Episode 9 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 were 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 gone the wrong way. 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 little girl calls 999.

It's the early hours of the morning, and the six-year-old

is alone with her mum, who's suddenly fallen ill.

Plus, swept off the pier.

The race to save a drowning man as a family fishing trip

becomes a life-threatening ordeal.

Soon as it happened, I wanted to jump in.

But my dad stopped me, he says, "You can't, you will end up dying".

And a paraglider urgently scours the countryside for

a fellow flyer who has crash landed in the Lake District.

HE YELLS

Falmouth, in Cornwall.

It's five o'clock in the morning, and at Southwest Ambulance Control,

Vicki Fallding takes this 999 call.

She's surprised by the sound of the voice at the end of the line.

Then, Vicky discovers the little girl is alone with her mum.

She is not responding,

and it's up to her six-year-old daughter to give the ambulance

service all the information they need to get to the scene.

Yeah, why don't we do like, green apples...

Six-year-old Tianna lives with her mum, Jasmine,

and stepdad, Dave, on the Cornish coast.

I've known Tianna since she was 18 months old,

so she really is, to all intents and purposes, she's my daughter, yeah.

Dave is in the RAF and during the week,

he works nearly 300 miles away in High Wycombe.

So the family make the most of their time together.

I like going out on the boat with Dave

and he catches loads of fish

and I stay in the cabin sometimes, doing drawing.

We get on really well, just larking about most of the time,

making fun out of each other, and, yeah, having fun.

Over a Christmas break, Mum Jasmine is unwell

and has a short spell in hospital.

Once she's recovered, Dave has to return to work.

But before he goes, he trains young Tianna in how to call for help,

just in case. It is something he is glad about later.

Ambulance, that's right. Yeah, good job. Well done.

With Dave back at base, it's just Mum and daughter

at home together for the week.

Anxious to be close to Jasmine, Tianna decides to sleep

in her mum's bed while her stepdad is away.

We were just sleeping, and then loads of noise came up

and then I said, "What is that coming out of her mouth?"

It was red and it was blood coming out of her mouth.

It made me quite worried.

But Tianna doesn't panic.

Instead, this resourceful little girl dials 999.

Call handler, Vicki, is surprised to get a call

from someone so young at this time in the morning.

Usually at 5am, it's incredibly calm.

Your thoughts are all quite collected,

you're very chilled and then an emergency call comes through

which IS an emergency,

from a tiny little voice that's so calm.

The penny dropped when she said "Mummy", the name, "Mummy".

A tiny little voice.

I then had to ask her her age.

I was in shock.

But Vicki needs to collect her thoughts fast.

Vicki realises this little girl is the only person who can help

her find out what's wrong.

The first thing I needed to know was Mummy awake and was Mummy breathing?

HEAVY BREATHING

That was the hardest bit to listen to was...

"It's OK, Mummy, I'm getting you help, it's all right, Mummy."

Although Mummy can't even hear her, at that point.

Jasmine is unresponsive

and Vicki is anxious to make sure her airway's clear.

Tianna's attempt should keep Jasmine's airways clear and open.

But Vicki needs to gather more information.

It's no clearer what has happened to Jasmine

but suddenly she starts to move.

Jasmine appears to be awake but is behaving oddly.

Thankfully, seconds later, help arrives.

I have to let in the police first.

And they helped Mummy to, like, be brave. And then the ambulance came

and sorted Mummy out.

I feels like I don't have to do it anymore.

As the paramedics join the police,

Jasmine finally becomes aware of what's happening.

Instinct says, you know, something isn't right,

you're not waking up like you normally do.

Paramedics treat Jasmine at the scene

but advise her to see her own doctor the next day.

She's had a fit in her sleep, similar to the attack

she suffered over the Christmas break when Dave was with her.

Very early in the morning, I woke up to Jas making all kinds of frightening noises.

And initially I thought, perhaps, she might be having a nightmare.

So I tried to wake her up but then it quite quickly became apparent

that it was something a little bit more serious.

The first I knew about it was waking up with an oxygen mask

on my face being told that I'd had a seizure.

On that occasion, doctors told Jasmine it was probably a one-off.

But such was Dave's concern, he showed Tianna exactly how to call

for help if her mum seemed unwell.

Although he didn't go into too much detail about the symptoms

in case she worried.

We just did it over and over again, practice how to unlock the phone,

which buttons to press, which numbers to dial.

And then we talked through what she was likely to...

Or the person was likely to say when she spoke to someone

and what she needed to ask for.

And Tianna followed his instructions to the letter.

I tried my hardest not to cry. And I tried not to be worried, as well.

I mean, it breaks my heart, it really does.

But in a good way.

