Episode 10 Countryside 999

From the Highlands of Scotland to the coast of Cornwall,

the Great British countryside is spectacular.

But we work and play in it at our peril.

SIREN WAILS

And when things go wrong,

the emergency services race to the rescue...

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

SIREN WAILS

You're under arrest for failing to stop for police...

Going hundreds of miles against the clock...

..battling the elements

and braving the weather...

'Lower the winch.'

From fields and forests

to cliffs and country roads,

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

..with police fighting crime...

I've got suspicions that there might be cannabis being used.

..paramedics saving lives...

BABY CRIES

..and wardens safeguarding our lakes...

Come out of the way!

We're there as the emergency services pull together

to pick up, patch up and protect the public.

This is Countryside 999.

Coming up...

In Herefordshire, the force's very own Cagney and Lacey

speed to a shocking accident.

Think he's an extremely, extremely lucky man.

In Scotland, the Royal Navy Search and Rescue team

race to a casualty on Britain's tallest peak.

Can you walk on it?

And, on the Isle of Man,

a panic attack calls for calm control from the paramedics.

You just concentrate on your breathing for us, David, all right.

Just slow it down.

From the highest peak in Scotland...

..to the rolling countryside and winding lanes of England,

nowhere is inaccessible for our rural Emergency Services.

In Herefordshire, the landscape rolls out over 840 square miles

and contains a population of around 180,000 people.

But with only one police officer for every 850 of the county's inhabitants...

..keeping crime levels down is still a huge challenge

for the men and women of the West Mercia Police.

PC Sarah Smith has been in the force for 15 years,

dealing from everything from robbery to roadkill.

It just looks like it was killed outright

so at least it hasn't suffered, poor little beggar.

I'm a country girl at heart.

I've got horses, dogs, chickens, anything rural.

'I lead The Good Life.'

It's your left handbrake, brake side, yeah,

so make sure you get that done, that's your job for tomorrow.

-No problem. All right, then.

-Well, have a lovely time.

All right, bye-bye.

I like the way that country people

deal with the police.

They love the police and...

they just have a bit more respect for us

than perhaps some of the inner-city people.

Sarah's teaming up with local girl PC Sam Davis.

It didn't even occur to me to move to the city to be a police officer.

I just wanted to police where I grew up

and police in areas that I knew best, really.

That's a taser, that's for naughty boys.

Not boys, naughty men.

Not you, you're not naughty, are you?

No!

There's an average of three home burglaries a week across Herefordshire.

It's a cause for concern in the force,

who keep a database of known offenders...

Morning, all.

Right.

I think we spoke about this gentleman yesterday,

prolific burglar,

and will steal during the daytime, anything he can lay his hands on.

Just be aware of them.

In an ideal world, there wouldn't be crime in the countryside

because it's such a beautiful place, but it does happen.

We get a lot of burglaries.

People tend to let their guard down a little bit.

Thanks, all, then. Have a good day.

Be safe out there

and we'll speak later.

Today, PCs Sam and Sarah are taking to the streets in an unmarked car.

It doesn't take long for a call to come in.

'Personal attack alarm at the address. It's urgent.'

OK.

SIREN WAILS

Personal attack alarms are panic buttons,

set off silently by the owners if an intruder breaks in.

This could be the real thing.

We do on the odd occasion get calls from security companies

saying that a personal attack alarm's gone off at a large property.

We have to make this a grade one,

which is an emergency blue light response,

cos you never know what's going on.

The alarm's been triggered in a house

southwest of Sam and Sarah's location.

They always do this, so we've got minimum gap to get through.

Left, left, left, left, left.

So we're going down... This is rural now.

We're pretty well right on the Welsh border.

If we were in Hereford city,

as quite often we are on busy times,

the response time to this could be...considerable.

But as we're, sort of, not too far away...

In urban areas,

blue-light runs can be hampered by sheer levels of traffic.

The countryside presents a host of other issues...

Rural areas, there's a lot of mud on the road,

the roads are really greasy,

tractors, there's all sorts of hazards out here,

so fortunately Sam's a good driver.

Mind the horse!

Lights off for the horse.

When we're doing a blue-light run in the country,

as well as it being quite long usually,

we have to consider other hazards on the route.

If, for example, we see a horse ride, we switch everything off

simply because we know the sirens and lights is likely to spook the horse.

-It's saying go...straight...

-Straight through?

Straight through.

We'll do a silent approach now,

just in case there is something going on or somebody there.

Electric gates.

I'll go and press the buzzer.

