Episode 13 Countryside 999


Episode 13

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From the Highlands of Scotland

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to the coast of Cornwall...

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..the great British countryside is spectacular.

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But we work and play in it at our peril.

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And when things go wrong,

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the emergency services race to the rescue...

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This chap is having a heart attack and we need to get him in quickly.

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There are no police courses for this.

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..going hundreds of miles, against the clock,

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battling the elements and braving the weather.

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From fields and forests to cliffs and country roads,

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we will be right at the heart of the action...

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..with police fighting crime...

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I could seize your dogs and your van,

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but I want to summons you all to court.

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..paramedics saving lives...

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..and wardens safeguarding our lakes.

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Come out of the way!

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We're there, as the emergency services pull together

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to pick up, patch up and protect the public.

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This is Countryside 999.

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Coming up...

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The Cornwall Air Ambulance rescue a horse rider

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with no memory of a shocking fall.

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Blimey, what happened, then? Does anybody know?

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Drama in the dark in Dumfries and Galloway.

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There is a call-out to a suspected heart attack.

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And an audacious night-time crime in County Durham

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leads to the search for some valuable sheep.

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Currently, it's around £9,500-worth of sheep that have gone missing.

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County Durham. Over 850 square miles of rolling landscape.

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It's famed for its castles, cathedral and coalmines.

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But less so for its farming.

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Yet, over 60% of this county is agricultural land.

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That's a lot of farms, farm equipment and livestock.

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All increasing targets for a growing problem - rural crime.

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We suspect that they belong to another local farmer,

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and that they may well have been stolen.

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It has cost me a fortune.

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-I worked hard for this.

-I'm seizing your battery.

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Officer Kevin Hall of the Durham Constabulary

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knows this only too well.

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Luckily, he has always wanted to be a copper.

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You're arresting people that have done wrong

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and maybe change their mind and their life path

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away from crime into being a decent member of the public.

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Today, a call has come in. A farmer has reported a massive sheep theft.

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We're off to a farm which has had 136 Suffolk cross sheep

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stolen overnight from, I believe, out in the fields.

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So, we're just going to go out there now and meet the farmer

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and find out exactly what's happened.

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From the police station in Consett,

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Kevin is making his way 11 miles east to the farm.

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The price of lamb is rising.

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Altogether, the national flock of the UK is worth about £1 billion.

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And they are being stolen on a scale that's new to Kevin.

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Definitely for this area, it's very unusual for that many sheep

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to go off. 136 sheep to go in one night is a lot of sheep.

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Last year, rustlers got away with around 90,000 livestock

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animals across the UK.

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That's not just one man and his dog.

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It's going to be quite a professional team that have

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come up. I would guess the majority of the stock that has gone

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could have been this year's lambs, so you're looking at, potentially,

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a substantial amount of money and loss to the farmer himself.

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Kevin is on his way to meet Mark,

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a farmer who has been rearing lambs for over 20 years.

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Hoping to build a fuller picture of the crime,

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Kevin is joined by community support officer Vicky.

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-So, of the 136, 27 of them were orange dotted and tagged?

-Yes.

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And the rest didn't have any mark on them.

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Because they were about a week, ten days away from being...

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-So, they're all this year's lambs?

-Yes, they're all this year's lambs.

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The theft is a blow for Mark,

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who's spent the last four months rearing the 136 Suffolk cross lambs.

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Anyone who knows what lambing's like, it's hard work.

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We put a lot of time and effort into them.

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It's unsettling, really, to know

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that someone's been into one of our fields and stolen the sheep

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and we're worried that, where do we put the sheep to make them safe?

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Financially, it'll add up to £10,000 plus,

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so I was very surprised and upset about it.

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Mark leads Kevin to the scene of the crime.

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We're going to follow him. He's just jumping on his quad

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and we'll follow him to the field where the sheep were stored.

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Kevin will look for evidence that might lead him to the gang

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and Mark's missing sheep.

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Obviously, he's pretty annoyed about the whole matter.

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He understands, obviously, being a farmer, that it's very difficult

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to chase any stolen sheep and to identify them as stolen.

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It's not an easy... They need to know what they're doing.

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It's not an easy thing to do.

