Episode 8 Close Calls: On Camera

A close call - a moment of danger

when life can hang in the balance.

A split second where the outcome could go either way...

I was rooted to the spot with fear.

..the difference between disaster and survival.

Our hearts dropped. This was a big crash.

These are the people that have been there and lived to tell the tale.

I need an ambulance!

15 minutes and your number would be up.

Their instincts and resources,

coupled with the quick thinking of others,

helped to pull them through.

Could have easily gone the wrong way.

And their dramatic experiences were recorded on camera.

I think there were several things that could have killed me,

should have killed me, and didn't.

It's a day they'll never forget -

the day they had a close call.

Today on Close Calls.

A jockey racing for the line blacks out

and falls under the hooves of the other horses...

He looked like someone who'd suffered from serious blood loss,

and that immediately set alarm bells in my head. Obviously,

in the context of that situation, that's really, really serious.

..and a desperate father of a five-month-old baby calls 999.

I was thinking, "Just please get here really quickly.

"This is beyond anything I've ever had to deal with as a mother before.

"I don't know how to make this better.

"I just need someone to come and take this out of my hands, almost,

"because I don't know what I'm doing."

Wincanton racecourse in Somerset.

Now they're off.

Ambitious young jockey Paul John makes a good start.

The horse was travelling real sweetly for me

and he was jumping from hurdle to hurdle like a stag.

I thought, "I've got another winner here today."

But a length ahead of the field, racing at nearly 40mph,

and with only two fences to go, Paul begins to sway in the saddle...

It was like my body was shutting down from the feet up.

..before blacking out and dropping lifeless to the ground.

I knew what was happening, but I couldn't do anything to stop it.

26-year-old Paul John has been riding horses on the family

farm in Devon since he was two.

I've been interested in horses all my life.

My dad ran a farm here and a dairy herd here.

But I was always more interested in my ponies,

always wanted to be a jockey.

That was me jumping my first jump.

Paul's mum Lynn says it's a family tradition.

That's my love of horses and my husband's, his father's,

love of horses, so it was a natural progression.

Young Paul was also no stranger to taking the odd tumble,

as Lynn recalls.

He was always in trouble.

Breaking legs at two and a half climbing gates,

breaking arms falling off of bales in the yard.

And as Paul progressed in the saddle,

it was the adrenaline rush of going fast that drove him on.

I was always a speed freak on my pony.

Like, I was always getting told off.

"Stop cantering around the field. Just stand still."

And I loved my jumping and I loved going fast.

Like, I've always been a lover for it.

Paul's dream has always been to be a professional jockey

and beat the best, like champion AP McCoy.

And this season, he did just that.

I don't know how I did it, but I beat McCoy at Fakenham.

It was a lovely day and a lovely day for the owners again

and fantastic day for the trainer and brilliant day for me.

But as with all jockeys,

his success has come at the price of some impressive injuries.

I've done my collarbones. I've had my spleen removed.

Erm, different things like that.

The day before a busy race meeting at Wincanton,

a course with a reputation for a fast track,

Paul is asked if he's free to ride a horse he hasn't ridden before.

It was a lovely horse called Karl Marx,

and the first time I ever saw the horse was in the paddock.

The unexpected offer of the ride means Paul doesn't have much

time to reach his optimum racing weight of 9st seven.

Horses in some races have weight handicaps, where the

weight of the rider is taken into account.

But Paul wasn't expecting to compete this week.

I've always kept myself under 10st.

Just before this particular race on Valentine's Day,

probably hadn't been doing so much work as I should have been

and I went up a few pound.

Keen to give the new horse the best racing chance,

Paul trains hard to lose some weight.

I've lost that sort of weight before, and been able to ride,

and ridden winners off it, so it's never affected me,

and it's never affected the way I've ridden or how I felt.

By the time he's at the course, Paul is feeling on-form

and ready to ride.

Just before the race, I was pumped.

I was ready to go, and I felt normal as I normally do.

The adrenaline took over and I think, yeah,

I was going out there and I felt fine.

I felt, "Yeah, let's get on with this."

The racecourse cameras capture Paul on his horse Karl Marx

as they get off to a great start.

They're off and racing!

That's Paul in the orange colours.

