Episode 13 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...

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 know what you're in for or what's going to happen.

'Three, three, two, mate, on the head in.'

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

Brits on blue lights under blue skies.

Today down under -

flying doctor Chris

is forced to turn a shed into an operating theatre.

He's got a punctured lung on this side,

so I'm going to put a tube in the side of his chest, drain out that blood.

Police officers Kurt and Sarah

are on the hunt for a wanted man in the outback.

Is he likely to try and run away when we get up there?

I know, I just want to get ready,

if I need to take me belt off and sprint after him.

And emergency vet Lucy pulls off a tricky delivery of Labrador pups.

They're both girls! She's had girls!

PUPPY SQUEALS

'WS FM 101.7, hello there, it's Jonesy.

'Nice looking day, mostly sunny,

'25 degrees in the city, 30 in the west...'

It's a sunny weekend in Sydney,

and Aussies are out enjoying the start of summer.

PHONE RINGS

Ambulance emergency - what town or suburb?

'16-year-old off a motorbike, unconscious.'

OK, and you're with the patient now?

British flying doctor Chris Cheeseman is heading off

to a serious accident 40 miles north of the city.

Control logs off, stowed. Fuel is sufficient.

'ETA, Leggy?'

Er, 12 minutes, mate.

'Roger, thank you.'

'Careflight 4, you are heading to a 16-year-old off a motorbike,

'concussed, with a GCS of three.'

Careflight 4, copy, thank you,

we should be overhead at the scene at about 15:04.

If we both go to the patient and just actually see what the story is.

Yeah, definitely. Turn the appeal off and get some more information.

Crewman John Legge from Merseyside is trying to find the motocross

track where the accident's happened, and to identify a safe landing spot.

OK, two miles to run.

-I think it's probably this, mate.

-Yeah.

So the point that we're going for, that we were given, is over there on that crossroads.

But this looks like a motocross track to me.

-Yeah, straight off and over it.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

It's just 15 minutes since they were scrambled, but Dr Chris is down.

Now he must hitch a ride to his patient.

In the shed here?

It's probably not a bad area for us to have a look at him,

anyway, is it?

Thanks, Dave.

-How you doing, mate?

-PATIENT GROANS

All right.

So this is Mitchell, he's um, come off his bike while doing motocross.

Unknown speed, unknown height.

Erm...doesn't know how he fell off or where he landed.

I've got decreased breaths down to the right-hand side

-and lower

-left-hand side. OK.

Not complaining of any neck pain.

But they said when they took his helmet off it was twisted.

-Right, OK.

-Thank you.

-So he's got surgical emphysema on...?

-Yeah.

-OK. On this side.

So we'll do... We'll do a chest drain.

16-year-old Mitchell came off his bike on a high-speed jump.

He's badly hurt - he's struggling to breathe.

So I'm just going to do a quick scan of your tummy, mate.

MITCHELL GROANS

So...Pneumothorax on that side.

Dr Chris diagnoses a collapsed lung, or pneumothorax, and broken ribs.

Another sting, Mitch, in your arm, OK?

Mitchell's dad is by his side.

All right, Dad, listen, he's got a punctured lung on this side.

So I'm going to put a tube in the side of his chest, drain out that blood, there, OK?

I'm just going to do that straight away here now,

and then we'll probably take him to Liverpool Hospital.

OK, mate. Listen, Mitch. You've got a punctured lung, OK?

I'm going to give you some medicine which is going to put you to sleep

a bit, a bit drowsy, and I'm going to put a tube in the side of this chest, OK?

Dr Chris must act immediately to ease his patient's breathing.

He'll have to perform surgery in this shed.

It's a risky procedure even in a hospital.

But Mitchell's life is at stake.

Kurt Weedon used to patrol Kent.

-Sarah Denny comes from Liverpool.

-OK.

Together, they are the police

in an area bigger than the British counties in which they worked.

They're based in the outback town of Laverton,

500 miles from Perth in Western Australia.

We're going out to the desert today.

This is something I never had to do back home.

The old factor 50 sport, I can't remember...

how many times I had to use sunscreen back in England.

I think once.

Kurt and Sarah are partners on duty and off.

-PHONE RINGS

-That'll be the phone.

Sarah!

How can it take so long?

Are you rushing me now? I need to make sure I've got everything.

Why haven't I got any sunglasses?

I don't know, I'm not your mother!

Like all officers, they have their strengths and weaknesses,

and she knows all about his.