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I think we'll just have a look around, if you don't mind,

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and just have a snoop round.

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Looking at the layout of the road and the field and the gates,

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I think it's more than likely that they've

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came into this gate area here.

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Unfortunately, recent rain may have washed away any clues.

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I mean, again, ideally if they've had a wagon into here...

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It's frustrating for Kevin, as he has a pretty clear picture of what

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went on.

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Mmm... But if they've had a...

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if they've had a couple of lads with dogs out

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and just been bringing them in 20 at a time...

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We'll have to make further inquiries further afield, to try

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and chase these sheep and where they might have gone.

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It's obviously a professional job.

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But even if the lambs are still in the area, picking them out

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from County Durham's thousands of other sheep isn't going to be easy.

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As you can appreciate, it's a very difficult task, where ear tags

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can be changed and there's that many varieties and shapes

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and sizes of lambs. It's very difficult.

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Dumfries and Galloway, a county welcoming visitors,

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as they cross the border into Scotland.

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Its rolling green countryside is criss-crossed with winding lanes

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and scattered with shaggy cows.

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And with only 60 people per square mile, there are few there

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to spoil the view.

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But it does make getting to an emergency tricky,

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especially at night.

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The ambulance service in Dumfries and Galloway answered

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almost 17,000 accident and emergency calls last year.

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Paramedic John West and his partner Michael Harmjanz

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work the night shift four days every month.

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I can't believe we've not had a cup of tea yet.

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You can answer me back, Mike!

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THEY LAUGH

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That's a lot of nights spent together.

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Sometimes, I see my shift partner Michael

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more than what I see my wife,

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which I don't know is a good thing or a bad thing.

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It's pretty interesting, because it's amazing who's

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going about at night and what kind of jobs you get.

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Sometimes, people wouldn't believe

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what goes on in the hours of darkness.

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It's 8pm.

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The night shift's just started and an emergency call has come in.

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The location is close to the ambulance base in Dumfries.

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It's in a street just a few miles away.

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The crew know the area well.

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Behind Tesco's.

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And John also knows the patient.

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This is an old music teacher of mine! 85 years old.

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In Dumfries and Galloway,

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the average response time to a 999 call is just over ten minutes.

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That's 22A. 4...

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I think it's this wee bungalow here, Michael.

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Today, John and Michael arrive in under two minutes.

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Moira is 82 years old and urgently needs help for her husband.

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85-year-old Frank suffers from vascular dementia.

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He's been in a highly confused state all night.

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-What's the problem tonight?

-Just going berserk.

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Over the past three hours, I've had a stand-off with him.

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-Have you got a wee stool or something?

-A stool?

-Yeah.

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There you go, pal. Any pains?

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You've not any pain.

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Right.

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After Alzheimer's, vascular dementia is the most common form of dementia.

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When we arrived, he was frustrated, dishevelled.

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He was not very well, because he had a temperature, which,

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on top of his illness, was making matters worse.

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Frank has previously suffered from a stroke,

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and his health has deteriorated.

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-His walking's dreadful.

-Dreadful tonight.

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Recently, John and another colleague took Frank to A & E,

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after a nasty fall.

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So, what happened last time Joyce and I were out?

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About three weeks ago? During the day? Was that a fall?

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John's concerned about serious swelling

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he didn't see on his last visit.

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Yeah, see, his hand's swollen.

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-Is that new, or...?

-It's not usually swollen.

-Not usually swollen, is it?

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-How long have you been married now?

-57 years. This is always swollen.

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57 years, Frank?

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-Yeah, she said she is.

-96/73.

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At 96 over 73,

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Frank's blood-pressure reading is low for his condition.

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I think maybe Frank's maybe got a wee urine infection.

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In dementia sufferers, urinary tract infections can cause severe

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confusion. It would explain Frank's increased agitation.

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Can you mind me frae school? What was it you used to teach?

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He recognised me from school,

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which was 1979 when I left, so that's, like, 30-odd years ago.

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Everybody knows someone that's got

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either Parkinson's or Alzheimer's or dementia,

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and there's more and more people out in the community,

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because people are living longer.

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There are over 800,000 people living with dementia in the UK.

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It's estimated two-thirds are cared for by a loved one at home.