Karl Marx was doing real well underneath me,

travelling real sweetly for me, jumping from hurdle to hurdle

like a stag.

It is Karl Marx that has the advantage.

I thought I was going to win this race.

Paul John taking an extra seven off with the lead.

We were travelling so sweetly,

I didn't really want to disappoint the horse,

cos he was going along with his ears pricked

like he was really enjoying his racing.

I thought, "I've got another winner here today."

Still Karl Marx, Scales, Boston, Lamblord...

As they turn for home, Paul is looking comfortable in the lead,

with his horse tucked in nicely on the rails.

But with just two fences to go,

he begins to realise something is very wrong.

It was quite a scary thing.

I was getting cramp everywhere. My fingers had cramped up.

I couldn't move my arms. All of a sudden, I felt my legs give way.

It looks like I'm pushing, on the camera, coming round that bend,

but it's just my legs are completely gone. I've lost all the strength.

I've lost my balance, I've lost everything.

The course footage shows Paul struggling to stay in the saddle.

As he takes the bend, he starts to wobble,

then appears to lose his balance.

A dozen other horses are thundering along behind him.

I could feel my body was shutting down from the feet up.

It was my legs had gone, my arms were going,

and then it was my head that went.

Unconscious, Paul hits the turf hard...

Oh, he's been unseated there! Paul John.

..bouncing into the path of the following horses.

Travelling at speed, some are unable to avoid him, and as they gallop on,

he lies lifeless on the track.

A call for urgent medical backup.

It's a 25-year-old man who's come off at 35mph.

Caught on CCTV. The moment two boys bravely help a man on the street.

It was kind of like unreal.

We didn't think we'd ever have to use these actual first aid skills.

It's frightening being involved in an emergency of any kind,

but when the crisis involves a young baby - well, it's a nightmare.

Wymondham in Norfolk.

The East of England Ambulance Service received

this 999 call from the parents of a baby.

Baby Pepe is desperately ill,

drifting in and out of consciousness.

Ambulances and a helicopter are rushing to the scene,

but time is already running out for this little boy.

I remember at that stage thinking, "He looks so ill.

"I think we might... I think we might lose him."

Anna and Mark work as house parents at Wymondham College,

a large state boarding school near Norwich.

I do two roles.

I teach Spanish, and then I'm a house parent as well.

So we have 96 - approximately - boarders.

The couple have years of experience looking after children,

including three sons of their own.

Pepe, now 19 months old, is the youngest.

Pepe's a very happy, smiley baby, giggles a lot.

He's just got a lovely personality.

But when little Pepe was just five months old,

the seemingly-healthy baby turned into a tired, listless child

almost overnight, leaving his parents fraught with worry.

We took him to the doctor's and they diagnosed gastroenteritis

and told us just to keep an eye on him,

and if he got any worse, to let them know.

In fact, that night, Pepe deteriorates rapidly.

He was a kind of a grey colour and quite floppy,

and I thought, "This isn't right. This is really not right.

"He looks quite seriously ill here."

By now, Pepe is barely holding on to consciousness.

They need help fast.

Mark dials 999.

With a child this young, the call handler immediately

recognises this could be a life and death situation.

It's a category red call.

I was thinking, "Just please get here really quickly,

"cos this is beyond my experience now."

The deterioration was so, so great.

I thought, "This is beyond anything I've ever had to deal

"with as a mother before. I don't know how to make this better.

"I just need someone to come and take this out of my hands almost,

"because I don't know what I'm doing."

A rapid-response vehicle and two ambulances are already on their way.

Dad Mark continues to brief the call-handler,

so she can prepare the emergency crews.

The call-handler knows it's crucial Dad keeps Pepe awake.

If he loses consciousness, he could stop breathing.

Every second counts now, but the emergency

services are struggling to find the remote location.

Mark makes the difficult decision to leave Pepe

and Anna to find a colleague who can help direct the ambulances in.

Anna takes over the call.

Anna watches helplessly.

She feels her baby is slipping away before her eyes.

At that point, I felt frightened, and I just...

I felt completely out of my depth.

One of Mark's workmates has directed two ambulances through

the school gates, and the call handler has summoned even more help.

Mark's colleague is needed again.

Unbeknown to the family,

the call handler has requested that a specialist paramedic is flown in.

For Mark, the awful reality of the situation suddenly hits home.

