Episode 7 Emergency Rescue Down Under

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

'Multiple patients critical.'

Everyday heroes saving lives...

-Battling fires...

-'Do not go out there! 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...

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

Brits on blue lights under blue skies.

Today, down under,

flying doctor Chris races to the rescue of a farmer's wife.

The casualty has punctured a main artery.

He's in possession of a firearm.

British policeman Haydn joins the hunt for a wanted man

who's believed to be armed...

Police, open the door!

BANGING

..and an air ambulance hits rough weather

with a tiny patient and new mum on board.

We've got five minutes of clear,

then we're going to hit a big ball of cloud, so we will get more turbulence, OK?

Australia's farmers feed half the world.

Food's one of its biggest exports, but it's a dangerous business.

Today, two Brits are flying to the rescue of another casualty in the countryside.

Very limited information at the moment

other than that the casualty has been pierced by a bullhorn

into a leg.

The report that's come is that it's punctured a main artery.

Arterial bleeds can kill in minutes.

What's your ETA?

Ten minutes, mate.

Flying doctor Chris Cheeseman from Staffordshire will treat the patient.

1.27.

It's RAF veteran John Legg's job to get him there.

Before I moved to Australia, I was in the Air Force,

operating on the Chinook helicopter in places like Afghanistan.

Obviously, the type of work that we're doing is different,

but the foundations are the same.

What's the suburb called?

Gloss-a-dee-a?

-Glossodia.

-Glossodia, copy.

Turning around, ASAP.

You are looking at just trying to find something pretty well on top of the property...

We should be able to ID it straightaway...

Thanks to satellite navigation,

the CareFlight team can fly straight to the scene.

Basically, at the end of Bounty Road, there is a Bounty Road Reserve

and that's where we'll go.

But there's no room for error landing here...

-Check right. Check right.

-Clear right, clear right.

Thank you. 20 below.

15...

10...

5...

4, 3, 2, 1...

Left is on.

Right is on.

The patient's in the care of local paramedics.

Hi, there, love. How are you doing?

Farmer's wife Debbie Abrahams has a deep wound to her thigh.

I'm Chris, one of the CareFlight doctors

and we have got our flight paramedic here with us, Greg.

She was out feeding a cow and as she opened the gate,

the cow come through

and the horn got her in the side of the leg just here.

She fell down and started bleeding.

I'm just going to have a quick look at this wound, OK.

-Was this the only injury?

-Yup.

Um, let me know if it's too painful for you, OK?

There's no active bleeding there.

I think it's relatively superficial,

in terms of it may be down to the fascia,

-but we can get obs, package and keep an eye.

-Yep.

I think, guys, if we can just get a dressing on there, like a combine or something.

And then that's pretty much all we'll need, really.

Debbie has been lucky.

The horn came within millimetres of her femoral artery.

She may need surgery to the wound - it's very deep.

She'll also need antibiotics.

I think we need to get you to hospital, obviously,

where they can have a proper look at that.

Obviously the cow's a little bit dirty,

so it needs a good wash out and a good clean-up of that, OK?

Paramedics are just going to put a dressing on there for you

and then we're going to probably take you to Westmead Hospital.

That's where we normally go, all right?

What I might do, if it's OK, is take some pictures of the horns

cos it will help the doctors in the hospital just to sort of see.

I thought you were going to take him for a barbecue or something!

Yes, well, we can do that later! Absolutely.

Hello.

There we go. Come on, move out the way, beautiful.

It's much easier to show the team back at the hospital.

They can visualise the actual wound and the damage that's been caused.

So rather than trying to describe it, we can actually show it to them.

It's very useful information for them.

As soon as you leave the Sydney urban area, it does get quite rural.

There is a lot of farms and a lot of accidents do happen on farms.

We visit them quite a lot.

When the phone rings, we don't know what we're going to get,

so having that flexibility to be able to take each job as it comes

is quite important.

Dr Chris came down under for the work and the weather

and today it's reminding him of his home in England.

-Are you OK?

-I'm OK.

-You're OK, are you?

-Surprisingly, I'm all right.

This is rain, this is water. I know you're scared of it(!)

Debbie was soon sent home.

She needed 60 stitches in her leg.

There's a beach...

..boats...

and plenty of fish and chips.