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So, you don't recognise this lady as your wife of 57 years?

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'Best course of action for her to do at that time was to phone 999.'

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Nobody should be afraid to phone treble nine.

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-Do you want slippers?

-No, he won't need them.

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With a possible urinary tract infection,

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John has only one option.

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Listen, we're taking you to the hospital.

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It's a relief for Moira, because tonight she just couldn't cope.

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She must be that desperate to do that,

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to see someone that she loves going down as fast as that.

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It's a cry for help.

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And, of course, Michael and I go and we pick the pieces up.

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Michael and John are taking Frank

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to Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary for observations.

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We'll put you on the bed, Frank.

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So, we need both feet back a wee bit, Frank.

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And we need to stand you up.

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You were an English teacher come music teacher.

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You weren't very good at the music.

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The best place for Frank that night was in hospital.

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In County Durham, thieves have stolen 136 lambs from Mark's farm.

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They're worth around £10,000.

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They need to know what they're doing. It's not an easy thing to do.

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PC Kevin Hall has been doggedly on their tail.

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So, you seen it on the day of the theft and, then, when after that?

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He's been checking farms,

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abattoirs and livestock markets throughout the North East

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and following up all possible leads from his base in Consett.

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I'll do some further inquiries and see

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if I can trace that type of vehicle in our force area.

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But, yeah, if you do get anything else, give us

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a call back. That would be much appreciated.

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20 days after the theft, Kevin's received an anonymous tip-off,

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made via the national Crimestoppers phone line.

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He's been told the sheep are on a nearby farm,

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and he's raised a warrant to search it.

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Hello there, it's Kevin Hall at Consett police station.

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He's calling Mark to give him an update.

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..so we've got a warrant from the magistrates to go and execute

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to see if we can locate your...hopefully your sheep.

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That's why we obviously have got the photograph of the lambs

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and the tag, so we can try and make some sort of identity there and then.

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With the new information, Kevin's optimistic,

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but the odds are stacked against the police.

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I only know of one other case where actually some lambs

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have been recovered,

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and it's a lengthy process, because we do have to go through

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that DNA profiling of the ram that sired the sheep.

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Fingers crossed for tomorrow.

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I think it should be a good job in the morning.

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The next day, Sergeant Vicky Coxon briefs Kevin

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and the team before the warrant search.

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They're joined by

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an animal health inspector from Durham County Council.

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Morning, everybody.

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We're here today because we've been given

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a magistrate's warrant to execute.

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This is following some intelligence that we've received.

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The team need to know what evidence they're on the lookout for.

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We're not just looking for these sheep,

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we're looking for anything that might be connected with those

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sheep, so we are going to be looking for the likes of ear tags, any guns

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and stuff that may be used to put new ear tags into these sheep.

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With the team briefed...

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Any questions?

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..they hit the road.

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So, we're just on the access lane to the farm and turning in.

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Looks like quite a nice, decent setup.

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So, initially, myself and the sergeant are going to go in

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and knock on the door and try and speak with the occupants

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before we all sort of just roll up there.

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The farm looks empty.

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Cannot see any there.

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There's a vehicle moving on the land just through there.

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-It's just down there.

-Maybe going round the back.

-Yeah.

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I'll have a look around, then.

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Then the farmer arrives.

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We've got a search warrant, a magistrate's warrant,

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-to search the property for some stolen sheep.

-Stolen sheep?

-Yes.

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-You'll get a copy of the warrant.

-Do you want all the sheep in, like?

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When we've turned up, it's actually been

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a tenant farmer who operated the farm.

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The tenant farmer is co-operative.

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The team go through his paperwork and outbuildings.

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See, there's some other tags with a different number on.

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They find sheep tags,

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but they don't belong to the sheep they're looking for.

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In relation to the sheep that we're looking for, he knows the job.

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When I said to him how many we're looking for,

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he says, "They're the ones stolen from Durham, aren't they?"

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He's willing to take us to go and have a look at the lambs he's got.

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He's saying none of them are tagged. He doesn't have paperwork for them,

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because they're ones that he's bred himself.

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Do you want to come with me? You obviously have

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-more knowledge of the sheep than I do!

-Yeah.

-Yes?