Yeah, the penny definitely dropped then,

because it's not every day they would send a helicopter out.

It was severe, you know, something was seriously wrong with Pepe.

One of the students films the air ambulance as it

lands in the school grounds.

Critical care paramedic Andy Downs arrives

to find Pepe close to cardiac arrest.

He was grey. He wasn't getting much blood supply to his extremities.

So he was quite, sort of, shut down, as we call it.

Pepe was lying on the floor of the living room.

It was like looking at a dead body, basically.

He wasn't giving anything.

There were so many bags and bits of machinery

and equipment that there was hardly any room, and he looked so tiny.

Andy tests Pepe's blood sugar levels

with shocking results.

It just read "high," so we knew it was off the scale.

I mean, I remember at that stage thinking, "He looks so ill.

"I think we might lose him."

Anna's right to be concerned.

Pepe's blood sugar levels suggest he's diabetic,

almost unheard-of in a child so young.

His body is shutting down. He needs insulin, fast.

I thought he was going to die.

To survive, Pepe urgently needs intensive care in hospital.

As it's a quiet Sunday morning,

the crew decide the fastest way to get him there will be by road.

He was very close to going into cardiac arrest.

If not that, some serious brain damage

from his blood sugars being so high for a prolonged period of time.

So he was certainly in a critical,

life-threatening condition when we arrived.

A paediatric team is waiting for Pepe at the nearest hospital.

Over the next 48 hours, they fight to stabilise him.

His diagnosis comes as a devastating blow.

When the doctors said, erm,

we know what's the matter with him. He's, erm,

he's diabetic.

To which you just say, that's not possible. He's like five months old.

How can that be possible?

Pepe is put into a medically-induced coma to allow him time to recover.

But amazingly, after just two weeks, he's well enough to return home

with an insulin pump to regulate his blood sugar levels.

We felt like we were handling something made of glass.

It was like having a newborn,

but even worse because there's an element of medical care involved.

Pepe is the youngest child ever to be diagnosed with

Type 1 diabetes in the UK.

It's a lifelong condition,

but one this little boy and his family are learning to live with.

He'll be on insulin for the rest of his life.

He never cries. He doesn't complain. He's one amazing little baby.

He's going to be a winner, whatever he does.

Now a close call from my part of the world,

featuring two young men who knew exactly what to do in an emergency.

It's a busy Saturday night in Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales.

A man has suddenly collapsed on the street

and stopped breathing.

Caught on camera, two teenagers rush to help him.

They've both learnt basic resuscitation,

but this isn't a drill.

We just get there and we're like,

"Oh, my gosh. He's not actually breathing."

This is real.

The worst situation doesn't really bear thinking about.

This person maybe has a family or kids, you know?

34-year-old Gavin enjoys a night out in his home town of Merthyr.

But one such evening ends up with Gavin fighting for his life.

The Saturday night starts badly.

Gavin is hit over the head and robbed of his bag.

This is the only part of the eventful evening he remembers.

He split my eye, right down there,

and I think I fell backwards, and I hit the back of my head.

After the attack, Gavin staggers to the nearby Belle Vue pub,

and talks to the doormen.

The whole episode is caught on the pub's CCTV cameras.

Also there is Barry, the pub's landlord.

As he's about to enter, I could see the blood on his forehead,

blood on his arm.

"Could you grab me a little bit of tissue paper," I said, "so I can

"wipe this blood off my face? Because I've just been assaulted."

Gavin goes to leave, but worried about his condition,

Barry and the doormen don't want to let him go.

The two door staff identified that he looked a bit

concussed at the time from his eyes and the way he was swaying around.

Had we let him go with an assault concussion,

he could've collapsed anywhere.

They'll soon find out that they are right to be worried about Gavin.

Also out on this night were two 17-year-old friends, Huw

and Giorgio, known as Jojo.

Yeah!

Me and Jojo have known each other a very long time.

We went to the Air Cadets together, Duke of Edinburgh

and Young Firefighters.

It was on their Duke of Edinburgh course that Huw

and Jojo learned first aid, including resuscitation.

I didn't pay much attention to it.

You know, I kind of just did it because it was part of the

course, getting that extra badge, you know, getting that signed off.

I'm really, really glad that we did learn it.

