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This programme contains scenes which some viewers may find upsetting and some strong language. | 0:00:18 | 0:00:26 | |
People use drugs for all different reasons. | 0:00:27 | 0:00:31 | |
People use drugs to forget about things. | 0:00:32 | 0:00:36 | |
People use drugs to get a buzz, to get a high. | 0:00:38 | 0:00:41 | |
People use drugs... | 0:00:42 | 0:00:44 | |
..because they've had things happen to them when they was a child. | 0:00:45 | 0:00:49 | |
People use drugs because they've been brought up | 0:00:49 | 0:00:51 | |
and they don't know any different. | 0:00:51 | 0:00:53 | |
For years, the rolling valleys and sprawling towns of South Wales | 0:00:56 | 0:01:00 | |
have hidden a pervasive underground drug scene. | 0:01:00 | 0:01:03 | |
High levels of injecting mean thousands of users | 0:01:03 | 0:01:06 | |
experience a serious wound or injury every year. | 0:01:06 | 0:01:09 | |
Overdose is the one that catches all the headlines, | 0:01:10 | 0:01:13 | |
but there are so many problems associated with injecting drug use. | 0:01:13 | 0:01:17 | |
According to the NHS, places like Swansea | 0:01:17 | 0:01:19 | |
have seen a recent spike in blood-borne viruses, | 0:01:19 | 0:01:22 | |
infections, abscesses, and even amputations. | 0:01:22 | 0:01:26 | |
We're talking about life-threatening conditions. | 0:01:26 | 0:01:29 | |
You can lose limbs, you can lose your life. | 0:01:29 | 0:01:31 | |
Over six months, I met a series of individuals | 0:01:31 | 0:01:34 | |
who invited me to film their lives and see the devastating consequences | 0:01:34 | 0:01:38 | |
of what happens when injecting drugs goes wrong. | 0:01:38 | 0:01:41 | |
January this year, they amputated my leg. | 0:01:41 | 0:01:43 | |
At the age of 12, my mother gave me some heroin to sell. | 0:02:01 | 0:02:05 | |
And I ended up using it myself, | 0:02:06 | 0:02:08 | |
and I became an addict at the age of 12. | 0:02:08 | 0:02:11 | |
I love my mother to bits, you know. | 0:02:14 | 0:02:17 | |
I just perhaps... | 0:02:17 | 0:02:19 | |
went the wrong path with the drugs and everything, you know. | 0:02:19 | 0:02:24 | |
I grew up in some care homes sometimes. | 0:02:26 | 0:02:29 | |
I'd end up running away from those... | 0:02:31 | 0:02:34 | |
..just to get back home. | 0:02:35 | 0:02:36 | |
Oh. | 0:02:38 | 0:02:39 | |
The first-ever time I had any needle, it didn't do nothing. | 0:02:39 | 0:02:44 | |
The second time I done it, and I done a little tiny bit more... | 0:02:44 | 0:02:49 | |
Phew, I was on my knees. | 0:02:50 | 0:02:53 | |
I was literally on my knees. I thought I was going to die. | 0:02:53 | 0:02:57 | |
What dog's that, mate? Boxer, is it? Boxer? | 0:02:57 | 0:03:01 | |
American bulldog. | 0:03:01 | 0:03:02 | |
-What? -American bulldog. -American bulldog. Lovely dog, innit? | 0:03:02 | 0:03:06 | |
I've had three drug overdoses. | 0:03:09 | 0:03:11 | |
I've nearly lost my life a few times. | 0:03:11 | 0:03:14 | |
I had been in intensive care for 28 or 29 days. | 0:03:14 | 0:03:19 | |
Had a big abscess on one lung | 0:03:21 | 0:03:23 | |
and I had more than five and less than ten on my other lung. | 0:03:23 | 0:03:28 | |
So I was close to death. | 0:03:30 | 0:03:32 | |
But I was performing to leave the hospital, | 0:03:32 | 0:03:35 | |
cos I'd run out of drugs and I wanted to go and get more drugs. | 0:03:35 | 0:03:38 | |
I know a friend of mine who's lost his leg | 0:03:43 | 0:03:47 | |
through injecting down below. | 0:03:47 | 0:03:49 | |
I know people who've come close to losing their legs, as myself. | 0:03:49 | 0:03:54 | |
I missed the vein in my groin. | 0:03:54 | 0:03:56 | |
