes, you've got your adrenaline,

'I guess that's your natural anticipation

'of what you're going to see when you get there.

'But we're trained for these sort of circumstances

'so the biggest factor is ourselves getting there in one piece.'

Nine minutes after taking the call, they arrive at the collision.

Emergency services are already on the scene.

We've got a car into the front of a Transit van hauling a trailer.

The car driver is still trapped and unconscious.

Fire crews, paramedics and police work together to get him out

of the car as quickly as possible.

As they've come round the bend, they've seen each other,

they've put their brakes on and they've gone head on.

And unfortunately, one's come off worse than the other.

From a multi-team effort on the roads, to one by air.

In Campbeltown, the Royal Navy Search and Rescue Team

are preparing to airlift heart attack victim David.

Lack of space in the air ambulance means he'll need the bigger

Navy helicopter to get him to urgent specialist care in Glasgow.

David's been brought to the waiting helicopter

but there's a problem.

The ground is so waterlogged, the ambulance can't reach it.

The Search and Rescue Team prepare to move the Sea King closer.

Small, rural hospitals like Campbeltown rarely have helipads

but a boggy field is no challenge for the Navy team.

An eight-man team of coastguards, ambulance crew

and Helimed medics help lift David onto the helicopter.

Main's clear, tail's clear. Steady up. Well clear as you climb.

INAUDIBLE

That's us now departing Campbeltown, we are now eight persons on board.

On board are medics Alistair Kennedy and Andrew Inglis

from the Emergency Medical Retrieval Service.

They travel out to rural areas to provide critical care

on scene to seriously ill patients like David.

Got the casualty in the aircraft now with the retrieval team.

He's stable, we're looking after him. We're on our way back up to Glasgow.

It's about 35 minutes for us.

At a guess, probably a four-hour - at least - road journey,

120 miles and some very small, windy roads.

The Royal Navy Search and Rescue Unit

regularly assist in medical emergencies like David's.

30% of Scotland is made up of mountains.

And there are over 100 inhabited islands.

So air evacuation's not just the quickest way...

..it's very often the only way.

Rescue 177. Roger, continue to the Golden Jubilee

and let down at your discretion.

Wind at the field is 07 degrees, seven knots.

Emergency medic Alistair keeps a close eye on David.

His condition remains stable.

It's not long before the crew make their approach to Glasgow.

BEEPING

OK, we've got it in visual. Forward about three, two, one.

Clear the nose, clear right, check, clear left...we're there.

This was a really good example where the system worked.

We started off with the paramedics arriving on the scene.

'They brought the man back, they stabilised him,

'took him to their local hospital. We then arrived to actually package him.

'As soon as he was ready, back at the Sea King'

off to Glasgow where he could get the care he really needed.

-REVERSING WARNING:

-Stand well clear.

Four hours earlier, David's heart stopped.

Now, thanks to the hard work of the emergency teams,

he's been given a second chance.

Getting critical care when he needed it most

not only saved his life, it should aid his recovery.

Tackling medical emergencies in isolated areas

is a challenge for our rural emergency services.

And it doesn't get much more testing or more isolated

than the high Arctic plateau of the Cairngorm mountain range.

Back at the ski centre, World Snow Day is continuing to keep

ski patroller Justine busy in the medical room.

So, what happened? You'll have to give me the lowdown again.

-OK. I was skiing down The White Lady.

-OK.

And when I got to the bottom, I wiped out.

Now she's treating 12-year-old Marcus who's banged his head.

First, my head was sore, just around here,

and by about...a wee bit later,

-I got coloured dots going over my eyes.

-OK.

Can you look at my finger?

Follow me along.

Concussion is always a concern with head injuries

so Justine runs some tests.

-Very good at this, have you done this before?

-No.

What about when I come in close?

-Which one popped out, can you remember?

-It was my left one.

He's focused and talking clearly.

Are your mum and dad up here just now?

Yeah, my mum and dad are somewhere on the mountain.

-Can you get in contact with Mum and Dad?

-Yeah, we're still trying.

-Tried a few times.

-Your address?

Marcus seems none the worse for a bump to his head.

After a thorough check-up, he's reunited with his mum.

1500 people are on the mountain today,

and the casualties just keep coming.

In the past three hours, the team have treated ten injuries,

and there's no sign of the casualties letting up.

Yes, just send her along. Thank you.

-RADIO:

-Cheers.

Just a contact telephone number.

Justine isn't the only one who's kept busy.

Ski patroller Iain Cornfoot has arrived

with yet another casualty off the slopes.

It's a suspected dislocated shoulder.

We can give it a shot. If you can support that arm first

and I'll take my hand out from underneath so I can put it up.

Andrew takes a hit of pain relief for the removal of his jacket.

-Justine?

-Yeah?