Huw and Jojo are out with two other friends in a car.

They stop near the Belle Vue pub

so Huw can get some money from a nearby bank machine.

So I got out the car, I started walking towards the cash point...

Huw can be seen here on the pub's CCTV camera.

Across the road, he notices Gavin being looked after by the doormen.

..I saw this guy slumped on the ground,

and I thought nothing of it, really.

Kind of bit of a commotion round him.

I just thought it's another thing that happens on a Saturday night.

Huw walks on.

Gavin's unsteady on his feet, swaying about.

The doormen try to support him.

Suddenly, the situation gets serious.

Gavin collapses completely

and Barry the landlord immediately dials 999.

I'm saying, "Look, you need an ambulance here now.

"That's the be-all, the end-all of it."

Meanwhile, Huw, having got his cash out at the machine,

walks past the scene on his way back to the car.

On the way back, like, he was lying on the floor at this point.

I saw people standing over him.

Like, the bouncers kind of like just tapping his face

and trying to figure out what was wrong with him.

Went back to the car, and I said,

"Er, guys, I'm not sure if that guy's all right.

I don't think he's breathing."

Shouting out to the doormen that they know CPR, Huw

and Jojo rush to Gavin's aid.

We were hoping for the best, and then we just go there and we're like,

"Oh, my gosh. He's not actually breathing."

So training kicked in,

and we thought back to all the times we did it on the dummy.

You know, hearing the little chest bump thing going down,

and we just started doing that.

I thought I'd forgotten all the first aid, kind of CPR stuff,

but in that moment, like, I just did it like it was natural.

Erm, which I think was quite a relief.

Huw can be seen on the camera pushing down hard

repeatedly on Gavin's chest.

Until finally, he gets a response.

I just kept doing it and like after maybe

15, 16 compressions, he started breathing.

He coughed and spluttered a bit.

But as soon as they've brought Gavin back, he slips away once more.

Unfortunately, after we put him in the recovery position,

he stopped breathing again.

The boys start to wonder if Gavin is too ill to be saved.

The worst situation doesn't really bear thinking about.

This person maybe has a family or kids, you know.

But they have no choice. They have to try again.

We didn't want to think all those things.

We wanted to do what we knew how to do.

We wanted to try use our training to save this man's life first.

And luckily he did start breathing, spluttered again.

We get him breathing, put him in the recovery position, and then he would stop.

You know, we would put him back, start chest compressions again.

He'd breathe, recovery position, he'd stop. We realised the recovery position might not be

the best thing for this man, so we kept him straight.

Finally, after six minutes, they managed to keep Gavin breathing.

We let the ambulance and paramedics take over and we just stepped back.

Hugh and Jojo walk back to the car with their friends.

When the paramedics feel it's safe to transport Gavin,

they put him in the ambulance and take him to Merthyr's Prince Charles Hospital.

As the boys leave, they have a chance to reflect on what's happened.

And it sinks in that they have just saved a life.

Afterwards, we started thinking, "Oh, my gosh, we actually just did this.

"This actually just happened to us." And it was crazy.

The two lads, they were quite chuffed with themselves, as naturally they should be.

It was probably the first time they have done something like that

-in their life.

-It was kind of, like, unreal, we didn't, like, just happen to us, you know.

We didn't think we would ever have to use these actual first aid skills.

Gavin still doesn't know what caused him to stop breathing and collapse

that night, but he is to undergo further medical investigations.

'I'm feeling fit and well at the moment.'

I have an eight-year-old son, who'll be turning nine in August.

My son hasn't got to grow up now, thinking,

"Well, I haven't got a dad." Thanks to the quick,

sharp thinking of the lads that were there that night.

Back to Wincanton Racecourse in Somerset.

Professional jockey Paul John has passed out during a race.

All of a sudden, I felt my legs give way.

Just two fences from home, he crashes to the ground.

-I've lost my balance, I have lost everything.

-It is not a normal fall.

Paul is already unconscious when he leaves the saddle,

which means he is unable to tuck himself into a ball to reduce

the risk of being trampled by the rest of the field.

Crashing falls in racing aren't that unusual,

and Wincanton's emergency procedures swing into action.

Racecourse doctor Jim Blackburn is following the riders

around the course by car.