It was the biggest vein in your body and the easiest one to go in, | 0:03:56 | 0:04:00 | |
but little did I know the damage it could cause. | 0:04:00 | 0:04:04 | |
They cut a large part of my leg away | 0:04:04 | 0:04:08 | |
and ended up stitching it back together. | 0:04:08 | 0:04:11 | |
I'll just show a small part of it. | 0:04:12 | 0:04:15 | |
Right to the underneath on my leg. | 0:04:17 | 0:04:19 | |
So it goes three quarters of the way round. | 0:04:19 | 0:04:23 | |
The doctor had said I had nearly lost my leg. | 0:04:23 | 0:04:26 | |
He came that close to taking my leg off. | 0:04:26 | 0:04:29 | |
Lower parts of my legs, scarring. | 0:04:31 | 0:04:34 | |
So I advise anyone at home looking at this | 0:04:34 | 0:04:39 | |
just to not use heroin, | 0:04:39 | 0:04:42 | |
because this is what it does. | 0:04:42 | 0:04:44 | |
Michael only narrowly avoided amputation | 0:04:48 | 0:04:50 | |
as a result of his drug use. | 0:04:50 | 0:04:53 | |
The longer he continues to inject, the more at risk he is | 0:04:53 | 0:04:55 | |
of these types of severe, life-altering consequences. | 0:04:55 | 0:04:59 | |
My name is Brandon Miles, and I was born in Swansea in 1969. | 0:05:06 | 0:05:10 | |
Grew up on these hills, | 0:05:10 | 0:05:12 | |
catching horses, playing in the dirt and eating worms. | 0:05:12 | 0:05:15 | |
I was an intravenous user of heroin, | 0:05:17 | 0:05:20 | |
methamphetamine, and EP, ethylphenidate, | 0:05:20 | 0:05:24 | |
for a period of 14 years. | 0:05:24 | 0:05:26 | |
Every single day, several times a day. | 0:05:27 | 0:05:31 | |
Here I am... | 0:05:31 | 0:05:33 | |
..well, look, a mess. | 0:05:34 | 0:05:36 | |
Ah, my toe, my leg. | 0:05:37 | 0:05:39 | |
My other... My right leg. | 0:05:41 | 0:05:43 | |
My hernia, my cochlea. | 0:05:43 | 0:05:45 | |
My nose, my teeth. | 0:05:45 | 0:05:48 | |
I'm in a mess. | 0:05:48 | 0:05:50 | |
Ah, it's all to do with just... I was taking drugs, I think. | 0:05:52 | 0:05:55 | |
Brandon recently had his right leg amputated | 0:06:00 | 0:06:03 | |
due to injuries caused by years of injecting drugs. | 0:06:03 | 0:06:07 | |
At 47, he's found himself newly disabled, | 0:06:07 | 0:06:10 | |
adapting to life as an amputee. | 0:06:10 | 0:06:13 | |
He was on his way to pawn his laptop | 0:06:13 | 0:06:15 | |
after his disability benefit had run out for the week. | 0:06:15 | 0:06:17 | |
I need about... £60, £70 for the laptop | 0:06:19 | 0:06:25 | |
to cover the cost of living for the next few days. | 0:06:25 | 0:06:30 | |
It goes on bills, it goes on food, | 0:06:30 | 0:06:32 | |
domestic products, takeaways, taxis, | 0:06:32 | 0:06:36 | |
if I need any painkillers. | 0:06:36 | 0:06:39 | |
It's hard. I'm demoralised, I suppose. | 0:06:39 | 0:06:41 | |
Yeah, cheers, man. See you again, yeah? | 0:06:49 | 0:06:51 | |
Thanks a lot. Bye. OK, I'll see you shortly, then. | 0:06:51 | 0:06:54 | |
Despite having spent money on a cab to get there, | 0:06:58 | 0:07:00 | |
the pawn shop wouldn't take Brandon's laptop, | 0:07:00 | 0:07:02 | |
meaning he was out of money for the rest of the week. | 0:07:02 | 0:07:05 | |
Argh! | 0:07:05 | 0:07:07 | |
It's ridiculous. | 0:07:07 | 0:07:09 | |
It's like I'm in a trip. It's so surreal. | 0:07:09 | 0:07:12 | |
It's just like, what the fuck...? | 0:07:12 | 0:07:14 | |
Chin up, mate. | 0:07:14 | 0:07:15 | |
I don't want sympathy. Or empathy. | 0:07:15 | 0:07:18 | |
I want a fucking leg. I want it to grow back. | 0:07:18 | 0:07:20 | |
Later that day, Brandon talked me through | 0:07:28 | 0:07:30 | |
how injecting had led to his leg being amputated. | 0:07:30 | 0:07:33 | |
I missed a vein. | 0:07:33 | 0:07:35 | |
And I think I blew a capillary, because I used a super-fine needle. | 0:07:37 | 0:07:42 | |