When we arrived, we pressed the buzzer.

They said they would open the gates.

Hello?

Hello, it's the police. We've had a....

-Yeah, come up.

-OK.

It didn't happen.

It's incredibly frustrating because we just want to get in there

and make sure everybody's OK.

They're taking their time opening this gate...

PC Beredale Smith from PC Smith,

do you happen to know the code for these electric gates, please?

'Don't know the code.'

And I immediately start thinking, "Who's just answered me?" when I pressed that buzzer.

Is it the burglar?

Is it the bad guy or is it the occupant?

Yeah, from 1-3, we've pressed the intercom,

he said, "Hello, come in," but nobody's opening the gates.

We're just wondering if he's able to open the gates.

'Is it not opening?'

No, I'm afraid not. Are you able to open it, please?

-'There you go.'

-Thank you.

'Doing it now.'

I had a female voice that said...

I identified myself as police and she said "Yep, great, I'll let you in."

It sounded OK

and they didn't sound under duress, but still

you do just wonder why the gates weren't opening.

What's happening?

Hello?

Definitely nothing's happening.

With no answer, and the gates not opening,

Sarah's thinking of an alternative way in.

We're going to have to try and climb the wall or something...

After 20 or 30 seconds, nothing happened with the gates.

So I pressed the buzzer again, and said "Is everything OK?"

They're not happening at all.

Someone's coming down.

Backup begins to arrive.

It's been two minutes since Sarah pressed the buzzer.

She's saying... I've had two now saying they're opening it.

KEYPAD BEEPS

'Someone's coming down.'

Oh, right, thanks very much.

-We're having problems with all our electrics.

-What's happening?

Nothing, it's... I think it's a false alarm.

All the electrics went and all the alarms went off.

That's OK, as long as you're safe.

If the gardener hadn't come down and opened the gate within a minute or two,

we would certainly have been going in, you know,

climbing over a wall or getting in there somehow,

because sometimes, sadly, it is a genuine call.

If it's a false alarm, boys, are you all right to just check it out?

Faulty electrics set off the panic alarm.

All's well this time,

but even so, Sarah sends her male colleagues into the house

to complete the investigation.

We have been referred to as Cagney and Lacey before now,

but, yeah, we've got a lot in common, as well,

so it makes it a nice atmosphere in the car.

We don't mind what we're called.

Cos we work harder than the boys.

With the boys doing the clearing up,

Sarah and Sam can get on with more urgent police work.

That's the best result because everybody's safe.

Everybody's safe and we've arrived in one piece.

If there were burglars running over those fields now,

I'm sure Sam would catch up with them(!)

THEY LAUGH

Yes. I'm sure I would!

But for now, it's back on patrol,

until another call comes in.

450 miles to the north of Hereford

rise the Highlands of Scotland.

Over two million tourists come here each year

to experience this awe-inspiring landscape,

to walk its rugged hills

and climb its craggy peaks.

But it's a landscape that's as unforgiving as it is beautiful.

There are over 350 mountaineering incidents here every year.

That's why the HMS Gannet Search and Rescue Squadron,

based at Prestwick...

..is one of the busiest in Britain.

When the weather is too extreme for other emergency services,

the Royal Navy are the last resort.

They'll fly in conditions that can challenge the most hardened pilot,

even veterans like Search and Rescue commander Stuart Cassidy...

..and his codename is Butch.

After conducting five tours of Iraq and two tours of Afghanistan,

I find coming up to Scotland,

without a shadow of a doubt,

the most challenging flying.

Butch Cassidy has been with Gannet Search and Rescue for three years.

We'll attempt to go anywhere at any stage,

do our utmost to get there,

get the job done,

but return safely.

To fly in extreme weather takes courage.

But to rescue and return safely

takes an enormous amount of training.

For the training sortie today,

we're going to conduct a flight from Prestwick,

up Loch Lomond,

to start indicating the types of things that we're looking for

when we start to move into mountainous flying techniques.

And today, the team have a new member.

Until now, Richard Swales has done his Search and Rescue flying

from RNAS Culdrose in Cornwall.

Flying in the mountains is fairly new to me.

The weather up here presents its own challenges,

given the severity of bad weather at high ground.

It's important to keep training

because it's a very perishable skill.

On average, the team do two hours' training a day,

training that means that they can react to any emergency instinctively.

-You all right to take off, please?

-I will do.

From their Prestwick base,

the team are heading 84 miles north

to Glencoe.

So what we're doing is just simulating as if there's a casualty

at the top of all these peaks that you can see around,

picking an area that we think is suitable from height

and then working our way through all the various procedures.