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The farmer has heard about the theft

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and is doing all he can to help.

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While the farm search continues, he takes Kevin

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and Sergeant Coxon to some nearby fields to inspect his sheep.

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He's stating that, you know, that he hasn't got any stolen items

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or stolen sheep on his farms.

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I'll reverse back. Just pull that gate this way a bit, will you?

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There's no sign of the missing 136 lambs.

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All we can do is obviously act on the intelligence we've got.

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-It is a big thing, there's a lot gone missing.

-Yeah.

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And it's a lot of money.

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Search complete, it transpires the anonymous tip-off was false.

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In 12 months' time, if somebody was to take them,

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they'd be worth 150 quid apiece.

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-Do you know what I mean? It's a lot of money.

-Yeah.

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The outcome was that it was a negative result. We didn't find

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the sheep or any related material regarding the theft of them.

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Get a good summer and Cornwall's temperatures can rise

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to 30 degrees. Tourists flock to its beaches.

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At the same time, tranquil and remote in the heart

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of the county is Bodmin Moor, one of Britain's wildest uplands.

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But when things go wrong here,

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getting help to those in need takes one of these.

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Mark Fuszard has been with the Cornwall Air Ambulance

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for the last eight years.

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Deep breath. And relax.

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'You don't know what you'll deal with from minute

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'to minute, let alone from day to day.

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'You can turn up for work, not knowing what will happen that day.'

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It's work that requires a love of the unpredictable.

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You've no idea what you're going to go to until the phone rings,

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and that can be quite stressful, but it's a stress that I kind of like.

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It's mid-morning, and the team is scrambling.

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All we've got at the moment is that it's a lady that's

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fallen off a horse in St Breward, which is on the Bodmin Moor,

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so potentially, she could be in a fairly remote location.

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Today Mark's flying with pilot Doug Pye and paramedic Stu Croft.

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From their air ambulance base in Newquay, they take a 16-mile

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flight to the western edge of Bodmin Moor, near St Breward.

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Devil's Jump is one of the moor's few natural landmarks.

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It's a narrow gorge famous amongst climbers for its steep cliffs.

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But today, it's a rider in need of help.

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In the past five years, the Cornwall Air Ambulance has dealt with

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almost 140 horse-related incidents.

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Horse riders can catch you out.

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You can really never tell, especially if you land on your head.

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Then it's potentially life-threatening injuries.

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Paramedic Stu Croft knows it could be tricky getting to the casualty.

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They've been airborne for just eight and half minutes,

0:24:130:24:16

but they're aware every second counts.

0:24:160:24:19

Nine minutes from take-off and they spot the casualty.

0:24:500:24:54

A lot of horses around, a lot of people riding their horses,

0:25:130:25:16

so we don't want to spook those

0:25:160:25:17

and make the problem even worse than it actually is.

0:25:170:25:19

It was quite a steep hill.

0:25:280:25:30

We had to land at the top, where it was nice and flat.

0:25:300:25:33

The casualty's been taking part in a charity horse riding event.

0:25:460:25:51

A steward leads Mark 200 metres down the hill.

0:25:510:25:54

Right. So, she's a bit confused? OK.

0:26:000:26:02

Mark's carrying a full kitbag.

0:26:040:26:06

With this kind of incident, he can't take any chances.

0:26:060:26:10

Hello! Dina?

0:26:110:26:13

Hi, Dina, my name's Mark.

0:26:130:26:15

Have we got any pain anywhere at the moment?

0:26:150:26:18

Dina was attempting

0:26:210:26:23

to jump a gate, when her horse refused.

0:26:230:26:25

She fell, landing on her shoulder and face.

0:26:270:26:30

Fellow rider Bridget has been looking after her.

0:26:300:26:32

And Dina can you remember what happened at all?

0:26:320:26:35

Not at all. Yeah.

0:26:350:26:36

-Short-term memory is very poor.

-OK.

0:26:360:26:38

What happened - no recollection at all.

0:26:380:26:42

She couldn't recollect any of the events...of what had happened.

0:26:420:26:45

She couldn't remember actually falling to the floor.

0:26:450:26:48

She's obviously got a head injury

0:26:480:26:49

that we need to be quite concerned about.