Brandon showed me pictures of the abscess | 0:07:42 | 0:07:44 | |
that he'd taken during his stay in the hospital. | 0:07:44 | 0:07:47 | |
I was like that for two years. It got bigger and bigger. | 0:07:47 | 0:07:50 | |
That's the 31st of the 12th 2015. | 0:07:50 | 0:07:55 | |
After two years of fighting infection, | 0:07:55 | 0:07:57 | |
doctors amputated Brandon's right leg below the knee. | 0:07:57 | 0:08:00 | |
I didn't set out with the intent, you know, of doing this. | 0:08:00 | 0:08:03 | |
This here, this is... You know what I mean? | 0:08:03 | 0:08:05 | |
There's a lot of things I can't do. | 0:08:05 | 0:08:08 | |
You know, I can't just run up to the shop. | 0:08:08 | 0:08:10 | |
And that's depressing. | 0:08:12 | 0:08:13 | |
It's made my life 100 times harder. | 0:08:13 | 0:08:17 | |
Just injecting it. Trying to, anyway. | 0:08:36 | 0:08:39 | |
This is the trouble I've got to go through. | 0:08:40 | 0:08:44 | |
All the fucking time. | 0:08:44 | 0:08:45 | |
(Yes.) | 0:08:56 | 0:08:57 | |
I'm just pushing it. | 0:09:00 | 0:09:01 | |
Thank fuck for that, man. | 0:09:07 | 0:09:09 | |
Takes all fucking day otherwise. | 0:09:11 | 0:09:13 | |
HE INHALES DEEPLY AND EXHALES | 0:09:16 | 0:09:18 | |
Sorry about that. | 0:09:20 | 0:09:22 | |
Them people out there watching this, don't fucking touch heroin. | 0:09:22 | 0:09:26 | |
It hurts, you know, just to find a vein in my body. | 0:09:32 | 0:09:37 | |
I don't know the reason why human beings hurt themselves. | 0:09:37 | 0:09:43 | |
But... | 0:09:43 | 0:09:44 | |
Yeah, I wish I had the answer, because... | 0:09:46 | 0:09:49 | |
..perhaps I wouldn't do it any more, you know. | 0:09:51 | 0:09:54 | |
Since losing his leg, | 0:10:03 | 0:10:05 | |
Brandon has had to adapt to life as a disabled person. | 0:10:05 | 0:10:08 | |
For the past few months, | 0:10:09 | 0:10:11 | |
his friend Ed has been coming round to help him with day-to-day chores | 0:10:11 | 0:10:14 | |
such as cooking, cleaning and doing the shopping. | 0:10:14 | 0:10:17 | |
-Bran... -Yeah? | 0:10:17 | 0:10:19 | |
-Tea or coffee? -I'll have coffee, please. | 0:10:19 | 0:10:22 | |
Whilst Ed helps out when he can, Brandon has recently asked | 0:10:23 | 0:10:26 | |
if he would consider becoming his full-time carer. | 0:10:26 | 0:10:29 | |
He could claim carer's allowance | 0:10:30 | 0:10:32 | |
and I'm allowed to claim severe disability payments, | 0:10:32 | 0:10:35 | |
-or scheme or whatever it is, I don't know. -Yeah. | 0:10:35 | 0:10:37 | |
-So you'd be Brandon's official carer? -Yeah. | 0:10:37 | 0:10:40 | |
I've been thinking about it for a while, | 0:10:40 | 0:10:42 | |
but we'll see how it pans out now. | 0:10:42 | 0:10:44 | |
It all depends on, you know, | 0:10:44 | 0:10:46 | |
if Brandon is serious about committing to this | 0:10:46 | 0:10:48 | |
-and doesn't, you know, go off on... -100%, Ed. | 0:10:48 | 0:10:51 | |
-..a mad scheme for a week and disappears. -No. No. | 0:10:51 | 0:10:56 | |
Cos I know he does get... | 0:10:56 | 0:10:57 | |
After a few months, he does get, like, "Ahh!" | 0:10:57 | 0:11:01 | |
On top of losing one leg, | 0:11:02 | 0:11:04 | |
it became apparent that the ulcer on Brandon's remaining leg | 0:11:04 | 0:11:07 | |
was refusing to heal. | 0:11:07 | 0:11:08 | |
This meant he was facing the real possibility | 0:11:08 | 0:11:11 | |
of becoming a double amputee. | 0:11:11 | 0:11:13 | |
Brandon was now relying on Ed | 0:11:13 | 0:11:15 | |
to take him to and from medical appointments | 0:11:15 | 0:11:17 | |
to have his wound cleaned and re-dressed. | 0:11:17 | 0:11:20 | |
I'm in pain. | 0:11:22 | 0:11:24 | |
-The infection's getting worse on the toe? -Yeah. | 0:11:24 | 0:11:27 | |
HE GROANS | 0:11:27 | 0:11:28 | |
