Episode 10 Emergency Rescue Down Under

They're the Brits who race to the rescue down under.

Multiple patients critical.

Everyday heroes saving lives.

12 miles to run.

-Battling fires...

-If you don't come out now, it's too late.

It can be extremely dangerous.

And fighting crime.

Put your arm down.

Police! Open the door!

From the big city to the outback.

Our policing district is bigger than the whole of the UK.

From the bush...

He's been crushed between one of those dingo diggers and a Ute.

..To Bondi Beach.

'The search continues for a British tourist who hasn't been seen

'since he went for a swim.'

You never quite know what you're in for or what's going to happen.

332, mate, on the head in.

Very high impact. He's really quite critically injured.

Brits on blue lights under blue skies.

Today, down under, a British nurse comes to the rescue of a man

fighting for his life.

We're just struggling a little bit with his ventilation at the moment.

British policewoman Carly is called to a party that's out of control.

Kids these days are not right in the head.

They keep mobbing each other.

And vet Lucy finds koalas are far from cuddly.

They can, uh, inflict a nasty wound.

These claws can sort of go right through your hand.

In a country as big as Australia, even a minor accident can kill.

'40K west of Singleton?'

Distance can be the difference between life and death.

Many motorists die after country road accidents that they

would have survived in the UK.

Jim Stuart is fighting for his life in a small hospital

in the town of Lismore after a head-on crash on a country road.

His aorta, the main artery in his chest, is torn.

If the tear completes and it bursts, he would die within minutes.

Sometimes the tear can dissect through

the layers of the blood vessel.

Depending which way it goes, it can go backwards to the heart

and essentially cause a heart attack.

The British nurse who could save his life is based 450 miles away

at Sydney's International Airport.

Juanita Ameghino is preparing to fly to Jim's beside,

before transporting him to a bigger hospital for surgery.

So I've got kit number six and I'll make sure I've got two lots of

Ondansetron.

This is the ambulance of the outback,

a converted executive plane containing an intensive care unit.

So, almost everything but the kitchen sink. Look at it.

Nurse Juanita and a doctor must carry everything

they need to keep Jim alive until they can reach the operating

theatre at the John Hunter Hospital in the city of Newcastle.

He's a 59-year-old man and he's got a little tear in his aorta.

But he's got other injuries as well, he's got vascular injuries

and he's got neurological injuries,

so we're transferring him from Lismore which is right up on

the north coast of New South Wales down to John Hunter, where they've

got the specialities, the vascular speciality and the neurological

speciality so that he's in the right place if he deteriorates.

This is a critical mission for Juanita and the team.

Their patient is unstable

and has internal injuries that could cause him to bleed to death.

This is a priority-one retrieval, a doctor's coming with me.

It's very difficult to clinically manage

a patient by yourself if they're deteriorating on the plane.

And also if the patient's ventilated, then it makes it much,

much easier to have two people on board.

Even by Australian standards, it's a long mission.

It takes two hours before they reach Jim's

bedside in the town of Lismore.

-Confused the whole time.

-OK.

But stable observations at scene and throughout transport.

Jim's condition is not improving.

He's got a nasty and complicated uh, pelvis fracture.

So I think that's where probably the majority of his blood loss has gone.

So a vertical shear.

Jim? Jim? Hi, my name's Juanita.

I'm the flight nurse.

Going to take you down to John Hunter Hospital.

Can you squeeze my hand here

if you understand what I've just said to you?

He's barely conscious.

Squeeze my hand, mate.

I'm definitely getting not obeying commands.

And non-verbal.

X-rays confirm the tear in Jim's aorta is leaking slowly.

It could get worse at any time.

But I think for us, because we're going to be moving him,

-they reckon it might be quite a good idea.

-Yep.

And um, particularly if they're not tubing him,

-at least we can roll him.

-OK.

The team decide to anaesthetise Jim and take control of his breathing.

They have to paralyse him and feed a tube down his windpipe.

Right, plan - so that's my plan A, is to put a tube and booty in...

..it's a direct lower-arm laryngoscopy...

I've got you an eight and a seven.