Today the team are practising the tricky task

of landing in the mountains.

In the mountains, local wind currents and patterns

can quite quickly change.

Everything we do in the helicopter is relating to the wind

and keeping it safe.

It's very much dependent on the direction of the wind.

Wind in the mountains can blow even a 9.5-tonne Sea King helicopter off course.

To land safely close to a casualty,

it's crucial to know where it's coming from.

Before landing,

they check the wind direction by sending out a smoke flare.

As observer, it's Richard's job to fire the gun,

following a strict procedure.

Coming round to the right.

The chopper can now come to land safely into the wind.

It's a textbook landing.

But not long after, a call comes in.

All we've got at the moment, mate,

is that we've got a task in up at Ben Nevis.

So we're just going to head up there

and see what information we get from Kinloss.

So, yeah, I'm sure we'll get something through in the next couple of minutes.

From the floor of Glencoe, it's ten miles north

and 4,000 feet up to the summit of Ben Nevis.

It's the highest peak in Britain.

Every year there are around 60 serious incidents on the mountain.

Travelling at 143mph,

the Sea King will get there in around ten minutes.

OK, an update has come through from Kinloss.

We've got a 20-year-old male on the top of the Ben Nevis near the summit.

We'll see how well prepared he is

and what we need to do when we get there.

It would seem, from the initial information,

that it's something that we should be able to land on.

The team know what the casualty is wearing.

Now they have to find him.

Kinloss Rescue, Kinloss Rescue,

Rescue 177 is on the scene.

Only 12 minutes after receiving the call,

they see the summit.

Compared to the training exercise they've just completed,

landing on top of the tallest mountain in Britain

will be a little more tricky.

From Highland extremes to the hills and fields of Herefordshire.

There are more orchards in this county than any other.

This vast green landscape produces half the apples

used to make all the cider in Britain...

and it's fruit harvesting time.

Police Officers Sarah Smith and Sam Davis are responding to a call.

In neighbouring Worcestershire,

a man is reported to have been struck by a telephone wire.

I presume ambulance are already there or en route, are they?

The duo are speeding to the accident in Tenbury Wells,

22 miles north of their base.

Sarah and Sam have attended all kinds of accidents,

but a man struck by a telephone wire

doesn't quite ring true...

Bit of a strange one.

There's a man up a 16-foot ladder,

who's been struck by a telephone wire.

The address was a villa so it would suggest it's a residential house,

but we've been told he's conscious and breathing, which is good.

Fire brigade.

Yes, OK, everybody's here.

-Er...

-Brilliant.

Oscar Romeo 1-3, TA.

Do you want a hand with the kit?

'When we arrived, there were chickens everywhere.

'We walked through a number of outbuildings

'and then we went round to a small barn

'and behind the barn was...

'I could see the chap lay on the floor.

'And there was a ladder just down from where the chap was lay

'and it was in some long grass.'

Is that going all the way round?

-Yes, it's very loose.

-Is it?

Yeah, I've made sure it's loose.

This is far more serious than was first thought.

Whilst picking plums on his smallholding,

the casualty, 58-year-old Ian Vaughan,

has been struck by a massive 11,000 volt electric shock.

He's suffered severe burns and was knocked unconscious.

But now, thankfully, he's come round.

Is that comfy here?

Yes, it is.

Community First Responder, Martin Bennett,

was on scene minutes after the accident.

He was picking plums,

was carrying a long ladder back up the field,

and touched one of these overhead cables

which has burnt his hands and his feet.

Real sort of genuine accident, I think.

He just didn't realise that the cables were there.

Martin and the ambulance paramedics are dealing with Ian's wounds.

He'd touched an 11,000-volt cable,

he had entry wounds to both hands

and then full-thickness burns, exit wounds to his feet.

Ian's hands and feet are burnt through to his nerves

and major blood vessels.

The cling film keeps in moisture

and stops air from irritating the deep open wounds.

But I haven't drawn on his foot where his pedal pulse is...

In a situation like this, it's all hands on deck.

While Sam helps the paramedics,

Sarah speaks to Ian's wife, Verity.

Did you actually see it when it happened or...?

No.

Verity found her husband after hearing him scream.

He was face down...

unconscious, red.

Well, I thought he was dead.

I didn't know what had happened, I thought he'd fallen off the ladder.

Yeah, I get you, yeah.

I don't know if they've told you. They've just told me the...

the Air Ambulance is coming soon.