See, that's... | 0:11:28 | 0:11:30 | |
That's my leg. | 0:11:31 | 0:11:33 | |
Underneath this area, this dressing, is an ulcer | 0:11:33 | 0:11:36 | |
roughly the size of the dressing. | 0:11:36 | 0:11:39 | |
Can you see the discolouration of the skin? | 0:11:40 | 0:11:42 | |
That is what they're going to soak off. I can't take that off. | 0:11:42 | 0:11:44 | |
-So if you take that off, it rips off the skin? -Yeah. | 0:11:44 | 0:11:47 | |
-In pain? -Yeah, of course. | 0:11:48 | 0:11:50 | |
..I'm filming at the minute, yeah? | 0:11:50 | 0:11:53 | |
All right, bye. Bye. | 0:11:53 | 0:11:55 | |
-How often do you have to go to get this wash? -Three times a week. | 0:11:55 | 0:11:58 | |
-Does it hurt when they do it? -Yeah, it does, yeah. | 0:11:59 | 0:12:02 | |
After speaking with Ed, | 0:12:04 | 0:12:05 | |
it became apparent that Brandon was resorting to more | 0:12:05 | 0:12:08 | |
than just prescription drugs to deal with his pain. | 0:12:08 | 0:12:11 | |
None of the medication they've given him | 0:12:11 | 0:12:13 | |
is having the time to work because he...can't stop smoking drugs. | 0:12:13 | 0:12:17 | |
So his body's basically just going round in circles. | 0:12:17 | 0:12:21 | |
He's discharged himself from hospital, I think, eight times. | 0:12:21 | 0:12:24 | |
He was even smoking crack in the hospital at some point. | 0:12:24 | 0:12:28 | |
BRANDON GROANS | 0:12:28 | 0:12:29 | |
-Is that a bit better? -BRANDON GROANS | 0:12:29 | 0:12:32 | |
Oh, God, I'm dead. | 0:12:32 | 0:12:34 | |
Well, lucky you're not a horse, innit? | 0:12:34 | 0:12:37 | |
-Oh, yeah, they'd shoot me. -Yeah. | 0:12:37 | 0:12:39 | |
If I do all this and it ends up to be in vain, | 0:12:39 | 0:12:41 | |
I'm sorry, I'm just going to say, "Brandon, I tried, | 0:12:41 | 0:12:44 | |
"it's up to you, mate," and just walk away from it. | 0:12:44 | 0:12:47 | |
You know? | 0:12:47 | 0:12:48 | |
Bad enough losing one leg, | 0:12:48 | 0:12:50 | |
but two through your own stupidity is... | 0:12:50 | 0:12:52 | |
In Swansea, for injecting, is terrible. | 0:12:56 | 0:13:00 | |
It's all squats where people just go in, inject, | 0:13:02 | 0:13:06 | |
and just chuck their syringes on the floor. | 0:13:06 | 0:13:09 | |
It's really bad for people injecting in Swansea. Real... Real bad. | 0:13:11 | 0:13:16 | |
Although the squat Johnno was living in | 0:14:43 | 0:14:45 | |
was filled with used needles and dirty injecting equipment, | 0:14:45 | 0:14:48 | |
he'd managed to clear out a room for himself to sleep in. | 0:14:48 | 0:14:51 | |
Injecting in squats like the one Johnno was staying in | 0:15:24 | 0:15:27 | |
comes with a much higher risk of infection. | 0:15:27 | 0:15:30 | |
It turned out Johnno | 0:15:30 | 0:15:31 | |
had only recently had a very close call himself. | 0:15:31 | 0:15:33 | |
I had an abscess that started eating away at my leg. | 0:16:31 | 0:16:35 | |
I got a lift straight to the hospital | 0:16:35 | 0:16:37 | |
cos I knew it was going to open up. | 0:16:37 | 0:16:39 | |
It feels like as if someone's pouring | 0:16:48 | 0:16:51 | |
a boiling hot kettle of water over your leg. | 0:16:51 | 0:16:55 | |
It was a mess. It went outside the vein. | 0:16:55 | 0:16:58 | |
It was...really painful. | 0:16:58 | 0:17:01 | |
As you can see, it's healed up now. | 0:17:04 | 0:17:07 | |
But I've known people to walk round for weeks | 0:17:07 | 0:17:10 | |
with their leg... | 0:17:10 | 0:17:12 | |
out...massive, | 0:17:12 | 0:17:15 | |
all red raw, all the way down, and it's just like a balloon. | 0:17:15 | 0:17:19 | |
The rise in injecting wounds and abscesses like Michael's | 0:17:21 | 0:17:24 | |
has become a serious concern across South Wales. | 0:17:24 | 0:17:27 | |