He's actually quite good as a police officer.

I can't really, erm...

bag him off too much.

-Bag him off!

-SHE CHUCKLES

He does know what he's doing.

-He's not very good with, erm...

-Oh, here we go!

-..computer systems.

Not good with admin, not good with paperwork.

At home he is very lazy.

Refuses to do any housework.

Can be a little bit moody.

-A little bit irritating.

-That's cos I live with you!

They're on their way to arrest a teenager

who's failed to turn up for court.

He lives in a hamlet 20 miles from Laverton.

-Have you dealt with him before?

-Yeah, he thinks himself a little tough nut.

There was a call come in that he's smashed, er...

his parents' house.

Smashed the walls up or something,

so he's obviously having a tantrum and lost his temper.

Erm...and it turns out he's also got a warrant, anyway.

So he's not turned up for court at some point.

The community's quite small, so there's a chance we'll...

We'll see him somewhere out there.

So we're having to drive about 30Ks out of Laverton

to one of the small communities called Mount Margaret.

Er, our radio doesn't work out there, so...

we found this out when us two went out last time.

Something similar like this happened, a domestic, bloke who'd beaten his missus,

and then when we got there he was hiding in the roof.

She was calling for people.

We had a foot chase with him, and eventually managed to...

-I like the "we"!

-..detain him.

-You what?

-Well, I...

-HE CHUCKLES

..started the foot chase with you, and then I commandeered the...

-Gave up after about 30 seconds.

-I commandeered a lift from one of the...

people in the community.

So you were running, I was in a car.

We got him.

If he does a runner, Kurt knows who'll be doing the chasing.

Just watch for anyone shooting off, like...

seeing us and doing one.

It's too hot to run in...

Well, you don't run anyway!

Can I just watch you?

Give me the car keys and I'll drive, you can run.

There you go.

You can't beat having a bull in your front garden.

SHE LAUGHS

What the hell is going on? How the hell have they got that in there?

-He's having a tinkle.

-SHE LAUGHS

There's no-one in at the house of the suspect.

But the neighbours are happy to help.

So if there's no green car there, that means they've...

-They're not there.

-They've gone off somewhere.

-Yeah, somewhere.

-They might be at somebody's place.

-You don't reckon they've gone out...

-They wouldn't have gone bush or anything, would they?

-Nah.

-Hey, is this them?

There they are, there.

Lovely.

The suspect's mum has turned up.

How you going? All right.

Where has he gone?

-He's at his auntie's house, I think.

-OK.

So what has happened today, then?

Is he drinking or sniffing or anything? No? OK.

Cos obviously we want to go and see him.

Do you want to come up there with us so you can get us... So you can

ask her to let us in the house in case he doesn't want to come out?

That'll be the easiest way, yeah.

All right. Cos you do know that he's going to come away with us, don't you?

-Cos he's got a warrant, so we'll be taking him away cos of that, cos he's not gone to court.

-Yeah.

So he'll get that dealt with today.

Do you want to report the other damage,

or do you want to leave it as him just going away for the warrant?

Yeah? OK. All right, then.

Now what's that, when... Is he likely to try and run away when we get up there?

All right, no, I just want to get ready

if I need to take me belt off and sprint after him.

His mum has told them where he is, but he may not come quietly,

and with backup at least an hour away,

they need to be prepared for anything.

On a rural motocross circuit,

a teenage biker is about to undergo surgery in this shed.

He came off on a jump and punctured a lung.

British flying doctor Chris Cheeseman is making an incision

in the side of 16-year-old Mitchell's chest.

He's already anaesthetised the young rider.

It's just... has a little bit of extra security.

Draining blood and fluid that is crushing Mitchell's lungs

will help his breathing.

Yeah, he'll be nice and... He'll be nice and sleepy.

So we've got good access, his head, his airway's OK.

But Dr Chris also suspects more blood loss in his abdomen.

It could kill him.

He's certainly got a punctured lung.

Erm...we could feel that even without our ultrasound.

He had some air bubbling inside his chest.

Lift, lift, lift.

I'd say he's probably got, er... broken ribs as well.

And I'm worried about his abdomen, as well.

I think there's bleeding inside of his abdomen.

Mitchell's in critical condition and hospital in Sydney is 40 miles away.

By air, that's 20 minutes.

But if their young patient deteriorates,

the team knows it will be easier to treat him on the road.