The way she handled it, you'd think she was so much older than she was.

And, you know, she had a little wobble to her voice

at the beginning but then she got over it, you know,

as soon as she realised that there was someone on the phone that

could help, she had authority then, she knew what to do.

So, so proud. So, so proud. Yeah. Bit of a tear-jerker.

Staff at the ambulance station were so impressed with Tianna

they came to her house to say thank you in person.

I felt really happy and cheerful.

It felt really kind of special day

because people were being nice to me, how well I did.

And they said well done to me

and gave me a certificate because I'd been so brave.

After her latest seizure, Jasmine has had several tests

and has now been diagnosed with epilepsy.

I got put on medication which seems to be working as well.

They said that it was...

It would be a stint of three months to find out

whether it works or not and we've gone past that, so.

Hopefully, fingers crossed.

"I'm just building this snowman."

Dave is back at work,

relieved he had the foresight to teach Tianna how to call for help.

It's nice to have one of my bits of forward planning actually

pay off, for a change, so, yeah, it was good.

-VICKI:

-I think Jasmine is incredibly fortunate to have Tianna with her.

She didn't delay in any of her care.

She got her the quickest care possible and, yeah,

if she wasn't there, who knows?

Still to come...

a mountain rescue team rush to the aid of an injured paraglider.

HE SCREAMS

Redcar, in North Yorkshire. The RNLI are heading out to a man

who is struggling to survive out in the cold sea.

He's been swept from a pier by a five metre wave.

He's been in the sea for almost half an hour,

slipping in and out of consciousness.

All his father and brother can do is watch in fear.

Last thing I saw was Michael's eyes as he went over the edge.

I thought he was dead, to be honest.

32-year-old Michael Soley lives in Darlington

not far from his young son, Billy.

His parents, Mike and Margaret, are also close by,

as is his brother, Rory.

The Soleys are a close family

and every year they enjoy a camping trip along the coast at Redcar.

We go just to catch up with the family and stuff.

Like, we all meet up at Redcar and we have a campfire and stuff like that.

While we're there we do some fishing, as well.

But this time, Michael's eight-year-old son Billy decides

not to join the rest of the Soley clan on the annual camping trip.

He changed his mind, he didn't want to go,

he was staying at home with his friend on the computer so,

luckily, he didn't come with us that day.

Redcar's South Gare pier is a popular spot for fishing.

In calm weather, the fishermen can get really close to the water.

On this cold March day, Michael has bundled on lots of layers.

He's also wearing a hi-vis jacket his brother Rory refused to put on.

Michael poses for this photo before they head to the pier.

As the sea's quite rough, Michael, his dad and brother

choose a spot which seems fairly protected and sheltered.

When we got down to the pier we noticed that the waves were quite higher than normal.

So we tried to walk around the pier, where there's like a slope

that goes up, it would have been safer to fish.

The wind is blowing onshore. It's strong and the waves are building.

When the wake from a passing container ship adds to the swell,

the waves start crashing over the pier.

Suddenly, their chosen spot is not so safe after all.

The first wave that come over the wall went up to, like, our ankles

and then, as soon as that happen, we turned,

went to run away and then we just heard this almighty thud

and then that was the second wave that come over.

And it knocked us all off our feet.

All three men are thrown to the ground, shocked and disorientated.

The only thing that I had enough time to do was

dig my hands into the gravel on the floor.

Whereas my brother didn't have enough time to do that

cos he was stood closer to the edge.

I felt us, like, sliding towards the water

and then I felt the drop and I knew the drop was there

cos we've been down there a few times before.

And when I felt that, I thought, "This is it, I'm in the water here."

And he is. In a split second, he vanishes beneath the violent waves.

His dad and brother are stunned.

Last thing I saw was Michael's eyes as he went over the edge, that was it.

First thing I did, I looked around I noticed Michael had made eye

contact and he's just dropped off the edge.

I thought he was dead, to be honest.

Ten metres below them in the water, Michael surfaces

and tries to swim to safety.

As soon as I went in I thought, "Get back to the side,"

but the current was pulling us

and with the waves going over me head, I couldn't swim at all.

On the pier, dad Mike has to hold Rory back.

He's fighting to jump in and try to save his brother.

It was just pure instinct.

As soon as it happened, it was, just wanted to jump in.

But my dad stopped me. He said, "You can't, you'll end up dying."

Instead, Rory runs back up to the pier to mum Margaret

who's totally unaware of what's happened.

The plan was I would make them a cup of tea and then we would go

and walk round the gare to see what they were getting up to,

see if they'd found a fishing spot.

And Rory came running back

and he said, "Michael's been swept out to sea."

I'm sorry.