In Newport, needle exchange coordinator Mike Mallett | 0:17:31 | 0:17:34 | |
has decided to take things into his own hands. | 0:17:34 | 0:17:37 | |
A third of all injecting drug users | 0:17:37 | 0:17:40 | |
will suffer some kind of wound, abscess, | 0:17:40 | 0:17:43 | |
open ulcer, at some point per year. | 0:17:43 | 0:17:46 | |
In March 2016, Mike opened a specialised wound clinic | 0:17:46 | 0:17:50 | |
to treat injecting drug users. | 0:17:50 | 0:17:52 | |
This is a mess, this is, in my leg. | 0:17:54 | 0:17:56 | |
Cos I'm on the streets, I can't look after it as well as I'd like to, | 0:17:56 | 0:18:00 | |
clean it and all that. | 0:18:00 | 0:18:02 | |
Not looking too good, | 0:18:02 | 0:18:03 | |
but it's looking a lot better than what it was. | 0:18:03 | 0:18:05 | |
That black skin is what we call necrotic, OK? | 0:18:05 | 0:18:08 | |
And that's basically what we want to take out. | 0:18:08 | 0:18:10 | |
So what the dressings do that I'm going to put on, | 0:18:10 | 0:18:12 | |
-help to break that down and liquefy it... -OK. -..and draws it off, | 0:18:12 | 0:18:15 | |
so don't worry if it looks a bit wet or it gets a bit smelly. | 0:18:15 | 0:18:17 | |
-That's what the dressings are designed to do. -OK. | 0:18:17 | 0:18:20 | |
-So, this is just sterile water. -OK. -Just so I can wash it. -Yeah. | 0:18:20 | 0:18:24 | |
'People in these situations | 0:18:24 | 0:18:26 | |
'can become very, very isolated very quickly.' | 0:18:26 | 0:18:29 | |
There is that stigma attached to being a drug user, | 0:18:29 | 0:18:32 | |
and that's often what restricts the drive to go and seek help, | 0:18:32 | 0:18:37 | |
because they're worried about how they're going to be perceived, | 0:18:37 | 0:18:40 | |
how they're going to be met. | 0:18:40 | 0:18:41 | |
If you hadn't have been able to come here, what would you have done? | 0:18:41 | 0:18:44 | |
Do you know what? It would have been... | 0:18:44 | 0:18:46 | |
I would have left it, get really bad, | 0:18:46 | 0:18:48 | |
and probably got rushed into hospital | 0:18:48 | 0:18:50 | |
with septicaemia or something, | 0:18:50 | 0:18:52 | |
cos like I said, I've got no access to any doctor | 0:18:52 | 0:18:55 | |
or any medical help, so it's only the hospital, | 0:18:55 | 0:18:58 | |
and I don't really like going there. | 0:18:58 | 0:19:00 | |
I'd say 95% of doctors are very anti-drug | 0:19:00 | 0:19:05 | |
and, you know, they say, "Oh, it's self-inflicted." | 0:19:05 | 0:19:08 | |
The vast majority of injecting drug users | 0:19:08 | 0:19:11 | |
are highly stigmatised by health professionals, | 0:19:11 | 0:19:16 | |
who perhaps are less than sympathetic | 0:19:16 | 0:19:19 | |
and treat those individuals differently. | 0:19:19 | 0:19:22 | |
If you know you are not going to be treated well, | 0:19:22 | 0:19:25 | |
you are less likely to come forward for help. | 0:19:25 | 0:19:28 | |
To explain just how bad the problem had got, | 0:19:28 | 0:19:31 | |
Mike decided to show me pictures | 0:19:31 | 0:19:32 | |
of some of the most serious wounds he'd treated in the past few months. | 0:19:32 | 0:19:36 | |
When she came in to see me, | 0:19:36 | 0:19:37 | |
she didn't have a bandage or anything, | 0:19:37 | 0:19:40 | |
so when she presented here, | 0:19:40 | 0:19:42 | |
she actually had a tea towel covering that wound, | 0:19:42 | 0:19:45 | |
cos that's all she had in the house. | 0:19:45 | 0:19:47 | |
It is like battlefield dressing sometimes. | 0:19:47 | 0:19:49 | |
If you're injecting four £10 bags of heroin a day | 0:19:49 | 0:19:55 | |
and you're still feeling that pain, | 0:19:55 | 0:19:57 | |
my God, what would it be like without the heroin? | 0:19:57 | 0:20:01 | |
There is that potential for much greater damage than we currently see | 0:20:01 | 0:20:05 | |