Oh, you're a legend, thank you very much. Do you mind testing the cuff on the eight, is that OK?

Yep.

Although they have done this many times, it's still a dangerous procedure.

MACHINE BEEPS

Don't worry, blood pressure's good, sats are 98 and stable.

I've got the booty.

We are in, I'm at 24 at the teeth.

OK, booty out, please.

-Booty out.

-Thank you.

All good.

All good? Perfect.

Jim is now unconscious and getting assistance with his breathing.

On my count one, two, three.

Stop.

Juanita and the team time head to the airport to begin Jim's flight.

Going up.

He is still in a critical condition.

If the tear gets worse, his life will rest in the hands of this

team in this small plane.

With a population of 1.8 million people and rising,

Perth is one of Australia's fastest-growing cities.

British police officers Carly Hall

and Andy Motson have an ever-expanding beat to police.

Half the residents who live here are from abroad.

My husband by trade is a carpenter.

So seven years ago, we moved to Australia on his visa.

We came over in 2008 and it was all

because of advertising that they were taking British cops.

Um, very good move.

Wouldn't go back.

Yeah, we love it over here and it was the best thing we ever did.

This is...we class as home now.

It's all under construction, it's just new

suburbs that are getting built.

It's nearly midnight and there's an emergency call.

A member of the public's reported that as they've been

walking across this address, they've seen persons in here with torches.

It's a house that's a new house that's under construction.

Whatever the neighbours saw has gone.

Just regarding this house that you've seen the torches in,

is it a single story one or is it a double storey?

So, one with the skip outside, is it, blue skip?

There's nothing at all here. OK, no problem.

If there's any more problems, just give us a ring.

Bye.

Carly moved down under from the Midlands.

Andy used to do nights on the streets of Middlesbrough

where life in uniform was rather different.

Town centre was just drunks, drunks and drugs. Unfortunately.

But Saturday night in Western Australia is starting to

remind them of home.

So we've got a 328, which is a disturbance

and the job reads there's approximately 50 youths

on the street...believes there's a party going on there.

He's drove past, someone's kicked his car,

unknown if there's any damage at this time.

Acting loud and unruly on the street.

So we'll have a look and see what they're... Is going on.

November 107...

Where've you come from?

-I'm just waiting for the bus.

-Where you going to?

-Pardon?

Where are you going to?

INDISTINCT

Right, boys, keep walking.

Keep walking, mate.

They send one lot of guests on their way.

But there's news of more trouble a few streets away.

So the initial... obviously there's a party that's started

earlier on in the evening which police attended,

which was the first location we went to.

And then from there, they've been dispersed and they've all started

fighting just behind the original location in the backstreets here.

'We're going to need more cars here, please.'

Andy and Carly are in one of nine units sent to the scene.

'I think there was a 382...'

-Guys, what's going on?

-Everything's cool.

It obviously isn't, is it?

What's going on? Come on, guys. Take them home.

Just worried about him?

Attacked my car up there.

Who was...what, over there?

Up the road. Number 71.

The man claims his car has been damaged by some of the partygoers.

Kids these days are not right in the head!

They keep mobbing each other!

Mate, mate. Stay out of it. Stay out of it.

-The drunk guy...

-You've all got five seconds.

Right, right. Move away. Why are you getting so upset?

Right, you need to calm...

That's my brother right there they just mobbed!

Listen, you need to calm down.

He came back with blood on his face.

You need to calm down, all right?

Carly and Andy must keep them all apart.

-Put your arm down.

-My arms are down.

Put your arm down, put the phone down and tell us what's happened.

Bottle got chucked at a man tonight,

the only that could save his skull was my hand.

The young partygoer says he's been assaulted.

No, these Africans they just started,

they started on us down there.

Were you all from the same party?

Yeah. They're down there.

I think they're mobbing other boys as well.

-So was it a group or was it just one person?

-Group. Group.

Do you want to make a statement if we found him, no? All right.

-We need you to get home, then, OK?

-Yeah, I'll go, I'm going home right now.

-Do you want us to give you a lift home?

-Nah, it's all right.

Start walking, guys, we need to get everyone out the area.