In the water, Michael is fighting for survival.

It was dark under the water so it was just a struggle to fight to find

which way I was going to the top or whether I was going further down.

Just went pitch-black, I was rolling about like a washing machine effect.

And eventually I found the top,

seeing the light coming back and I managed to go

HE INHALES and get a breath

and then another wave comes straight over the top.

If I didn't get that breath, I'd have been knackered

cos I can't hold my breath for that long, I don't think.

Michael can't swim his way out of danger.

He needs to keep his head above water.

My next thought was, like, just trying to stay afloat.

I was screaming, "Lay on your back!"

He was laid on his back but he was screaming, "Help, help!"

I couldn't help him.

As much as I wanted to, I couldn't.

But help is on the way.

A nearby bird-watcher has seen it all happen and dialled 999.

The coastguard notify the RNLI.

This is the moment the Redcar lifeboat is launched.

They head out with their cameras filming.

They are three miles away but luck is on Michael's side.

By sheer good fortune, the neighbouring Hartlepool lifeboat

is already on the water on a training exercise just four minutes from the pier.

You hear someone's in the water, you know it's an emergency

so you just go straight away. No thinking about it.

Up ahead of the Redcar crew, the Hartlepool lifeboat reach Michael.

The moment is captured on camera by a member of the public on another boat.

It's 20 minutes since Michael was swept into the sea.

The water temperature is just five degrees.

We saw someone standing on top of the pier pointing and shouting

so we looked where he was pointing to.

Michael's hi-vis jacket helps the crew spot him in the water.

It's also helping him stay afloat.

The first reaction is, "Oh, there he is."

And then your next reaction is, "Is he OK?"

But Michael is drifting in and out of consciousness.

I could just see, like... It's hard to explain.

There were just, like, little things coming towards my eyes.

And I could just feel my whole body shutting down.

Just thought, this is it. This is where my life's going to end now.

But obviously when I kept seeing the pictures of my son

in my head I thought, no, I'm not letting this take me, like.

But when the lifeboat reaches Michael in the stormy conditions, he looks lifeless.

He didn't have much time left.

Didn't look as if he was alive, to be fair.

But Michael is alive.

Out of the corner of my eye, I've just seen this big wave

but on the wave was the front end of the boat, the orange boat.

And that's when I've just been relieved.

The size of the waves mean the lifeboat can't get close enough to grab Michael.

This picture shows the moment they throw him

a line in the hope he's conscious enough to clutch hold of it.

We shouted at him and it seemed to have woke him up or something,

he must have heard some sound

and he sort of put his arms together to grab the line.

Another big wave's come over and I think I dropped it or gone under

the water again and that's when I passed out.

Michael's unconscious as the crew make a grab for him.

It must have took probably a minute to get him in the boat

cos he was that heavy and obviously he couldn't help us.

He didn't have no energy to help us.

The crew try and revive Michael but he's unresponsive.

And he... He couldn't talk but he was moving, we were saying,

"Blink your eyes, move your fingers."

And then we got the oxygen on him straight away.

The lifeboat takes Michael north to the safety of the harbour

master's pier. The Redcar lifeboat joins them.

Their onboard camera shows both crews lifting Michael ashore.

When we got there the ambulance wasn't...

Hadn't arrived at that time

so we were obviously still doing first aid on Michael.

And about a minute or so later Redcar lifeboat came along

and they helped us carry Michael to the ambulance.

The family race to where Michael has been brought ashore

but just as they arrive, the ambulance is already pulling away.

You know, the blue lights and everything were going.

Then we didn't know anything, whether he was alive or dead.

They follow the ambulance to James Cook Hospital in Middlesbrough.

While doctors try to bring Michael's heart rate down,

the family face an anxious wait.

And we waited for two and a half hours.

I thought, I can't do this anymore so I knocked on the door,

I said, "Please let me see him. Even if it is to say goodbye.

"Let me see him while he's still got a breath in him."

Finally, Michael comes round.

His heart rate is nearly back to normal, as is his temperature.

When I woke up I had heat packs and aluminium foil stuff all over me

and I asked him where I was at, if I was still at Redcar,

and they said no, I was in Middlesbrough, James Cook.

The family are overjoyed to be reunited with Michael.

I was elated when I saw him, yeah.

No feeling like it. He was crying a bit, so was I, so was his mother.

And Michael is delighted when his son comes to visit,

relieved that Billy chose not to join them on the pier that day.

Absolutely brilliant, it was the best feeling in the world.

Knowing that I've lived through that

and when I've seen his face coming through the door.

After three days in hospital, Michael finally returns home.

He's been incredibly lucky to escape with his life.

If the coastguards, or the RNLI hadn't been doing their test run...