Welcome to Scarborough - Australian style.

It's a seaside suburb of Perth,

12,000 miles from the Yorkshire resort that gave it its name

and Brits play a major role in keeping the peace here.

I'm currently the shift supervisor

of one of the local policing teams at Scarborough police station.

Sgt Haydn Farrow left the Warwickshire force six years ago

and now cruises seaside streets that present many of the policing problems

that confront officers on the English coast.

We do get a lot of crime here,

a lot of people pass through this area, as well.

So, you know, it does make it difficult to investigate crimes

if you've got an offender passing through the area

and you'll never see them again.

Today, Haydn is joining a police raid on the home of a wanted man,

who may be in possession of a gun.

He's wanted for questioning and for burglary a month ago.

There are alerts on the system.

There's also a dog in the back garden.

Two-storey house. We're going to go up to the front door...

He has a firearms warning against his name

on the police computer records.

Unlike Britain, in Australia all police officers are armed.

It was one of the concerns when I moved over from the UK to Australia,

knowing that I would have to wear a firearm

every time I was on duty and, you know,

the concerns you have if you get involved in a fight, that someone would grab it off you.

But, actually, I'd probably feel quite vulnerable

if I wasn't wearing a firearm now,

knowing that there are people out there

that want to injure police officers.

The scene of the raid is just ten minutes from the station

in an upmarket residential area.

So the plan is that myself and Sam will go with the investigating officers.

We'll head to the front door,

while the other unit goes round the side,

just in case he is inside and does a runner.

The police are arriving in force.

You go to the front.

HE KNOCKS

Open the door.

Open the door, we're going to push the door in!

Open the door.

There's no answer and with the possibility of an armed man inside,

they must get in by any means they can.

KNOCKING CONTINUES

-One more.

-Open the door - it's going in.

Police, open the door! Police, open the door!

BANGING

-Police! Police!

-'I'm coming.'

Open the door!

Come out now. Turn around.

Turn around.

-Stay where you are.

-Hands on your pockets!

Put your hands on your head! Put your hands on your head!

-Turn around.

-Turn around.

-Do it now!

-Turn around, give me your hands.

-My arm, my arm!

-All right, relax.

What is this for?

The wanted man is quickly subdued.

You got him?

He comes quietly and his wife will also be going on a ride to the police station.

The male and female were a little bit distressed at the police entry,

however, you know, it was a safe result.

We were in there, they were both handcuffed very quickly.

No officers got injured.

I think that's where local policing, you know, kicks in.

We've got a little bit extra time there to plan what we're doing

and do a bit of research, look at the intelligence,

see what resources are available for the arrest.

You know, that's a great result.

The couple are on their way for questioning

and Haydn is once again free to patrol the streets of Scarborough.

It does make a difference

from policing the grey streets of the UK, I must say.

Some pretty special houses here, as you can see.

No guns were found

and the couple who were arrested were later released.

INDISTINCT ON RADIO

In Australia, hundreds of newborn babies arrive by air.

-ON RADIO:

-'Maintain 3,000,'

INDISTINCT

-ON RADIO:

-'Maintain 3,000.'

British nurse Juanita Ameghino, originally from Jersey,

is in charge of an airborne mother and baby unit

that flies expectant mums to the big city maternity hospitals

and then brings them home again.

I can see my back garden today.

Today she and pilot Steve have been scrambled to fly home

a diabetic mum and her newborn baby from the Aussie capital Canberra.

He is a big baby.

He was born at 3.77 kilos which is actually quite large

for 34 plus 2 prematurity. And mum has type I diabetes

so that was the reason for her macrosomic baby.

She's very pleased actually that she didn't go to term

because he would have been 12lb or something like that.

The mother, Adriana Pasquetti, is ready to return to the small town of Griffith,

population 16,000, an hour's flight from Canberra. Although her baby

is here now, the birth could have been very different.

When I had no foetal movement I was a bit worried

so I thought I'd just check it out.

They sent me straight to Griffith hospital

'and then that night we got flown to Canberra hospital.'

He's had a few echoes done and he's having a follow-up...

But there are still concerns.

Flying baby Parker means

they will never be more than half an hour from a hospital

if things go wrong.

The muscles in his heart were quite large

so there was less room for blood to flow.

But that seems to be improving a lot.