0:26:490:26:52

Is that your helmet behind us there?

0:26:520:26:54

Were you wearing a helmet?

0:26:540:26:55

Dina's helmet would have absorbed a great deal of the shock to her head,

0:26:550:27:00

but she may have still suffered serious spinal and neck injuries.

0:27:000:27:04

Dina, I'm just going to take your watch off and take your pulse.

0:27:040:27:07

Is that all right?

0:27:070:27:08

It was 68

0:27:080:27:10

-a minute last time I took it, which was about five minutes ago.

-OK.

0:27:100:27:13

-Brilliant.

-Breaths were about 16 a minute.

-Fantastic.

0:27:130:27:15

-Are you a health-care worker?

-I'm a stroke therapist.

-Oh, OK.

0:27:150:27:20

And Dina's obviously landed on her face

0:27:200:27:22

cos we've got some blood around her nose. OK.

0:27:220:27:24

Land-based paramedics arrive.

0:27:260:27:28

Hi, mate, all right? You were quick.

0:27:280:27:30

-Come across in that one.

-We had a four-wheel drive.

-Fantastic.

0:27:300:27:33

Mike Bennett and his colleague managed to hitch a lift.

0:27:350:27:38

Thankfully, we had a couple of willing volunteers.

0:27:380:27:41

This gent with a four-wheel drive there

0:27:410:27:43

and the chap with the quad that was able to bring us across.

0:27:430:27:46

The chaps descend out of the skies,

0:27:460:27:49

but two of them sometimes need a bit of a hand.

0:27:490:27:52

The team get to work.

0:27:520:27:54

We needed to put a collar on her and we needed to immobilise her.

0:27:540:27:57

Because she's landed on her head, we've got to treat her as

0:27:570:28:00

if she's got a C spine injury.

0:28:000:28:03

Damage to the upper cervical part of the spine, from falls

0:28:030:28:07

like Dina's, can cause paralysis to the legs and upper body.

0:28:070:28:11

What we're going to do is, we might have to cut some of your clothes off

0:28:110:28:15

to have a good look at you,

0:28:150:28:16

just to make sure that we're not missing anything at all. Yes.

0:28:160:28:20

And we're going to have to cut your jodhpurs off, as well.

0:28:200:28:23

We need to look at her body and make sure that there isn't any injuries

0:28:230:28:26

that potentially could be life-threatening that we could miss

0:28:260:28:30

if we were to leave her fully-clothed.

0:28:300:28:32

Mark first checks for any loss of feeling.

0:28:320:28:35

When I touch your leg here, can you feel that?

0:28:350:28:38

Does it feel the same as when I touch your leg there?

0:28:380:28:41

The sensations are the same. What about your hands?

0:28:410:28:43

Any... Can you feel that?

0:28:430:28:45

And can you feel this?

0:28:450:28:47

So far, the signs are good.

0:28:490:28:51

There is potential that you might have damaged your right shoulder,

0:28:570:29:01

you might have a fracture there, OK?

0:29:010:29:03

But Dina then asks a very worrying question.

0:29:030:29:07

Dina's memory loss is a big concern.

0:29:140:29:17

She needs to be observed in hospital as soon as possible.

0:29:170:29:20

We're going to go on the R of roll.

0:29:200:29:21

Ready, set, roll.

0:29:210:29:23

All right. OK. Crikey.

0:29:230:29:26

But until they check her spine for damage, Dina's going nowhere.

0:29:260:29:30

Ow, ow.

0:29:320:29:33

On the dark roads of Dumfries and Galloway, John West

0:29:490:29:52

and Michael Harmjanz are still on night shift.

0:29:520:29:55

Listen, we're taking you to the hospital.

0:29:550:29:58

Just over three hours since taking John's old schoolteacher

0:29:580:30:02

to hospital, another call's come in. It's as urgent as they come.

0:30:020:30:08

Control came on four hours into the shift for a red call,

0:30:080:30:14

which is the highest priority.

0:30:140:30:17

It's an adrenaline rush.

0:30:210:30:23

They know an elderly lady is suffering severe chest pains,

0:30:270:30:30

but the exact location hasn't come through.

0:30:300:30:33

From their Dumfries base, she's 19 miles south-east,

0:30:350:30:39

somewhere near the town of Annan.