With loading him onto the aircraft and flying him and everything else,

it works out roughly about the same time,

so they may as well just have to... with the chest drain being in

and everything else, just have the stability

of being in the back of an ambo instead of the back of a chopper.

Er...

So you've got the drugs, got the blood.

SIREN WAILS

This journey will take half an hour or more.

Hey, Mitchell, how you doing?

But there's a problem.

Mitchell's blood pressure has crashed.

Is that a real blood pressure, do you think?

I'm doing it one more time.

If you're not happy, just feel the radial whilst...

Whilst we're going.

Dr Chris suspects his internal bleeding is getting worse.

-Yeah, so he's got a diminished cap refill there.

-Yeah.

He needs a transfusion immediately, or his life may be in danger.

-Yeah, you pass the code three, and I'll do the blood.

-Yeah, OK, righto.

HE SIGHS

B negative.

Er... Date 28th of October 2015, expiry date 9th of December 2015.

Thank you.

Trauma surgeons at the Liverpool Hospital are being put on standby.

Liverpool, we are just about to commence a blood transfusion,

and we will be with you in approximately 15 minutes.

-So it has an expiry, 11-2017.

-Thank you.

Let's get a bit more tape on there to, erm...so we don't lose that.

Dr Chris is injecting a drug to help Mitchell's blood clot.

It'll help stem the bleeding.

TX 80's going in now, mate.

Well, that's worked well, that's OK.

Hey, Mitchell, how you doing, eh?

Mitchell?

Hey, mate, how you doing?

Poke your tongue out for me.

Mitchell, poke your tongue out.

Mitchell is now minutes from hospital.

He needs emergency surgery.

So he's got some fluid in his abdomen,

so what I mentioned to you about the possibility of him bleeding

into his tummy seems to be the case, OK, that's what I'm worried about.

We had a couple of low blood pressures, so...

I'm assuming that he's...

That's because he's losing blood into his abdomen, OK?

This is why we're giving him a blood transfusion here, OK?

And it turned out Mitchell was lucky to survive his accident.

Over several days in hospital in Sydney,

surgeons were forced to remove his spleen,

and he will be on antibiotics for three years.

Eventually, he makes a full recovery.

He hopes to be back in the saddle soon.

In an outback hamlet 500 miles from Perth in Western Australia,

British police officers Kurt and Sarah are on their way

to arrest a teenage suspect.

He's failed to turn up for court,

and he's just smashed up his mum's house.

She's told the police where he is.

She's telling us now he's in the auntie's house,

so I've said to her it's better if she comes up with us.

Erm...to see if he wants to, you know...come,

or if the... If the auntie doesn't want to let us in, she can...

ask the auntie to let us in.

And then obviously I'm going to be there in case he plays up

or if he decides to run off when he sees the police,

which is a possibility.

The teenager is inside.

Kurt's keeping it low-key.

Yeah, he's here. How you going?

You know you've got a warrant, don't you, so you've not been turning up for court, all right?

What's been going on with earlier on?

Do you want to talk about it or not? No?

Look, it's your mum, OK? Your mum's told us about it.

But your mum's... You know, she doesn't want all this sort of stress, but she's...

She doesn't want anything done about what's happened, all right?

But you obviously know you can't do that sort of stuff, all right?

He's in there - we're just going to bring him out now.

I'm just going to open the back of the car.

The suspect's accused of burglary and theft,

but the police are concerned for his wellbeing.

He seems depressed.

Have you been drinking anything?

Any drugs or anything, no?

He's quite calm, erm...

Looks a little bit fed up, really.

But, yeah, he knows what's happening.

He knows that we're going to bring him in,

try and get him put before the court this afternoon.

You look fed up, mate - what's the matter?

You been having any problems out here, any issues or anything?

Don't want to talk to us?

No issues at all. Erm, I got in the house quite quick cos he's a young lad, he's...

He's known to run, he's... but the mum was talking to him, he was fine,

he was calm when we got in the house. So he's fine with that.

He just seems a little bit down, that's all, so...

it might've been doing him a favour, getting him out of the community for a few hours,

and, you know, he'll get his problems sorted out, get the issues sorted out.

Kurt and Sarah sympathise with young people growing up in the outback.

I'm not being a soft touch, but there's definitely,

definitely underlying reasons, you know, why they're doing it.

It's...you know, the...

-A lot of it's to do with boredom as well.

-Boredom.

-It's pretty sad, innit, with some of the kids out here, cos they're not...

-Yeah.