The doctors have been very happy with his recovery and progress.

So he's a big bub. He was eight pound four when I had him.

'We're just working on his feeds now. But he's done really well.'

Beautiful. Hello. You're little boy now, aren't you?

OK, just some support would be great.

As well as keeping baby Parker happy on his flight, Juanita, who

trained in the NHS, must also care for his mum, who's a nervous flyer.

Might hit a little bit of turbulence

coming out of Canberra so it may be a little bit bumpy.

If we have an emergency landing, I'll call out, "brace".

If we have to go down in a hurry, that's our emergency exit there,

and there's one over each wing.

We are all set, ready for another bout of good fun.

Good to go, thank you.

Nurse Juanita's an expert at reassuring passengers.

We have a lot of turbulence coming out of Canberra

and Adriana is quite frightened.

I just try and make light of it.

I try not to get too caught up in their fear,

and just have a conversation with them about something else,

and they tend to realise that it is actually all OK,

and of course it is quite safe,

otherwise I wouldn't be doing this for a job!

Juanita is giving Parker oxygen

and carefully monitoring his temperature and his heart rhythm.

It is difficult in the cramped cabin.

So we've got five minutes of clear, Steve has just told me,

and then we are going to hit a big wall of cloud.

So we will get more turbulence, OK?

I'll live.

You don't mind, do you? You're quite happy.

If I stop pulling around at your head, you'll probably be happier.

22075, at 3,000...

The pressure changes up here can affect babies more than adults.

The baby is not able to equalise.

Which can affect their ears when we're going up,

on ascend, and when we are landing on descent.

Particularly more on descent, I have noticed,

in my work that I have done with the babies.

Really, aside from that, they travel very well.

It is just a case of keeping them warm and secure.

They actually like the noise of the plane.

It kinds of settles them, a bit like in the back of the car seat,

everybody knows that baby always falls asleep in the car

and then wakes up as soon as you stop the engine.

It's similar in the plane.

Rainswept Griffith is a welcome sight for Mum.

In just 20 minutes, she and Parker will be home.

But Dad is barely a quarter of the way through a four-hour drive

back from the hospital.

-Back to the land of the red soil, yeah?

-Yeah!

You did very well. You only looked frightened half a dozen times!

That was quite a bumpy flight, so...

That is the most bumpiest I've had.

Definitely. It is not usually that bumpy, just one of those days, yeah.

I was the wuss, Parker was the strong little man,

so, it was a bit bumpy, but it was only short.

Parker, he was good - you didn't mind at all, did you?

The air pressure didn't seem to bother him at all,

he is a big, beautiful baby boy.

So I'm going to take him through the rain, wrapped up in my jacket,

and give him back to Mum now.

The family is soon reunited.

Another happy arrival for Juanita and her plane.

The streets of Scarborough

are popular with British newcomers to Australia.

One in four residents of this beachfront suburb

was born in the UK.

This town was a snake-infested swamp until 100 years ago.

Now, Sgt Haydn Farrow, originally of Warwickshire police,

calls it home.

This job has just come in, a report from a hotel that a male

is causing a disturbance in the car park.

The guy there is alleging that they have stolen his mobile phone,

so we will take a look and see what is in it.

Haydn and his Aussie partner are on their way to the seafront.

The incident has happened at the Indian Ocean hotel.

He appears to be agitated.

The man who called the police is waiting for them to arrive.

He has just checked out after an overnight stay.

He has certainly got a bit of property on his car.

I'm just a bit upset because I lost my phone and I have to work.

I'm looking through my stuff now to see if I've misplaced it.

I haven't accused them of anything yet.

But if it is not in my car, it is in the hotel.

-What room were you in?

-309.

The guest says he lost his mobile phone

and he is alleging it has been stolen.

There are two accounts of this morning's events.

And the woman on reception doesn't agree with the man's story.

He checked out this morning

and he came down and just gave me a few words

about how all the staff thought he was cool, and blah blah blah,

and he came back about an hour ago saying his mobile phone was stolen.

And so was the room cleaned, on him checking out?

On checkout we checked the room, we always do check the rooms,

and there was just a mess. OK.

He didn't even sleep in the bed, actually.

Oh, OK, so he never slept there last night?

-Well, he's been up all night.