0:30:390:30:42

They'll be updated en route.

0:30:420:30:44

For now, Michael just needs to put his foot down.

0:30:440:30:47

We are meant to get to all red calls within eight minutes,

0:30:470:30:50

but the fact that it was 18, 19 miles away,

0:30:500:30:54

we were not going to make it.

0:30:540:30:56

They have to consider the options on the way.

0:30:560:31:00

In the middle of the night, an elderly lady

0:31:050:31:07

with central chest pains, you're thinking,

0:31:070:31:10

"Could be serious, pretty serious."

0:31:100:31:12

The symptoms indicate a heart attack,

0:31:120:31:15

but there's another common cause of night-time pain.

0:31:150:31:18

Heart attack or severe gall bladder trouble, it's an emergency.

0:31:250:31:30

We received it at 4.31, it's now 4.48 and we've travelled 19 miles.

0:31:300:31:36

By now, they should be very close.

0:31:380:31:40

ELECTRONIC VOICE: 'Cancelling main function.'

0:31:400:31:43

The location has finally come through -

0:31:460:31:48

it's a caravan park on the edge of town.

0:31:480:31:51

No, the lights, Michael, and then turn left and up North Street.

0:31:540:31:57

That is Battery Street, isn't it?

0:31:570:31:59

20 minutes from call-out, they arrive on scene.

0:32:010:32:03

Down here. Oh.

0:32:110:32:13

-Morning.

-Morning.

0:32:180:32:19

They're directed to the patient.

0:32:190:32:22

Turned out she wasn't in the caravan, she was in the ladies' loo.

0:32:250:32:28

-In here?

-In the toilet block.

-Oh, right.

0:32:290:32:32

To be in the ladies' loo at that time in the morning, er,

0:32:340:32:37

some people think is maybe a strange place,

0:32:370:32:39

but I've been to stranger places.

0:32:390:32:41

Sandra has been in severe pain for most of the day and night.

0:32:430:32:48

She was pretty uptight.

0:32:480:32:49

She was sitting in the corner of the toilet in an awful lot of pain.

0:32:490:32:53

So how long have you had the pain?

0:32:530:32:55

This afternoon? Have you taken anything for it?

0:32:580:33:00

No.

0:33:000:33:02

Women don't complain about pain.

0:33:020:33:04

They'll put up with it, put up with it, put up with it.

0:33:040:33:06

So, for her to then contact her husband and say, "Phone 999,"

0:33:060:33:11

it makes you think there's something going on.

0:33:110:33:14

So, the last time you had the pain, Sandra, did it just go away itself?

0:33:140:33:18

Put that in there and chew it.

0:33:200:33:21

It's lemon-flavoured, so they tell me.

0:33:210:33:24

John gives Sandra a 300mg aspirin.

0:33:240:33:26

If it is a heart problem,

0:33:270:33:29

it will reduce the possibility of any more blood clotting.

0:33:290:33:32

Nice and still for ten seconds, if you can.

0:33:320:33:35

Next, they check the electrical activity in Sandra's heart

0:33:380:33:41

with the ECG monitor.

0:33:410:33:43

-ECG looks OK.

-Mm-hm.

0:33:480:33:51

It's good news.

0:33:510:33:52

It may not be a heart attack, after all.

0:33:520:33:55

The fact that, when I touched her when I was doing her ECG,

0:33:550:33:59

she was grimacing and the pain was more severe, it was a better sign,

0:33:590:34:04

because it showed it was not her heart.

0:34:040:34:07

Says it's normal.

0:34:070:34:08

Then Sandra mentions gallstones.

0:34:080:34:10

Again?

0:34:150:34:16

You never mentioned them!

0:34:170:34:19

It turns out John's initial hunch was right.

0:34:190:34:21

I was just saying that on the way down.

0:34:210:34:23

We just mentioned it, didn't we?

0:34:230:34:25

-Yeah. This time in the...

-This time in the morning, we're on the ball.

0:34:250:34:28

See, the fact that it's sore when we touch,

0:34:280:34:30

and the fact that it goes through from here through to your back,

0:34:300:34:34

it sounds like gall bladder, gallstones.