They're just not bad kids. They've just got no real parental guidance or support,

no direction, no role models.

And as she said, they're just bored. I mean, it's just a...

They're in the middle of a desert, there's nothing to do.

It's a vicious cycle of, you know...

Their boredom gets them into substances,

paint and, you know, alcohol.

Then they obviously have no way of working or earning money

when they've dropped out of the school system,

so they break into houses for that sort of stuff.

They want to avoid locking up the teenager overnight.

Laverton mobile to Laverton base.

'Yeah, base receiving.'

Would somebody be able to give the court a call so that we can try

and get him listed this afternoon so we don't have to keep him overnight?

-'Yeah, Roger, we'll give them a call now.'

-Yeah, cheers, thanks.

Ohh!

Jump out.

The teenager will be held until he can appear before a magistrate

on closed-circuit television.

DOOR SLAMS

What do you want to do - do you want to sit in the cell or do you want to sit outside? It's up to you.

It's warm, but... You want to sit outside for a bit? OK.

We've got... You can see our cell area, but cos a lot of people don't like being confined in there,

what we've got here is an outside... Like an exercise yard so they can sit in the exercise yard.

It's all monitored on the CCTV. Erm...so it just gives them a bit of fresh air to sit outside.

So I've put him outside, just giving him some water.

Do you want something to eat in a bit, yeah? Get you a... Do you want a pie?

-Eh?

-Yes, please.

Yeah, a pie, yeah? All right, cool.

See you in a minute.

I'm just waiting for the court to give us a call back

to say that they're ready to hear the matter.

Erm...hopefully it should be in the next few minutes, and then once

they call, I can get him through and put him on videolink.

-They're ready?

-Yeah.

At last, the magistrate is on the line from a court 250 miles away.

'Hi, Laverton. I'm just connecting through to Kalgoorlie,

'and then the magistrate will come in.'

OK, thank you.

The teenager is given another chance.

He can go home, but if he fails to turn up for court next time,

he's off to detention.

In Laverton, the people here are so much more respectful.

They know we've got a job to do.

Erm, they know if they make mistakes sometimes, a crime's committed or...

They understand when we come and do our job, and it's all very amicable.

Occasionally there's alcohol involved,

and people behave differently, but as soon as it's out of their system,

we meet up the next day, you know, there's no... There's never any bad feeling.

It's a really good working relationship with the people here.

It's so much better than the UK.

You know, it does make work, coming to work, a hell of a lot easier.

'Nick Larusso here with an M4 breakdown.'

'James Ruse Drive westbound, we've got Sydney-bound traffic

'very slow going now from the Cumberland Highway.'

It's rush hour, and the traffic into Australia's biggest city

is about to become a problem

for Scottish flying doctor Caroline Macari.

She's on her way to rescue a patient

with a rare but terrifying heart condition.

INDISTINCT RADIO CHATTER

20 miles away in the suburb of Nepean,

nine-year-old Caleb is under observation

after his heart stopped beating without warning.

It only restarted after he suffered a seizure.

What we're heading to is a nine-year-old boy

in a hospital out by the Blue Mountains.

He has a thing called complete heart block,

which means the electricity is not really working in his heart,

and it's causing his heart to go much slower than it should be going.

So, erm...

obviously, that can be very dangerous

if his blood pressure drops.

It can cause you to pass out.

The reason we're going is that we're going to go and get him

to take him to the paediatric specialist hospital

where they'll have heart specialists

that can help deal with this problem.

OK.

You've had a bad day, I hear.

-SHE CHUCKLES

-I'm Caroline, I'm a doctor

that's come to take you to another hospital.

Do you feel unwell at all just now?

No.

Can you feel it when your heart goes funny?

Do you feel a bit yuck? Yeah.

His family are understandably concerned.

Caleb's had seizures, a series of seizures,

and this morning he had one early on,

so we brought him down in an ambulance

to try to see what was going on.

The big white sticker on his chest

will allow doctors to shock his heart back into rhythm

if it happens again.

He experiences nausea, will vomit,

and then he will become quite lethargic, drowsy,

and on a couple of occasions seems to have lost consciousness

and then progressed into a seizure.

OK, A little... OK, right.

And there's nothing funny that's happened in the past few days,

you haven't had anything funny like taken any little tablets that

you found or anything like that?

No? And there's nothing at home that...

Dr Caroline's bedside manner is reassuring Caleb and his family.

-There's the heart block.

-Yeah.