-Oh, OK.

We'll just go and speak to him, and get him to leave the premises.

A passerby is keen to see what is going on.

Do you mind if we just speak to this gentleman?

And then we can get things finalised.

Do you mind if I enjoy witnessing it?

Because this gentleman has asked me if I...

It's fine. Yeah, that's fine.

All they are requesting for you now is to leave the car park, all right?

Pack your stuff up, and go.

Obviously there was... They admit there was a little bit of argument

between staff and yourself, that is finished now.

Best thing you can do now is get in your car,

pack your stuff up, then head on to wherever you are going next.

Is that all right?

That is such a civil, reasonable, UK attitude to this situation.

Nice to meet you too, sir.

Are you visiting or are you resident?

-I am a citizen.

-Citizen? Well, congratulations again.

Enjoy this country. This is a great country.

English accents are common in Perth,

but British policemen are still a novelty.

-I have met a couple of interesting UK and Ireland...

-Irish coppers?

-Yeah, yeah. And they are so at home here.

-There's plenty of them here.

-It is, yeah. Oh, well.

-Thank you very much.

Now there is good news for the man looking for his phone.

A member of hotel staff may have found the missing handset.

-So if this is his phone, that should ring. Yeah.

-It's ringing.

And thanks to Haydn's simplest piece of detective work today,

its identity is confirmed.

-Magic.

-Oh, really?

-How's that?

-Wow.

-Don't say we never do anything for you.

-So they found it?

Yeah, you left it on a stool inside.

Oh, yeah, I thought I might have put it somewhere.

The angry guest is free to go.

And Haydn can get back on patrol,

safeguarding the streets of the seaside town

that is now his home from home.

-Interesting job, with the visitor from...

-Oh, yeah.

I thought at first he was like, a witness, or something.

And he just wanted to start talking to you. I was like, hang on.

A lot of the Australian people, when we deal with them,

pick up immediately that my accent is an English accent.

And it is a bit of an icebreaker at times.

You know, it can defuse a situation.

So the phone has been returned, we have checked that out,

and he is happy, the staff are happy that we attended,

there has been no further allegations,

there's no criminal offence established,

so, overall, a nice little job.

Aussie farmers work 2½ million square miles of land,

three times the area of the UK.

The rugged landscape down under

means only the toughest breeds can survive.

And that goes for the farmers too. Many never retire.

Two, three, four...

Irish doctor Fergal McCourt

is used to treating patients who shrug off pain

and ignore serious injuries.

And he knows when a farmer calls for help, he really needs it.

Just in case we are spending the night out there.

Don't want to snuggle up beside you in a tent.

On a remote property on the edge of the Blue Mountains,

west of Sydney, a farmer is lying seriously injured.

He needs the flying doctor.

-What is the estimated ETA?

-40 minutes.

It is near a hamlet called Dark Corner.

Its name is appropriate.

Nightfall is now less than an hour away.

By the time we arrive at the scene, we will just be on last light.

There we go, lifting.

Rescue 24, Air Medical Control.

Yes, thank you, Rescue 24 is now departing,

tracking towards Dark Corner.

Fergal is travelling 100 miles to treat a man

who has been injured in a quad bike crash.

Accidents like this are the biggest killers of Australian farmers.

It was a relative's quad bike.

We don't know exactly the time of the incident

but the prehospital information that we have so far

is that he is conscious,

and that he is complaining of chest pain, and pelvic pain.

This is more than likely a farming community,

so these vehicles are used on farms

and, yeah, by all age groups,

we see even children of all ages riding these bikes,

on any kind of slope, or travelling around a corner at speed,

they're actually quite unstable,

and we commonly see them rolling over,

and once they roll, there is no protection.

Local paramedics are on scene

to guide in Rescue 24 in the failing light.

112, this is helicopter Rescue 24,

we are about four minutes from your location.

Just wondering if you could put your beacons on, and once you hear us,

could you ignite a flare in for us? Over.

The only hazards we've got is trees to the western side.

Hand your searchlights out as well, please.

Harnesses checked, left and right door back,

set in a confined area, four o'clock now, at 300.

We will go for this little dip. Continue forward, 150 to run.

Clear down below on the right. Check left.

How's that left-hand side looking?

They've landed in a paddock.

-How you doing?