With such severe electrocution,

it's vital to get Ian to hospital fast

to check for internal burns.

The Air Ambulance, in my opinion,

is the most vital emergency service we've got.

In a rural area, it could have taken quite literally hours

to get that man up to Selly Oak hospital.

How we doing, guys? What can we do for you? How can we help?

Initially found not totally fully responsive.

Then a few minutes later, he's come round.

On our arrival GCS of 15, lying in this position.

Entry wounds to lower part of his hands and his wrists.

Yeah, super.

Going to pull these leads off you, Ian, OK.

Going to get some straps on you

and carry you to the Air Ambulance.

Didn't want to have your jumper cut off you said, didn't you.

If you just let us know en route we can draw up some more,

more morphine for the pain.

The major trauma centre is 29 miles away in Birmingham.

They need to get Ian there fast.

Over 200 miles to the north of Hereford

is the Isle of Man,

the Jewel of the Irish Sea.

Nearly 85,000 people live here,

but around 300,000 holidaymakers

are attracted to its stunning coastal landscape every year.

And when there's a medical emergency,

they're served by the 42 members of the Island's Ambulance Service.

The Port Erin base is one of three on the island.

Jason Banks has been commuting to work here from the mainland

for over nine months,

working six shifts on and eight days off.

I love it out here on the island.

I will live here eventually, but, at the minute,

I've got a really good work/life balance,

doing... doing me shifts here, enjoying what I do here

and then going home, back and spending time with my family.

Today he's working with new boy Danny Grace.

This is the first day we've worked together

and it's my first day on my roster in Port Erin Ambulance Station, as well.

Pop that on the bed, Danny.

Danny moved here from the West of Ireland just under a year ago.

Followed my wife over to the Isle of Man.

She's an Irish woman, as well, but she's been living over here for quite a long time.

Check out this.

Carrot, apple, beetroot, celery and ginger.

Smell that.

It's good for you.

I'm on my health kick on the moment.

Only all good stuff.

Breakfast over, the lads hit the road...

..and it's never long before a call comes in.

The casualty is in a day care centre Danny knows very well.

The first day on the job, it was a little bit ironic, really,

that the first call I went to was my wife phoning for an ambulance.

She works in a mental health facility in the community.

SIREN WAILS

The team blue-light from their current location in Douglas

to the nearby day care centre.

It takes only three minutes.

Alpha 128, that's us on scene.

35-year-old David regularly uses the day care centre.

VOICES MURMUR IN BACKGROUND

He's been in a highly anxious state for an hour.

Have you got any pain anywhere?

No, not pain.

No pain at all, OK.

OK, as I say I'm Jason, one of the paramedics, and this is Danny.

-What I want you to do is just keep that breathing nice and easy for me.

-Yeah.

Just keep there.

Take a big breath in and out.

And again.

-VOICES OVER RADIO

-And again.

Could you just slow that breathing down for me just a touch.

Just keep nice and calm, open your eyes nice and wide for me.

David's sweating profusely

and his speech has become slurred.

Big smile, like this.

-Just sit you up, there.

-Yep, please.

Now...

swing around so your feet are down,

so you're sitting up properly, David.

The patient had bouts of shortness of breath

and also chest pains.

Slow that breathing down a sec.

-WEAKLY:

-I'm trying.

Have you been taking your meds as normal?

Do you take them as you normally would?

'An anxiety attack's probably the best way to describe it.'

It's a real common problem and...

the only thing for us to do was to reassure the patient.

Around 5% of the population suffer with anxiety problems.

It's one of the biggest mental health issues in the UK.

-HE PANTS HEAVILY

-David, where do you live?

You know, once you take a person's mind off things, as well,

they can be quite panicky.

But if you start asking them a couple of questions

then they stop and they start answering your questions.

It just takes their mind off things and it can calm everything down.

David, how long have you lived there?

Seven months.

-David.

-Yeah.

-Nothing bad's going to happen to you.

-I know.

I'm looking after you, you're in good hands...

Anxiety attacks like this can lower blood pressure

and cause dizziness and fainting.

Jason wants to measure David's heart rate.

Yeah, let's do an ECG here before we move him.

Nice and steady, and let's have a look at what your heart's doing.

I would never like to write a guarantee for anybody,

but everything's looking pretty fine.

How are you feeling?

-Drained.

-Drained.

MACHINES BEEP

When you've been anxious before, and upset and worried,

do you feel like this?

No.

-No, never like this?

-No, never.

Would you feel happier being checked out at hospital?

Personally, yeah.