INDISTINCT

Oh, God. Just go!

Carly and Andy have calmed things down, for now,

but they know that with six hours of their shift remaining,

this may not be the last incident that they face tonight.

-'Good morning...'

-INDISTINCT PILOT ANNOUNCEMENT

In an air ambulance high above New South Wales, British flight

nurse Juanita Armeghino is on a mission to save

the life of road accident victim Jim Stuart.

I'm not able to pass that.

He's being flown 400 miles to the city of Newcastle

for emergency surgery.

But his condition is deteriorating.

Carbon dioxide is building up in Jim's body.

Removing fluid from his lungs is proving difficult.

Gallons of stuff back here, Sam.

Juanita and Flying Doctor Sam Bendall are using

all their years of experience to keep Jim stable.

We've, um, I've just suctioned him.

And he had gallons of stuff coming out.

We're just struggling a little bit with his ventilation

at the moment in regards to his end-tidal CO2, which we'd

prefer to be down a little bit because of his head injury.

Dr Sam has had to reduce Jim's blood pressure with drugs to

ease the strain on his leaking aorta.

We did a bit of tweaking in-flight with his ventilation.

Bit of brainstorming between the two of us, which was good.

And it's not perfect, but it's probably as

realistically good as I'm going to get him, and the rest of him

is actually pretty stable, so touch wood he stays that way.

Excellent. One step.

After 90 minutes in the air, Jim's condition is slowly improving.

But he's still critically ill.

Tonight, surgeons will try to save his life.

So we've got a 40, 45-minute road trip now to take him

to John Hunter Hospital where

the Emergency Department have been informed and they're ready to

receive us to take him straight up to the Intensive Care Unit.

And hopefully be able to fix that aorta tear.

And get him better.

I've got good hopes for him, he's going to be great.

For several days, Jim's life remains in the balance.

But the operation is a success.

He was later released from intensive care.

In the baking heat of the Australian interior,

Warakurna is one of the country's most remote communities and

constable Kurt Weedon, from Kent, is half the police presence here.

Can I just have a quick look at your driving licence, please?

One of just two officers upholding the law across thousands

of square miles of red desert.

How you doing, Serge? Just Michael here from Warakurna police.

Serge, I've put a job on, basically we're just going

to conduct a patrol out to one of our sister communities here.

Today Kurt and Irish recruit Michael Noonan are on a highway patrol,

checking traffic on dirt roads that often see only

a handful of cars each day.

We're now on our way to a place called Tjukarla

and it's about 180km away from Warakurna.

-A little bit like driving on the beach.

-Yeah.

It's got no permanent police officers,

so it's something you have to do quite...

as regular as you can, just to reassure them we're still there.

Even though we're 200km away.

Australia still attracts migrants from all over the world

and the first vehicle they stop contains yet more Brits.

Have you seen the old boy who's been walking from City Beach?

No.

He's walking to Alice Springs.

You're joking. Where is he now?

When I went back three weeks ago, I saw him.

It turns out Kurt and the occupants were near-neighbours in South London.

-So how long have you been out?

-'82.

-Oh, so you've been a long time, then.

-Yeah.

Yeah. So where are you from?

-Tottenham, originally.

-Tottenham.

-But here I live in Caversham.

How random is that? You're driving out here in the middle of Australia, literally

in the middle of Australia,

five of us, and not one person's from Australia.

Driving in the outback takes a terrible toll on cars

and many owners are forced to cannibalise their old

vehicles just to stay on the road.

You see all the car wrecks.

I mean, I didn't realise there was this many,

I mean, that is ridiculous.

The trouble is when they're burnt-out like that, what do you do with them?

It's just such a waste on the landscape, innit?

You couldn't even dig a massive hole and bury 'em.

The car needs to be well maintained

and a lot of locals don't do that,

so they'll head off knowing that

they don't have enough fuel in their car.

Local man Lyall is an aboriginal tribal elder,

a man of influence in the community.

But he's broken down.

Lyall has a really good relationship with the police, don't you?

So we come out and we speak to Lyall quite often.

Uh, and any problems Lyall has out there, he contacts the police

and lets us know and we work well together.