0:34:340:34:37

But severe cases of gallstones can lead to complications.

0:34:380:34:42

They need to get Sandra to hospital.

0:34:420:34:45

We'll get you into the ambulance, eh?

0:34:450:34:47

Cos your feet aren't sore, we'll get you up on them.

0:34:520:34:55

It's estimated that one in ten adults in the UK has gallstones,

0:35:080:35:12

and women are up to three times more likely to be affected than men.

0:35:120:35:17

Your blood pressure's a wee bit high,

0:35:170:35:19

Sandra, cos you're not well.

0:35:190:35:22

173/84.

0:35:230:35:25

You'd get told off by the doctor for that, wouldn't you?

0:35:250:35:28

Her pulse is sitting at 100, so obviously because her pulse is up,

0:35:300:35:34

her blood pressure's up, her breathing's up a wee bit, too.

0:35:340:35:37

It's just the body's natural way of coping with it.

0:35:370:35:40

Most cases of gallstones causing severe pain, like Sandra's,

0:35:440:35:47

are easily treated with surgery.

0:35:470:35:50

In the hospital, she'll be assessed for just that.

0:35:500:35:53

After a busy 12-hour shift,

0:35:550:35:57

it's the end of the night for John and Michael.

0:35:570:36:00

And another patient delivered into safe hands.

0:36:000:36:03

400 miles south of Dumfries, on Cornwall's Bodmin Moor,

0:36:230:36:27

Dina has had a serious fall from her horse.

0:36:270:36:30

Did anybody see all this happen or was she on her own?

0:36:330:36:36

She's in pain and confused.

0:36:360:36:38

Blimey, what happened then? Does anybody know?

0:36:380:36:41

Event organiser Mickey witnessed the fall.

0:36:410:36:44

She came up to that fence there, galloping, and the horse stopped

0:36:440:36:47

dead and she went over the top of him, come down on the rails there.

0:36:470:36:52

Just one of these things, like, you know.

0:36:520:36:54

Air paramedics Mark Fuzsard, Stu Croft

0:36:560:36:58

and the land crew are checking for neck or spinal injuries.

0:36:580:37:02

OK, has everybody got a bit?

0:37:020:37:03

We're going g to go on the R of roll, ready, set, roll!

0:37:030:37:06

All right, OK. Crikey.

0:37:060:37:08

They're deciding if Dina needs flown to a specialist unit in Plymouth

0:37:100:37:14

or A & E at the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro.

0:37:140:37:17

It's hurting there.

0:37:240:37:25

It's hurting me.

0:37:250:37:27

Ow! I don't know.

0:37:270:37:28

OK.

0:37:280:37:31

We're going to go on the L of lower. Everybody happy?

0:37:310:37:34

OK, ready, set, lower.

0:37:340:37:36

Ow!

0:37:360:37:37

Argh!

0:37:390:37:40

The pain means Dina still has a sense of feeling,

0:37:420:37:45

which is good news.

0:37:450:37:47

When I checked earlier,

0:37:470:37:48

your sensations in both legs were the same.

0:37:480:37:50

-Were OK, were they?

-So, at the time there wasn't any,

0:37:500:37:52

but has that changed at all now?

0:37:520:37:54

-I don't think so.

-Can you feel that, Dina?

-I can feel that, yeah.

0:37:540:37:57

And she's starting to recall details of the fall.

0:37:570:38:01

Oh, I remember, remembering the horse getting

0:38:010:38:04

stuck in the jump now.

0:38:040:38:06

-It's coming back to you.

-My memory's coming back.

-Oh, good stuff.

0:38:060:38:09

The team feel it's safe to fly Dina to A & E in Truro.

0:38:110:38:15

She obviously came down and bashed her head quite hard

0:38:150:38:18

and has pain in her shoulder, so difficult to assess initially,

0:38:180:38:21

but she's coming round a bit, so we're going to move her

0:38:210:38:24

to the helicopter, keep her warm and the pop on down to the hospital.

0:38:240:38:27

She has got some injury to her right shoulder,

0:38:270:38:30

which is going to need an X-ray.

0:38:300:38:32

Fairly remote area,

0:38:320:38:33

but then that's the nature of the hobby, really,

0:38:330:38:36

horse riders tend to sort of go off-road a little bit.