Right, let's do that then.

Once we had calmed him down, recorded all his vital signs,

reassured him that his vital signs were all within normal parameters,

we were then able to, you know, walk him down to the ambulance.

-David?

-Yeah.

Brave as a tiger.

One, two, three, come on.

Argh! Get up there!

OK, stay up there, straight.

Lock onto your knees, David, straighten your legs.

(Good lad.)

Oh, how ridiculous!

-OK, it's all right.

-I'm sorry.

You're OK, David, you're fine, you're fine.

It's taken over 20 minutes to calm David down

from a state of extreme anxiety,

but he's still very weak.

Oh, my gosh, it's like trying to walk again.

Come on, you're fine.

All because you're getting a bit panicked and breathing too fast.

I was really worried there on that sofa, lying on the sofa.

Oh, gosh, every time I tried to get up...

..my heart, kind of, carried on racing.

An hour after Jason and Danny arrived at the scene,

David is delivered to Noble's Hospital in Douglas.

-OK, David, good man.

-Nice and steady.

-There we go.

-INDISTINCT VOICES

What I can best describe it, he's had a panic attack,

dripping in sweat.

-All right, David?

-(Yeah.)

You're looking a lot better now.

Your colour is much better now and your breathing has slowed down.

-If it happens again, just slow your breathing down.

-Thank you.

All right, David, talk to you again.

I've never failed, to date,

to not be able to calm a patient down.

As you can see by that patient, by the time he got to hospital,

the patient was in a much more comfortable position,

not just physically, but psychologically, as well.

90% of the job is being a nice person,

and being reassuring and calming,

and probably 10% clinical and medical.

-David?

-Yeah.

-I'm going to shoot off now, all right?

-OK, yeah, thanks.

-You look after yourself.

-Yeah, Jason.

Jason for the complaint letter.

In Scotland, a training mission for the HMS Gannet helicopter squadron

has turned into a full-blown rescue

that has taken them up 4,500 feet.

This is a bit more challenging.

They're going to the highest point of the UK,

the summit of Ben Nevis,

from where a man has called 999.

Attempting to land on the boulder-strewn peak

in winds of 50 knots, or 56mph,

the training kicks in.

The team are led by commander Stuart "Butch" Cassidy.

Trying to position the aircraft to make sure that you keep it safe

and get as many wheels on as possible,

so that you can get people in and out of the aircraft safely,

was quite a challenge.

The chopper hasn't landed safely,

but paramedic Sean Knight needs to see the patient as quickly as possible.

The pilots weren't necessarily completely happy at the time,

but we elected that I was going to leave the aircraft

and see to the patient.

The casualty has been sheltering on the peak.

Now he's on his feet.

'Because he was up and walking,

'we decided to get him into the aircraft as quickly as possible,

'again for the aircraft's safety.'

TENSE MUSIC

OK.

All good inside, all good inside, standing by.

80, 80.

'Once we lifted from that position,'

then I did a quick examination on him.

The casualty is 22-year-old Charles Quail.

Where's the pain, then?

It's around there.

All right, no worries.

Can you lift your leg up for me?

All the way up.

Any pain?

A bit.

Drop it down.

Let it go loose.

-Any pain when I do that?

-Er, yeah.

OK.

Push against my hand. This one.

As in lift your leg up.

It's clear Charles' injury isn't life-threatening.

He's strained his groin,

he doesn't need to go to hospital, waste their time on that.

-Happy.

-Just, a bit of ibuprofen and paracetamol and he'll be all good.

Although he doesn't seem to be too much of a casualty...

If you put him in a road, a park, down in normal city,

then he's not a casualty at all.

But when you put him on top of the highest mountain in the UK,

and he's got, you know, a good couple of hours' descent to do,

then a niggling groin is actually something quite significant.

With no need for hospital,

the team drop Charles at the Lochaber Mountain Rescue base

at the foot of Ben Nevis.

The only thing I'd recommend is -

I'm sure they've probably got some here -

as long as you're not allergic to it,

is a bit of ibuprofen, bit of paracetamol and rest, to be honest.

Well, it was all clear, and we were walking up

and it was about...maybe...

30 minutes off the top...

And then as I was stepping up on my left leg,

the wind blew very strongly,

so I just twisted around, while I was standing on my left leg

and I felt a pain.

And then as I was going up further,

it was really hard to walk and I had to keep stopping.

And, I didn't think I'd be able to get back down on it.

It's a bit embarrassing, um,

to call them just for a sprained groin.

That's all good, 90 there.