because of that inability or reluctance or difficulty | 0:20:05 | 0:20:09 | |
in accessing treatment, and however relatively minor, | 0:20:09 | 0:20:13 | |
if it doesn't get any kind of intervention, | 0:20:13 | 0:20:15 | |
it's going to get worse. | 0:20:15 | 0:20:17 | |
It was clear from speaking to Mike's patients | 0:20:17 | 0:20:19 | |
the wound clinic was the only place many felt they could go | 0:20:19 | 0:20:22 | |
and be treated fairly. | 0:20:22 | 0:20:23 | |
If it weren't for places like this, | 0:20:23 | 0:20:25 | |
I know there's half a dozen men walking round town | 0:20:25 | 0:20:28 | |
that'd be in chairs with no legs. | 0:20:28 | 0:20:30 | |
You don't get it... | 0:20:30 | 0:20:32 | |
You can talk to people about it, | 0:20:32 | 0:20:33 | |
but you ain't going to find anywhere else like this. | 0:20:33 | 0:20:36 | |
For Mike, early intervention wasn't just about helping people in pain. | 0:20:36 | 0:20:40 | |
There was also, potentially, a serious knock-on effect for the NHS. | 0:20:40 | 0:20:45 | |
There's a human cost and there's a financial cost. | 0:20:45 | 0:20:48 | |
More drugs, different types of medications, | 0:20:48 | 0:20:50 | |
possibly even surgery, hospital admissions. | 0:20:50 | 0:20:52 | |
Eventually, it costs everyone. | 0:20:52 | 0:20:55 | |
You know, wounds can develop into septicaemia, into sepsis, | 0:20:55 | 0:20:58 | |
you can lose limbs, you can lose your life. | 0:20:58 | 0:21:00 | |
Although Mike's clinic offers hope for younger users | 0:21:02 | 0:21:05 | |
seeking treatment in the future, | 0:21:05 | 0:21:07 | |
back in Swansea, Brandon had already lost one limb | 0:21:07 | 0:21:10 | |
and was in danger of losing another. | 0:21:10 | 0:21:12 | |
RINGING TONE | 0:21:12 | 0:21:14 | |
When I caught up with him, | 0:21:14 | 0:21:15 | |
he was desperately searching for alternative treatments | 0:21:15 | 0:21:18 | |
in a bid to save his remaining leg. | 0:21:18 | 0:21:21 | |
I did lose my right leg in the end. | 0:21:21 | 0:21:24 | |
-WOMAN: -'Aw, bless.' | 0:21:24 | 0:21:26 | |
Now it's my left leg that's sore and what have you, | 0:21:26 | 0:21:29 | |
and I don't want to lose my left leg. | 0:21:29 | 0:21:31 | |
After weeks of waiting, | 0:21:31 | 0:21:32 | |
Brandon finally managed to book a session with a local charity | 0:21:32 | 0:21:35 | |
who offer hyperbaric oxygen therapy. | 0:21:35 | 0:21:38 | |
-Hi, Brendan. All right? -Hello. Hi. | 0:21:38 | 0:21:40 | |
You're going to be in there for an hour and a half, | 0:21:40 | 0:21:43 | |
-so if you need to use the loo... -Yeah. -..better go now! | 0:21:43 | 0:21:47 | |
SHE LAUGHS | 0:21:47 | 0:21:48 | |
Brandon was hoping the hyperbaric treatment | 0:21:48 | 0:21:50 | |
would help to heal his abscess and save his remaining leg. | 0:21:50 | 0:21:54 | |
'It's available for a multitude of things. | 0:21:54 | 0:21:58 | |
'In Brandon's case, we're looking for wound healing. | 0:21:58 | 0:22:01 | |
'It heals from the inside out.' | 0:22:01 | 0:22:03 | |
AIR HISSES | 0:22:05 | 0:22:06 | |
It gives your chest a good workout, too. | 0:22:06 | 0:22:08 | |
-Because it... -Oh. -AIR HISSES | 0:22:08 | 0:22:10 | |
-Because it... -AIR HISSES | 0:22:10 | 0:22:12 | |
-It's what they call a demand valve. -AIR HISSES | 0:22:12 | 0:22:15 | |
The charity offering the therapy was run on donations | 0:22:15 | 0:22:18 | |
and set up for people who suffer from multiple sclerosis. | 0:22:18 | 0:22:22 | |
I wanted to ask Christine, who ran the centre, | 0:22:22 | 0:22:25 | |
why she decided to give Brandon a much sought-after seat | 0:22:25 | 0:22:28 | |
in the oxygen chamber. | 0:22:28 | 0:22:29 | |
'So, people with MS are prioritised.' | 0:22:29 | 0:22:32 | |