-First degree heart block with a normal QT.

-So that's his baseline.

So I guess it must just be something he's potentially always had,

-and it's just come out today a bit more so.

-Yeah.

But it's good that they've caught it, finally, isn't it?

So what we'll do is just have a quick look at you. Make sure everything looks OK.

These guys have done a brilliant job so far, done everything perfectly,

but we'll just make sure everything's fine.

Now I'm going to have a listen with my horribly cold stethoscope.

Caroline's job is to monitor Caleb during his transfer,

and restart his heart if necessary.

Mmm, so what are we doing just now?

Your heart's perfect right now, isn't it?

Everything's perfect right now, but that's the problem is that he's perfect in the meantime,

and then he just suddenly will have an episode where that pulse just drops away.

We obviously don't want this to carry on.

He's doing really well just now, but the more it happens,

then you can imagine he'll feel more and more unwell with it.

And so when they get there, they'll fully discuss the options,

but it most likely is that they'll try this infusion,

if that stops things happening, then they have a bit of time

to sort of think about what the next step is.

But if that doesn't help,

they'll probably end up having to look at a thing called pacing.

-You might have heart of old people that have pacemakers in.

-Yeah.

Well, they can do a more temporary form in people that's...

Just to try and figure out what's happening,

if this is something that is just going to resolve itself or, etc...

They just can do a different type in the meantime, just to bide him

over this time while they decide what the outcome needs to be.

If Caleb's heart stops again in the back of the ambulance,

Dr Caroline will have seconds to react.

Very expensive bed.

The most expensive bed you'll ever lie in!

The journey should take 30 minutes, depending on traffic.

He's had about five-plus episodes today where he suddenly vomits.

And the electricity pretty much stops going through the heart

for quite a prolonged period.

In that time he had a little seizure,

which is basically that not enough blood's getting to his brain.

And then it all kicks back into action again.

Caleb's been given a drug called atropine.

It speeds up the heartbeat.

After 30 minutes on the road,

destination is the Westmead Children's Hospital in Sydney.

Caleb spent a week in hospital.

Doctors discovered his heart problem was caused by a nerve in his chest.

It could happen again, but he's been well since his release.

In the spectacular Blue Mountains an hour west of Sydney,

British vet Lucy King handles the canine emergencies

at the veterinary clinic in the tourist town of Katoomba.

British people are renowned for being crazy about their animals,

and going over and above for everything.

But a lot of Aussies love their animals too,

and they'll do a lot for their pets.

There's still referral centres and specialists and people will

still pay a lot of money to get their special friend fixed up.

And today she's examining a mum-to-be.

When Laya got home, she was really tired and just laying around,

-and...

-Yeah.

-..then about 8 o'clock,

she was panting and just laying there, really, sort of...

Laya the Labrador is carrying pups,

and her worried owners think she's in distress.

She's been in labour for a little while,

and it's a long time for a dog to be pushing.

So although I can't feel anything stuck,

it could be that something just keeps butting up

against the pelvic canal and can't actually get in there.

She's quite a big dog for me to feel as well,

so I can't feel the entire length of the birth canal.

-Bye-bye!

-Bye, thank you, bye!

Lucy, who moved down under from Bristol this year,

has decided Laya should have an emergency caesarean.

Ooh!

Ooh!

-INDISTINCT

-Yeah, please.

These guys are ginormous!

And in less than five minutes, Lucy delivers two perfect black labs.

Her job's done,

but her nurses now need to deliver some canine resuscitation.

When we get the puppies out of the uterus, we need to rub them.

It's kind of like CPR -

because they don't have the usual squeezing out of the birth canal,

they don't get stimulated to breathe, so we need to stimulate them to breathe.

And that involves vigorous rubbing, which is quite hard.

You have to be quite rough with them, and they're these tiny little puppies,

and you have to rub them quite hard to stimulate them to breathe.

But once they're going and squeaking,

you know you've done a good job.

Ah, girls. They're both girls!

PUPPIES SQUEAL

They are noisy, it's a good sign! Hungry little guys.

It's time for Laya and her pups to meet the family.

Goodness gracious me!

There's a lot of baby slobber in there.

-This little puppy needs to be careful...

-They're very... They move around a lot.

OK, thank you.

No worries at all.

Take care, and give us a ring any time

if you're worried about anything.

OK, thank you. Have a nice night, guys.

In a few weeks, they'll be on their way to new homes

in one of Australia's most stunning landscapes.