But it hasn't been a wasted trip for the crew.

At the end of the day, it's another rescue for us.

We have assisted someone that needs, needed help.

We don't judge people -

if they need help then they need help

and we will provide as best we can the service that we do.

Over 400 miles south of Glencoe,

a very different story is unfolding.

In Worcestershire, 58-year-old Ian Vaughan

is still being treated by the emergency services.

An hour earlier, he was picking plums on his smallholding.

Going to pull these leads off you, Ian, OK.

Going to get some straps on you and carry you to the Air Ambulance.

Carrying his 26-foot metal ladder back to his shed,

Ian struck an overhead cable

and received a massive 11,000 volt shock.

Think he's an extremely, extremely lucky man.

And if he'd stayed connected to it for a few seconds, it would have killed him.

He has major burns, and he's gone into tachycardia.

His heart is beating far too fast.

If you just let us know en route, we can draw up some more morphine for the pain.

There's a risk of a major heart attack.

Got a minor lac on the top of his head.

But, amazingly, he's fighting back and refusing pain relief...

..much to the surprise of Herefordshire police officer, Sarah Smith.

He refused all form of painkiller, saying he'd rather have a tot of whisky instead,

and even to the point when he was on the stretcher going into the ambulance,

he was still laughing and joking with everybody which is good,

cos you get the impression then that he's not badly injured.

Certainly helped the children, as well.

-Going on holiday on Sunday.

-IAN:

-You're to go, OK, with the children.

They're all apparently due to go to Disneyland in a couple of days

and he was giving strict instruction they were still to go.

How are you feeling?

Disorientated.

Painful feet.

So don't fret too much.

Ian's being transferred 29 miles to the trauma centre

at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham.

It'll take the chopper around ten minutes.

He's looking very stable at the moment.

It's difficult with electrical burns because,

obviously the electricity's passed through the gentleman's body

so we want to make sure all the bits and vital organs in between are doing all right.

We'll keep a good eye on him and the idea with the aircraft

is we take him to the most appropriate hospital

so he can receive definitive care, rather than just the nearest one.

Wish him well.

-We'll look after him, I promise.

-I love you.

-I'll probably see you tomorrow, OK?

-MACHINE BEEPS

Tomorrow's Saturday.

-Yeah, I don't need you to come.

-I know, all right. Bye.

Thank you ever so much.

For now, Ian's family must trust in the care of the experts.

Less than a month later, Ian is back home.

My injuries were termed as

full-thickness burns

to the wrists where the electricity went in,

and I think full-thickness meant it burnt right through the skin,

so there was exposed tissue,

and, um, full-thickness burns to my feet,

where the electricity exited my body

and it burnt and frazzled my toes.

Really, that's the extent.

My arm's going now involuntarily again, it's something that happens.

It's a bit panicky,

but I think that's how my whole body was.

It was...

it was just tremendous trembling

and I can just think to myself...

..it's an electrocution.

And then...unconsciousness.

I can remember coming to...

Is that comfy here?

Yes, it is.

'And I can remember my wife screaming,'

"Oh, my God, he's dead. Oh, my God, he's dead."

It was amazing,

I could see this constant body of people around me.

So we had first responders,

fire brigade, paramedics, police,

and then the Air Ambulance crew.

Incredibly, Ian was in hospital for just two days

and after three weeks,

he's keen to get on with the fruit harvest.

I'm already a little bit late on the damsons.

I've noticed now that they're really quite ripe on the tree.

I'm not going to go too high.

I'm going to stay, sort of, low down on the tree,

and, I'm not really up for moving the ladder that far.

You hear about people complaining about the NHS,

but when the chips are down,

everything is there to deal with any emergency

and I couldn't have had better treatment.

And it just goes to show that wherever you are,

there IS somebody out there that can get to you and can help you.

There are up to ten deaths

from contact with overhead electricity lines every year.

But with the help of our emergency services,

Ian Vaughan has been lucky enough to tell his tale.

As my consultant in the Queen Elizabeth said,

"We don't get 11,000-volt victims in here.

"They're always dead on site."

It's been all go for the emergency services across the British Isles.

On the Isle of Man, David was given the all-clear by the hospital

and hasn't had any more panic attacks since.

Injured walker Charles has not climbed any peaks

since the incident on Ben Nevis.

Instead, he's chosen to concentrate on his dental studies

for the rest of the year.

And in Worcestershire, Ian Vaughan carried on climbing his ladder

to safely harvest three tonnes of plums, apples and pears.

And who said it was quiet in the countryside?