After that, it's basically life-threatening. | 0:22:32 | 0:22:35 | |
I had no idea that, you know, it was through drug use. | 0:22:37 | 0:22:41 | |
Not that that would make any difference. | 0:22:41 | 0:22:43 | |
Everybody needs care regardless of how it happens, you know. | 0:22:43 | 0:22:48 | |
Why did he choose to go down that road? | 0:22:48 | 0:22:50 | |
Was it peer pressure? How young was he? | 0:22:50 | 0:22:52 | |
Was it desperation? Was it despondency? | 0:22:52 | 0:22:54 | |
Was it depression? | 0:22:54 | 0:22:55 | |
Is it making me feel better? Initially, probably, it was. | 0:22:55 | 0:22:59 | |
Just because you've made that bad choice | 0:22:59 | 0:23:01 | |
doesn't mean to say you're a bad person. | 0:23:01 | 0:23:03 | |
My whole life fell apart. | 0:23:07 | 0:23:08 | |
One of my ex-missus ran off with my kids | 0:23:08 | 0:23:11 | |
and denied me access to my children. | 0:23:11 | 0:23:14 | |
My business fell apart, everything, the home fell apart. | 0:23:14 | 0:23:18 | |
Or I fell apart. | 0:23:18 | 0:23:19 | |
You obviously had this sort of break-up of your family | 0:23:27 | 0:23:31 | |
when you were 32. | 0:23:31 | 0:23:32 | |
-Have you ever really recovered from that? -No. | 0:23:32 | 0:23:35 | |
No. | 0:23:35 | 0:23:36 | |
-Do you consider...? -Well, look at me. I mean... | 0:23:39 | 0:23:43 | |
Losing my sight. I've lost my right leg. | 0:23:43 | 0:23:46 | |
I've lost my left leg, almost, eventually, or soon. | 0:23:47 | 0:23:51 | |
Hopefully not. | 0:23:51 | 0:23:53 | |
-You know. -How do you come back from it? | 0:23:55 | 0:23:57 | |
I don't know. | 0:23:59 | 0:24:01 | |
I don't know. Maybe I'm just lost and there's no way back. | 0:24:02 | 0:24:06 | |
There's no breadcrumbs for me to follow, you know. | 0:24:06 | 0:24:09 | |
And, um... | 0:24:09 | 0:24:11 | |
I don't know what to do. | 0:24:13 | 0:24:15 | |
Oh, God, it's snapped. | 0:24:21 | 0:24:23 | |
-What snapped? -The pipe. | 0:24:24 | 0:24:26 | |
-You snapped the crack pipe? -I have, yeah. | 0:24:26 | 0:24:29 | |
-How have you managed that? -I don't know. Don't know. | 0:24:29 | 0:24:32 | |
Oh, bloody hell. | 0:24:32 | 0:24:34 | |
Just going to tape it back together. | 0:24:35 | 0:24:38 | |
RINGING TONE | 0:24:41 | 0:24:42 | |
Ed, can you bring some tape over quickly? | 0:24:46 | 0:24:48 | |
(I've just snapped the crack pipe.) | 0:24:48 | 0:24:50 | |
-'You've snapped what?' -(The crack pipe.) | 0:24:50 | 0:24:53 | |
-'The crack pipe?' -(The crack pipe, I've snapped it in half.) | 0:24:53 | 0:24:57 | |
'Sellotape, yeah?' | 0:24:57 | 0:24:58 | |
Yeah, something, please, quickly, yeah, before they notice. | 0:24:58 | 0:25:00 | |
'All right, all right. I've got a pair of tongs as well.' | 0:25:00 | 0:25:03 | |
Oh, wicked. | 0:25:03 | 0:25:04 | |
-All right. -INDISTINCT SPEECH | 0:25:04 | 0:25:07 | |
OK, see you shortly. | 0:25:07 | 0:25:08 | |
'The crack pipe Brandon had broken | 0:25:10 | 0:25:11 | |
'belonged to someone else in the house | 0:25:11 | 0:25:13 | |
'and he was keen to fix it before they found out.' | 0:25:13 | 0:25:16 | |
-Surely they'll notice when you tape it back together. -Hopefully... | 0:25:16 | 0:25:20 | |
But they'll notice the Sellotape on it. | 0:25:20 | 0:25:23 | |
BRANDON CHUCKLES | 0:25:23 | 0:25:24 | |
HE COUGHS | 0:25:26 | 0:25:27 | |
HE SIGHS | 0:25:32 | 0:25:33 | |
Well done, Ed. | 0:25:35 | 0:25:36 | |
Ed, can you quickly do this? | 0:25:37 | 0:25:39 | |
OK? | 0:25:47 | 0:25:48 | |
Yeah, it's OK. | 0:25:48 | 0:25:50 | |
-Yeah? -Yeah. -You look like you've done that before, Ed. | 0:25:50 | 0:25:54 | |
Yeah, I have. A few times. | 0:25:54 | 0:25:55 | |
For Michael, Brandon and Johnno, | 0:26:01 | 0:26:03 | |