So, excellent.

-Lyall, have you got a problem with your car today?

-Yeah.

What's happened? Ah. Anything we can help you with?

-Ah, should be OK.

-You're going to be OK?

-I have somebody coming now.

Oh, someone's coming out, are they?

Where you going to?

Lyall's a mechanic, he's learnt as a mechanic, as well.

So he'll be able to fix it, whereas I'm no good with cars,

so I'd be rubbish.

HE CHUCKLES

We'll see you next time, Lyall.

Out here, motoring can be a matter of life and death.

You need a permit to use these roads.

People can be easily caught out.

You get a lot of backpackers coming through, but they

don't realise how severe the conditions are.

So they'll either drive up from Perth,

or drive over from Alice Springs, and it's not until they get

on the road that they realise that they've made a mistake.

I've travelled from the roadhouse,

which is about 340km, uh, by myself and I got a blow out.

Middle of the summer. Absolutely boiling hot.

Never, never changed a wheel before on a 4X4.

Burnt up my arms cos the desert sun was

so hot it just scorched the ground.

So that was an experience that I went through that

I don't want to go through again.

But that's why it's so important to keep our vehicles maintained.

You could be literally 400,

500km away from the nearest fuel-filling place.

So you need to make sure that both tanks are always full.

The last thing you want to do out here is run out of petrol.

This is remote Australia,

few police officers are posted here permanently.

Kurt is here for five weeks and he wants a souvenir.

We're on the boarder of Northern Territories

in Western Australia, something for the scrapbook.

Cos I've not been here before.

A typical shift in the UK, it would be four nightclubs

to police, people fighting

and drink-driving, and...

Driving around stuck in traffic.

Never really achieving much.

To come out here in the middle of nowhere to see this and...

fantastic landscape.

Brilliant.

Journey's end is the small town of Tjukarla.

Is that the store?

Yep. Oh, we seem to have a few people here.

And the locals are pleased to see them.

I've never been here before cos I'm from Laverton.

There's a camel farm, is there? Oh, yeah, right, OK.

INDISTINCT

Cool, can I have a look at some camels?

Kurt's seen wild camels in the desert, but a team of musterers

have been rounding them up for export to the Middle East.

This is a first.

I've never ever seen the white camels before.

They're saying they're quite rare. Quite valuable.

When someone first told me that there were camels in Australia,

I thought that was a joke and I thought they was winding me up.

Cos they like to wind us British up and cos they know

we're scared of spiders and snakes and they make up creatures.

Like a thing called a drop bear they told us

about which doesn't really exist.

So when they told me about camels, I thought they was making it up.

But it was only when I come up to Blackstone and I saw them

for the first time.

They're kind of weird, aren't they?

Was it more hectic over there in England?

Yeah. I couldn't get to stand around doing

stuff like this in England, let's put it that way.

Busy, busy, busy, yeah.

Football matches in England,

there's 90,000 people yeah, and they all hate each other.

-So that's pretty full-on.

-Yeah.

There's quite a lot of... Well, in Laverton, you've got 12 coppers,

seven of us are English.

Is it like a programme, or just...?

There was. Basically, back in 2006, I think it was,

when you had the big mining boom.

So no-one wanted to do police work and they thought,

well, what's the point of being a policeman when you can, you know,

for whatever how much they get, I can go up the mines and just do an

easier job, maybe cleaning or something for 120 grand.

So no-one joined.

So they thought, "Let's go, go to a country...speaks the same language."

Everyone wanted to leave England,

so loads of people went.

That one in the middle, that's a big one,

-that white one, the third one, innit?

-Yeah, big Brutus.

Thanks for that, chaps, I appreciate your time, I enjoyed that.

Cheers, fellas, see you later.

Have a good one, mate, might see yous on the road.

For Kurt and Michael, it's time to head back to base in Worakurna.

It could be weeks before Tjukarla sees another police officer.

The Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, are a national park where

Australia's wildlife enjoys legal protection,

they cover 7,000 square miles.

And when there's an animal emergency up here,

it's newly arrived British vet Lucy King

who's expected to come to the rescue.