-Are you free?

-Yep.

-Sorry, what's your name?

-Ah!

-Move forward a bit.

-Ow.

-We'll be as gentle as possible.

-Can you yank that arm a bit?

-Yeah, will do.

I was just skiing down the lower slopes, coming down

to the bottom here and there was a gentleman

who thought he'd dislocated his shoulder

but he was in a lot of pain.

BLEEP

Ohh!

BLEEP

Ah!

Layers of thermal clothing are vital in sub-zero temperatures,

but peeling them off is very painful.

He heard someone behind him and tried to get out the way

and he fell on his shoulder.

-Ah!

-BLEEP.

Injury revealed. It's clear it's not a dislocated shoulder.

I think it was more his clavicle than his shoulder,

so it wasn't dislocated, but it was really painful

and he was pretty much in agony. It's very difficult

in that shoulder area to get the arm in a position which is comfortable.

The injury is too serious for the ski patrol.

Iain strongly suspects Andrew has a fractured clavicle

and needs to go to the medical centre in Aviemore for further treatment.

Iain straps him up so the journey isn't too painful.

Cool. We'll phone ahead and let them know you're coming.

-All right, cheers.

-OK. All the best, guys. Cheers.

Andrew's friends take him off for treatment 10 miles away.

It's been a hectic day for the Cairngorm ski patrol.

The total number of casualties in the last three hours

has risen to 14.

Despite the wild weather, 1500 people turned up on the slopes

today, making it the busiest day of the season.

It's a challenging job keeping everyone safe in some

of the harshest, windiest and coldest conditions in Britain.

But for Justine, it's just another day at the office.

It's just basically what we do. You don't really...

You don't really think about it at the time.

I remember thinking when I was younger

and skied in Cairngorm that the people in ski patrol were heroic

but I was five, so that's probably why.

From icy slopes to icy roads.

Who was driving the car?

Traffic cops John Parry and Scott Burnett are being kept

busy on small country roads in and around Lockerbie.

After dealing with a minor incident in the town,

they have been called to the outskirts where a car

and a van have had a head-on collision.

Ambulance is here.

The car driver is trapped and unconscious.

Roger, AJ, currently on scene in relation to

this RTC at Lockerbie golf course.

Can confirm two vehicles involved.

A van and a small car.

The road becomes very, very treacherous.

Take care on your advance.

It has been very, very icy so as they've been approaching the bend,

the other vehicle's been approaching the bend

and as they've came round the bend, they've seen each other,

they've put the brakes on and they've gone head-on.

And unfortunately, one's came off worse than the other.

The driver of the van is uninjured

but there is major concern for the car driver, 52-year-old Gordon.

A Helimed crew arrives to join the other emergency services

already on the scene.

Fire brigade, ambulance service, police, everybody works hand-in-hand

but the main priority is the casualty.

The extent of Gordon's injuries isn't yet known.

The fire crews start removing the roof

with heavy-duty metal cutters, known as the jaws of life.

With all the teams working together,

the fire crew manage to get the roof off

and work with the ambulance team to get Gordon on to a stretcher.

The Helimed crew are on hand to evacuate him if necessary.

One of the persons involved in the accident

is in the back of the ambulance just now getting assessed just to see

what sort of injuries he has, whether it's life-threatening.

Cos if it does change from a minor RTC, road traffic crash,

to a life-threatening one,

there's a lot more procedures need to be done for a life-threatening one.

John, Scott and the Helimed team are on standby whilst they await

the ambulance crew's assessment of Gordon's injuries.

Meanwhile, the gritter arrives to make the road conditions safer.

Gordon has regained consciousness.

His injuries aren't as serious as first feared.

He suffered broken bones and will need to be taken to

Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary, 12 miles away.

The traffic cops update the worried van driver with some welcome news.

Which is good.

The Helimed team are stood down and head back to Glasgow.

Weather conditions is a major player here.

I mean, hardly any of us could walk down the road

prior to it being gritted so you can just imagine

the effect it had on tyre adhesion and braking.

With the other emergency teams having done their bit

and Gordon safely away to hospital, it's down to

traffic cops John and Scott to help with the clear-up.

From our point of view,

all we're waiting for now is the recovery of the vehicles.

Once the recovery of the vehicles has taken place,

the road will be reopened.

It has been gritted now

so hopefully that'll be the end of accidents on this road.

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

After a stay in hospital,

heart-attack victim David is back home in Campbeltown

with his wife and family, where he is continuing to receive treatment.

Gordon, the car driver in the Lockerbie collision, is facing

a major operation after breaking both his feet.

He is relying on walking sticks in the meantime.

And the avalanche of injuries kept coming on Cairn Gorm Mountain

with 25 incidents by the end of World Snow Day.

And you thought it was quiet in the countryside.

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