0:38:360:38:40

And what a beautiful area to do it in, really!

0:38:400:38:42

As Dina is transferred on to the chopper,

0:38:440:38:47

her husband James arrives.

0:38:470:38:49

Hello, sir! Are you Dina's husband, are you?

0:38:490:38:51

OK. At the moment, it's all precautionary stuff,

0:38:510:38:53

so it probably looks a lot worse than it is.

0:38:530:38:55

A little bit of concussion, we think.

0:38:550:38:57

She's got a possible injury to her right shoulder.

0:38:570:39:00

Other than that, she's pretty much got away with it fairly unscathed.

0:39:000:39:04

But within minutes, James has to let her go.

0:39:070:39:11

During the flight in, we monitored her blood pressure.

0:39:220:39:25

We also monitored her respiratory rate and her heart rate.

0:39:250:39:29

Things can change quite quickly,

0:39:290:39:31

especially with head-injured patients,

0:39:310:39:33

and we just wanted to monitor her, just to make sure that, you know,

0:39:330:39:36

everything stayed the same.

0:39:360:39:38

In just 20 minutes, Dina is at A & E in Truro.

0:39:420:39:45

It's been an hour and a half since she fell off her horse.

0:39:510:39:55

Hopefully, she'll be out again fairly soon, I'd like to think,

0:39:590:40:02

but until she's had her neck X-rayed

0:40:020:40:04

and she may even be scanned for the head injury,

0:40:040:40:09

we don't know, so hopefully, fingers crossed,

0:40:090:40:12

she'll be out riding a horse again fairly soon.

0:40:120:40:15

Astonishingly, after just a few hours in hospital,

0:40:280:40:32

Dina was allowed back home.

0:40:320:40:34

Her injuries weren't as serious as first feared.

0:40:340:40:37

Once they'd ruled out the fact that I hadn't seriously

0:40:400:40:44

injured my back or my neck, they could then start

0:40:440:40:47

to look at where the damage was and I'd got a couple of fractured ribs.

0:40:470:40:53

Husband James took Dina home that same afternoon...

0:40:540:40:57

Hi, Tally! How are you doing?

0:40:590:41:01

..where she was reunited with her horse.

0:41:010:41:05

So, this is Tally!

0:41:050:41:06

The day of the accident was the first time Dina and Tally had

0:41:090:41:13

been out riding since Dina's hip replacement two months earlier.

0:41:130:41:17

We hadn't jumped anything.

0:41:170:41:19

I'd missed a couple of jumps out.

0:41:190:41:21

I didn't really want to fall off because of my hip,

0:41:210:41:24

because my consultant had said, "It's OK to ride,

0:41:240:41:27

"but it's really not great to be falling off horses."

0:41:270:41:30

I remember hanging over her neck because she went to jump the jump,

0:41:360:41:40

half-jumped the jump, and then pulled back.

0:41:400:41:43

I don't remember hitting the ground

0:41:430:41:45

and from then on, my memory is quite hazy.

0:41:450:41:49

I wasn't very conscious. I came back in and out, I think, a little bit

0:41:520:41:57

on the ground.

0:41:570:41:58

I remembered being on something that I guessed must be a helicopter,

0:41:580:42:02

because I saw bright lights.

0:42:020:42:05

I've ridden horses all my life and, actually,

0:42:080:42:11

I've had some really bad falls,

0:42:110:42:13

but I've never had anything like this.

0:42:130:42:16

Beautiful girl.

0:42:180:42:20

Naughty girl, aren't you?

0:42:200:42:22

It's been all go for the emergency services of rural Britain.

0:42:300:42:34

Dementia sufferer Frank recovered from his infection

0:42:380:42:41

and was back home a week later.

0:42:410:42:43

He now receives respite care,

0:42:430:42:45

making life a little easier for both himself and his wife Moira.

0:42:450:42:49

A couple of weeks after her fall,

0:42:520:42:54

Dina was out riding the moors with Tally.

0:42:540:42:57

They've even managed some jumps.

0:42:570:43:00

And PC Kevin Hall's investigation

0:43:020:43:04

into the 136 missing lambs continues.

0:43:040:43:07

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