-Are you OK to just tip that when we get it in?

-Yep.

The first patient is a tawny frogmouth.

I wasn't sure if it was struggling to breathe,

because it was doing this.

But there's another rare bird waiting in a box.

Um, I think it's a magpie. Unknown animal in a box.

A member of the public has brought it in.

It's a currawong.

Hey, ooh. What happened to your eye, dude?

Moving down under has meant treating hundreds of exotic species

she's never even seen before, and today she's off on a training day

at one of Sydney's biggest zoos to get up to speed on her new patients.

I'm in Featherdale Wildlife Park in Sydney. My boss Reece in

Katoomba has arranged for me to meet up with Robert, who's the vet here.

He specialises in Australian wildlife.

I'm really, really excited, it's an amazing opportunity for me

to learn about the wildlife, but also it's a once in a lifetime

chance to get hands-on experience with some of these animals.

I'm really excited. I'm really lucky.

Now, remember koalas bite and scratch.

I know they're cute, but they can inflict a nasty wound.

These claws can sort of go right through your hand.

So you've got to be aware of that.

And the way you get a koala to stay down is just

put your hand on top of their head and she won't climb up.

But again you've got to be careful with her teeth.

They can get quite aggressive territorially, can't they, koalas?

Ah, they do, they do, yeah.

Particularly the males in mating season.

Yeah, there's a bit of biffo.

You know that term in the UK? Biffo?

-Uh...

-Argy-bargy.

Argy-bargy, yeah. Bit of argy-bargy.

-That's it.

-OK.

'So this is a really good opportunity.

'As it turns into summertime, we get

'a lot more wildlife coming in,

'so I'm going to be seeing a lot more in the clinic

'and I need to be able to know what to do

'and how to handle them.'

And Lucy will be taking her life in her hands dealing with

some of Australia's reptile residents.

I'm interested in everything.

I'd like to have a look at some of the snakes.

We've seen a few snakes, but Reece tends to deal with those,

cos we're all scared.

With handling snakes it's like, she's non-venomous

so we're not worried about being invenomated.

But still, like, if she bit you, it would hurt,

all those sharp little teeth there.

So, most of the time when you handle a snake like this, it won't bite.

But, you know, you just got to be careful

and it's always better to have a couple of people holding her,

because the worst thing you could do is, you know, drop her.

You know, like, if all of a sudden you let go

and then she dangled, that would put a lot of pressure on the spine.

OK.

What do you feed these guys?

So we can feed 'em small fish.

But we often feed 'em small mice or, you know,

small bits of chicken.

Young chicken.

I gave him a pilchard the other day and he did like it.

Ha-ha-ha! Not in tomato sauce.

No, of course not.

Feeding the snake, that was a little bit scary.

I'll try again and see if I do a better job.

I think, has he opened his mouth?

Looks like he might have, no?

-Not yet.

-He's definitely interested, you can see that.

-Yeah.

I handled a death adder which is one of the

top ten venomous snakes in the world.

And I held it but it, it was being restrained very

well by a professional, so I wasn't at risk at all with that one.

I've had an amazing day.

I'll go home and have lots of dreams of Australian indigenous animals.

Back in the Blue Mountains, Lucy soon gets the chance to put

some of her new knowledge into practice.

Um, we've got a couple of blue tongues here.

This one, I'm not going to get out, he's got a broken back.

We just need to make sure he's got plenty of pain relief

and is nice and rested and he should all heal up fine, so we're just

keeping him here for, for now to make sure he is going to get better.

Um, this little guy. Hey, little guy. I know...

Oh, wriggly. Hey.

So this is an eastern bluetongue.

This fella came in because he was having trouble shedding.

So a member of the public brought him in,

and he was all sort of dry and crusty,

and struggling to get all of his shed off properly.

You can see he's got a little scar by his eye where

one of the scales came off.

So we've bathed him and made sure he's nice and hydrated

so that he can finish his shed

and can go off back into the wild again as soon as he's ready.

But as the tourist season begins in the Blue Mountains, one thing

is for certain, he won't be the last casualty brought into Lucy's clinic.