He instantly suspects he's going to be dealing with a potentially

catastrophic injury.

I got to him within about 30 seconds, along with two paramedics.

He was really pale. He looked like someone who was bleeding internally.

He looked like someone who had suffered from serious blood loss.

And that immediately set alarm bells in my head,

in the context of that situation. It was really, really serious.

Paul is taken to the medical room at the course.

Immobilised on a body board, he's drifting in

and out of consciousness.

He was clearly very confused about what was going on

and was a bit repetitive as well, so, again,

warning signs there might be a severe concussion or a brain injury.

Dr Blackburn isn't taking any chances.

Wincanton is 90 minutes by road from the nearest major hospital,

and Paul needs to get to a specialist trauma unit.

The doctor calls in the Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance Service.

'It is a 25-year-old male who has come off at 35mph.

'The doctor on scene is concerned about a bleeding risk because the patient has abdominal pain.'

The air ambulance must have been on the scene within about eight to ten minutes.

There are no horses running, so we can approach over the racecourse.

Lovely.

The helicopter sets down near the car park.

There are cameras onboard with the team.

They film paramedics Michelle and Rob

as they hurry to the medical room.

So the movement isn't going to take...

-As far as I'm aware, it is all normal.

-Fine. How is his pain level?

Michelle and her colleagues examine Paul,

while Dr Blackburn keeps his head stable.

Paul's body temperature has plummeted.

His blood pressure is low and he is still complaining of abdominal pain.

He may have internal bleeding.

-Oh, I'm so cold, so cold!

-I know, mate, we'll get you warm in the second, OK.

The guys here have got some pretty clever toys to get you warm.

It is such a serious fall.

Someone puts a call into Paul's mum, Lynn, back home in Devon.

It was the worst case scenario that went

through my brain at the time.

Being paralysed.

I think it is the end of his career.

The teams start an intravenous saline drip to increase

Paul's fluids in case he is dehydrated.

Right, so we've got monitoring on. We've got the splint on.

Yes, we just need to get his body armour off and then we can

-get that splint on.

-Next they need to remove his body protector.

But to do that, they're going to have to turn him.

Ready, set, turn.

-Stop there.

-Oh, oh!

You're all right. Paul, you're doing really well, mate. There we go.

Beautiful. Are we ready? That looks fine.

There is no bruising at the back. Ready, set and down.

-Oh!

-You will warm up really quickly.

Paul is still feeling very cold

and his blood pressure is barely registering.

-Are we having problems with blood pressure?

-Yeah, we can't get one.

It's got no radial... Keeps going up...

OK.

To move Paul safely, his body is encased in a vacuum splint.

-Have you got the pump?

-Paul, try relax your breathing.

-You're quite safe.

-I'm so cold.

-I know, lovely.

He has still got... That's at 90.

Paul's blood oxygen levels are also low.

He needs to get to hospital...fast.

The course ambulance takes him to the waiting helicopter.

-Are you all right, Paul?

-Yeah.

I remember being out on front, and then the next thing I remember was waking up in the ambulance,

and I thought, "This is definitely not the winner's enclosure." I thought, "Oh, where am I?"

-It is going to be about a 20-minute flight, all right?

-OK, then.

Paul is flown to Southmead Hospital in Bristol.

-Are you all right, Paul?

-Yeah.

-How are you feeling?

-Thirsty.

-OK.

Tests at the hospital show that severe dehydration has caused

Paul to black out.

-Where are we going, sorry?

-Southmead Hospital, Bristol.

Amazingly, scans and x-rays reveal no internal injuries.

Despite having hit the ground

unconscious in the path of a dozen horses, doctors are surprised

Paul has escaped with only a slightly bruised shoulder.

This is me coming out in front here now,

coming round the bend, and I've just completely passed out.

Paul realises the fall happened because he mismanaged

his attempt to lose weight and became dangerously dehydrated.

I just feel awful about it.

It wasn't me coming off that hurt more,

it was the disappointment I had caused for everyone else.

That's another winner...

they or I will never get back.

When you fall off a horse, hitting the ground at 40, 45mph,

in his case he was unconscious as well,

so I think he was incredibly lucky not to have a more serious injury.

I am very lucky. Um...

Thank God...someone was looking down on me.

Join us next time for more

stories from survivors about their close calls.