there were familiar issues of coping with pain and trauma, | 0:26:03 | 0:26:06 | |
whether it was a battle with addiction, loss of a limb, | 0:26:06 | 0:26:09 | |
or the cutting isolation of homelessness, | 0:26:09 | 0:26:12 | |
being kept away from your family. | 0:26:12 | 0:26:14 | |
Do you think when your kids grow up, they would understand? | 0:26:23 | 0:26:26 | |
TEARFULLY: | 0:26:32 | 0:26:34 | |
Heroin's not going to ruin my life any more, you know. | 0:26:49 | 0:26:53 | |
I know perhaps I'm doing it now, | 0:26:53 | 0:26:56 | |
but I'm going to cut myself down slowly | 0:26:56 | 0:26:59 | |
till it's just me and my script, and that's it. | 0:26:59 | 0:27:03 | |
Sometimes it brings me close to tears. | 0:27:03 | 0:27:06 | |
I know the damage I've done to myself. | 0:27:07 | 0:27:11 | |
I don't want to lose my leg. | 0:27:11 | 0:27:13 | |
I don't want to die. I don't want to die. | 0:27:13 | 0:27:16 | |
Since I've lost my leg, | 0:27:16 | 0:27:18 | |
obviously my confidence has gone, depression's set in. | 0:27:18 | 0:27:23 | |
You know, I've had suicidal thoughts and all sorts of things. | 0:27:24 | 0:27:28 | |
And it's not me and it's not what I want. | 0:27:28 | 0:27:30 | |
It's just too negative. | 0:27:30 | 0:27:32 | |
I hope it doesn't prevent me from doing the things that I dream of. | 0:27:32 | 0:27:35 | |
You or I enjoy family, friends, loved ones. | 0:27:59 | 0:28:02 | |
When we're down, they'll back us up. | 0:28:02 | 0:28:04 | |
A lot of injecting drug users don't have that. | 0:28:04 | 0:28:07 | |
The more isolated they become, the more vulnerable they become. | 0:28:07 | 0:28:10 | |
Drug users require specialist services where they are. | 0:28:10 | 0:28:16 | |
We need to have a rethink. | 0:28:17 | 0:28:19 | |
If I'm trying not to use and I end up using, | 0:28:25 | 0:28:28 | |
I really beat myself up. | 0:28:28 | 0:28:30 | |
But I've got to realise it's just one little step at a time. | 0:28:30 | 0:28:34 | |
It feels like sometimes that... | 0:28:37 | 0:28:40 | |
I need drugs to survive. | 0:28:40 | 0:28:42 | |
And that's a scary thought. | 0:28:44 | 0:28:46 | |
I went out on Friday night for my birthday. | 0:29:04 | 0:29:07 | |
I had about eight cans of Bud as well, so that cheered me up. | 0:29:07 | 0:29:11 | |
And I can't really remember much. | 0:29:11 | 0:29:13 | |
It was quite a quiet night. | 0:29:13 | 0:29:15 | |
-Happy birthday, Ed. -ED LAUGHS | 0:29:15 | 0:29:17 | |
# Happy birthday to you! | 0:29:17 | 0:29:19 | |
# Happy birthday to you | 0:29:19 | 0:29:23 | |
# Happy birthday, dear Edward | 0:29:23 | 0:29:28 | |
# Happy birthday to you. # | 0:29:28 | 0:29:30 | |
-And a cake. -Oh, bloody hell. | 0:29:32 | 0:29:33 | |
-I've got to blow them out now, have I? -Yeah, and a wish, yeah. | 0:29:33 | 0:29:36 | |
-You've got... -PARTY POPPER POPS | 0:29:36 | 0:29:39 | |
THEY LAUGH | 0:29:39 | 0:29:41 | |
Put it there. | 0:29:41 | 0:29:43 | |
-Thank you. -Appreciate that, right. | 0:29:43 | 0:29:45 | |
-I know, I know. -He's a good man, honestly. | 0:29:45 | 0:29:48 | |
Would anyone like some cake? | 0:29:48 | 0:29:49 | |
Ed Walker, ladies and gentlemen! | 0:29:49 | 0:29:52 | |
Thank you! | 0:29:52 | 0:29:54 | |
BRANDON PLAYS A TUNE | 0:29:54 | 0:29:56 | |
I'd just love a girlfriend. | 0:29:56 | 0:29:58 | |
I'd love a car, I'd love to be able to drive. | 0:29:58 | 0:30:01 | |
I'd love my legs... I'd love new legs. | 0:30:03 | 0:30:06 | |
Can you give me new legs?! | 0:30:06 | 0:30:07 | |
See why we stay here? | 0:30:09 | 0:30:10 | |
-Cos it's God's country? -It's all God's country, isn't it? | 0:30:12 | 0:30:16 | |
-GUITAR STOPS -Do you know the words?! | 0:30:48 | 0:30:50 | |
Huh? Sorry, I was falling asleep. | 0:30:50 | 0:30:52 |