..he wouldn't have survived.

I think he's very, very lucky to be alive.

And if we wasn't on that exercise on that day...

..I don't think he'd be here today to tell the tale, I think he'd be dead.

When things go wrong, we often need to depend on others and it's

good to know that there are plenty of people out there willing to help.

The Valley of Buttermere in the Lake District.

A paraglider swoops over the fellside

searching for a missing friend. Tony Thompson has dropped out of the sky.

He's misjudged his landing and crashed to Earth.

But fellow flyer Dave Ashcroft spots him, lands alongside,

and alerts a mountain rescue search party.

Hi, control, we're with the casualty now.

GROANING

Don't think it's a sprain.

When they arrive, it's clear how serious Tony's injury is.

HE SCREAMS

58-year-old grandfather Tony Thompson grew up next to the lakes

and has always loved sailing and windsurfing.

Ten years ago, he decided to try

and get above the water by taking up paragliding.

I always thought I would enjoy flying because I can remember

as a child I was jumping off roofs with umbrellas and things like that.

IT teacher Tony took advantage of one long summer break to learn the sport.

And now it's one of his greatest passions.

It's really nice just to take off and fly along the hillside and just...

If the wind's right and the weather's right

and you can just go up next to the clouds and fly around.

It's the place to be.

These are the kind of views that keep Tony hooked on his new sport.

During a February half term break, Tony's friend,

paragliding coach Dave Ashcroft, films his flight

as he heads off to meet up with Tony and other club members.

It was a westerly wind that day so we'd agreed to meet on Swinside.

I took off a bit lower down and met Tony higher up on the fell

and landed next to him.

And then we both took off and flew down the valley.

The camera on Dave's paraglider is

recording as the group fly over Buttermere and Crummock Water.

Tony's flying just below Dave.

His turquoise and white wing can be seen on his friend's camera.

We both flew around for quite a while and it was a really nice day

because the cloud was rising up and condensing.

But as they continue, the weather begins to change.

The conditions got a little bit weak and we were struggling

to stay up at altitude so I set off back to where I'd come from.

While Dave heads back to near his start point to land,

Tony flies on out of sight of Dave's camera.

But Tony has also noticed the change in the weather.

I was flying along and I was losing height

and I wanted to land as soon as I could.

Tony spots a patch of green.

It looks good for landing and he positions for it.

But he doesn't see some hidden rocks until it's too late.

Just as I was swinging into the hill I just managed to clip a rock

with the top of my foot.

Tony smashes into the rocks at speed.

He instantly knows he's hurt and radioes for help.

Luckily, his friend Dave is listening in.

Heard on the radio something about Tony having hurt himself.

Tony's in pain 400ft up the fellside.

Dave knows the quickest way for him to get there is by paraglider.

He immediately gets airborne again in a bid to find his injured friend.

It took me about eight minutes to get there, it was the quickest way.

And I spiralled down and flew and landed on the fellside next to him.

But Tony's too severely injured for Dave to cope on his own.

I thought we would sort it out but then I thought that wouldn't be

a very good idea and chose to phone the mountain rescue.

He alerts the Cockermouth Mountain Rescue team.

Tony has landed some distance from the road.

The only way for the rescue team to reach him is on foot.

One of the group films as they hike up the steep terrain.

They arrive on scene 20 minutes after the accident happened.

Hi, control, we're with the casualty now.

-HE GROANS

-Don't think it's a sprain.

They take great care examining him

and use a makeshift tent to protect him from the elements.

One of the rescue team is a doctor.

He quickly realises Tony has suffered a complex multiple fracture to his leg.

HE SCREAMS

Don't do that!

Accessing the injury and splinting it was quite difficult.

He was in an immense amount of pain.

OK, Tony.

The mountain rescue team

fear carrying him down the mountain could cause further

injury and too much pain.

They stabilise his leg in a splint, give him

intravenous pain relief and call up the Great North Air Ambulance

which has to land further down the hill.

It takes eight of them 30 minutes to get him to the helicopter.

He's taken to West Cumberland Hospital.

X-rays reveal he's broken his ankle in ten places and needs 23 pins

to rebuild the joint. Over the next two months,

Tony undergoes a succession of operations.

The real blow was when I got the infection afterwards

and I was actually, in total, I was in hospital for 37 days.

At one point, doctors fear the infection is in his bones

and he might lose part of his leg.

It was pretty grim then.

But he makes a recovery.

He's off work for seven months and grounded for a year.

Since the accident, he chooses his landing sites much more carefully.

I tend not to land quite so much on the hillside

and go for the nice, big, flat, green fields at the bottom.

Join us next time for more

stories from survivors about their close calls.