-How are you?

-Good, thank you.

-Good, yourself?

-Pretty good, thanks.

-How is he doing in there?

-Quite stable.

-Yeah, good.

-Hi there.

-How you going?

-Hello, sir.

-How you going, buddy?

Good, mate.

This is Ken Smith. He is 81.

At 2:30 today he was riding his quad bike.

Ken was out inspecting the cattle on the family farm

when his quad bike crashed.

..and he actually, bless his heart,

immediately got up and managed to walk 300 metres,

using two sticks as crutches.

But it took him half an hour.

Any treatment so far, then, by you guys?

Just the Hartmann's, and the pelvic sheet. That's it.

And that's a 20 in the back of his left hand?

-Yes, correct.

-Understood.

-Do you have any pain at the moment, sir?

-It's sore.

-It's sore.

Fergal knows that the accident

could have caused serious internal injuries.

And despite his fitness, Ken's age is against him.

-Did you bump your head at all when this happened?

-No.

Didn't bump your head?

And are you sore in your neck at all?

I'm going to feel down your neck.

I want you to tell me if it hurts anywhere, OK?

So, you stay there, just where you are.

-How about on the bony bit, just there? Does it hurt there?

-Yeah.

How about further around the back?

-Oh, yeah.

-A bit there too?

-You can feel me touch you on that leg?

-Oh, yeah, yeah.

And all the way down to the toes?

You feel me scratch you, there, yeah? Good, OK.

So it looks like, I mean,

his main pain is the left lower ribs, anteriorly.

He has got some similar on the right-hand side. OK.

-Left and right ribs, OK.

-Left more than right.

-OK, and just a bit of pelvic pain.

-Yes.

-OK.

He is using ultrasound to look for blood in his abdomen.

That's it.

So just a prehospital ultrasound, and we have got spleen here,

and we can scan through, we've got kidneys.

So we look for a dark line

in the area between the spleen and the kidney

and that would indicate free fluid.

And in the context of trauma,

free fluid would indicate bleeding into his abdomen.

And we look at a kind of similar site on the opposite side,

where we can get the liver, just try and get the best view we can there.

So we get liver here, and then kidney here.

And again we are looking for a strip of black fluid

between the liver and the kidney.

Indicating bleeding in the context of trauma.

And he doesn't have that sign.

So it would appear that

he doesn't have any intra-abdominal injury at all.

It is looking good for Ken, so far.

But he is clearly in severe pain from his chest.

-Oh, bit sore there.

-Ooh, sorry now, sir.

-Just checking the lung on that side.

-That's a sore side.

-Sorry.

What did you used to do out here? Were you a farmer?

-All my life.

-All your life, a farmer.

He has cracked some ribs.

One of the most painful injuries you can suffer.

But the flying doctor fears he has also broken his pelvis.

Ken will need intensive care back in the city.

He will be taken to Westmead Hospital in Sydney.

It is a really good hospital, OK?

The flight is about 35 minutes.

It is noisy, OK? So we will put some headphones on you.

And we can talk to you all the way through.

Thankfully the patient is very stable at the moment.

His GCS is 15 which means he is fully alert and conscious,

and his vital signs are stable at the moment.

We have assessed him really from top to toe

and the only area of injury

that we can find that he seems to complain of

is mostly just the anterior ribs on the left side of his chest.

The 35-mile flight will mean crossing the Blue Mountains.

Altitude can affect people with chest injuries.

Every breath is painful for Ken.

Sydney operations.

Turn back to your station then I will be on your station

all the way to Westmead, thanks. Over.

Wind is probably a bit of a north-west,

so I will swing around to the right, land towards the north.

The team can use image-intensifying goggles to work at night.

That is why the helicopter has green lights.

Wheels over the deck.

Clear down left.

There you go, champ. How was that, Ken? Champion.

OK.

-Uh, Louis?

-Yes.

-What side are you going to unload on?

This side here? My side?

-Here we go.

-OK.

-That's it.

-Keep your arms inside all the time, mate.

-That's it.

The Westmead Hospital

is among Australia's biggest and best trauma units.

Ken will soon be undergoing body scans and x-rays.

After an assessment, it is confirmed that Ken has six broken ribs.

Following treatment, he made a full recovery

and is now working on the family farm again.