Episode 10 Real Rescues

Today on Real Rescues...

The air ambulance is scrambled to a Dorset landmark.

Lying at the bottom of a huge sandstone rock

is a 12-year-old schoolgirl.

Right, what we're going to do is we're going to hold your neck,

and I want you to tell me if it hurts. Ow! On the side there?

The Tobermory lifeboat work at full stretch

to haul a stricken fishing boat

and her three crew away from the rocks.

Five metre waves are crashing over the deck.

And a 999 call from a 12-year-old boy.

His mum is unconscious.

She's collapsed, face first, onto the floor.

Hello and welcome to Real Rescues,

highlighting the work of the emergency services across the UK.

Dealing with remote locations and increasingly busy roads,

the quickest way to get emergency help is often by air.

There are currently 32 air-ambulance helicopters

operating across England and Wales,

and the pilots become expert at improvising landing sites

at all sorts of locations.

It's the school summer holidays

and the air ambulance has been scrambled to help

a 12-year-old girl who's fallen from a huge sandstone rock near Poole.

OK, we've got it, once we go in there, I'll see it. Righty-ho.

The crew is heading west, straddling the coastline,

searching for a local beauty spot, Agglestone Rock.

I think I can see it. You see the path that cuts through the gorse?

Yeah. Aim for that.

The rock is the size of a house

and sits alone in a vast expanse of heathland.

They've found the rock - now they need a landing pad.

There's somebody waving you down in blue,

some distance away, you don't want to go in there.

There's no obvious area level enough.

Pilot Max Hoskins is relying on experience

to judge where to put down.

OK, radio that out.

Paramedic Mark Williams finds the young Elodie in a lot of pain,

lying at the foot of the rocks, surrounded by family and friends.

Mum Pauline's at her side trying to comfort her.

If I get you guys, all friends, to move out of the way for a minute.

Mum can stay.

OK, so all she's done is jump off the top of this boulder,

land on her feet and then topple backwards onto her bum.

Didn't hit her head? No. Wasn't knocked out? No. Good.

Right, Elodie, what we're going to do is we're going to hold your neck

and I want you to tell me if it hurts.

Elodie fell back hard as she landed and let out a scream of pain.

Falling from such a height may have injured her spine.

OK, what about the sides? Ow!

On the side there? On that side? Just on this side?

The land ambulance crew have given her gas and air

to reduce the pain, but as Mark checks her spine,

two areas are very tender. It's a cause for concern.

SHE GROANS

Can you wiggle both your feet for me?

That's not a wiggle! A proper wiggle!

Perfect! Good. Can you raise your knees a bit?

Right, what we'll do...

We're going to roll you onto a board.

The paramedics can't take chances where back injuries are concerned.

They need to immobilise Elodie on a board

before moving her to the helicopter.

First, Mark checks if she needs more pain relief.

Did this gas work, or did you not really try it?

Brilliant. So, we can try that again. Yeah. OK?

Cos it will be awkward moving you and probably the worst bit.

Look at that...

Her position isn't helping the pain.

The sooner they can get her flat on the board the better.

We need a willing volunteer.

If you come around to the other side. I need you this end.

Move that one there, then. That will do for the minute.

What we're going to do is we're going to roll her over

on the person at the head's command,

because we want to keep her nice and straight.

The idea being, her spine will be here, head there, feet down there.

And just guide her feet over with us. Go with the flow.

You're doing really well.

OK. Everybody happy? Yeah. OK, on roll. Ready, set, roll.

ELODIE WHINES

Keep taking the gas. That's it.

SHE CRIES OUT

And again.

Despite Elodie's cries, this is the safest way to move her.

Down! Well done.

You are so good. Ready, set, slide.

Perfect. Well done, darling.

Elodie, let's just move you up from the rocks.

Now she's in a better position,

paramedic Paul Owen listens for any possible chest injury.

Then a collar is put on to protect her neck.

It won't be long now, hon.

Paramedic Mark does his best to lift her spirits.

So which bit? Have you climbed the main bit yet?

She went nearly up to the top.

You can climb the overhang. It's really good.

It's a frightening experience for Elodie.

But once she's strapped up, she seems to calm down.

The gas and air is working.

We'll show you. We'll tip you on your side. Right. Ready, set, lift.

Has anybody actually got any weight? Because I haven't.

That's because I'm carrying it all.

If you open your eyes now, we'll lift you up. Can you see it?

Yeah! Isn't it cool?!

I can't see it from there.

Is that good? It looks cool. It does. Shall we go for a ride in it?

Let's get you inside. Keep your feet together.

Can you move your left leg? Not really. No?

Is it always over at an angle like that?

You wiggled it well for me a minute ago. Bye.

Will put you in here.

Mum's going to travel with Elodie to hospital.

Right, let's go to Poole, then.

But that's a tall order, even for a helicopter.

How many?

130. Red out.

They head for Poole Park and rendezvous with the ambulance crew

who will take Elodie on to the hospital.

Right, there's two guys here.

They'll give you, hopefully, a not very bumpy ride to hospital.

Thank you. It a pleasure.

Oh, my God! You're heavy.

At Poole Hospital's specialist children's trauma unit,

doctors will assess Elodie's injuries.

On-board the Tobermory lifeboat on the far west coast of Scotland,

the camera is recording sea swells reaching 8m.

It's a force nine gale, and winds are gusting at 60mph.

The coastguard has dispatched the RNLI crew to rescue

three fishermen whose boat has broken down.

It's almost 30 miles away

off the coast of Coll, in the Inner Hebrides.

The conditions were a lot at worse than we usually go out in.

It was January, and there was a storm blowing through.

We started from Tobermory

and proceeded around the northern tip of the Isle of Mull,

then around the northern tip of Coll and made our way

to the position of the fishing boat.

It was the roughest I've been out in.

In places, the seas were 7m or 8m.

Four metres is the highest I've seen up to now.

That day everybody was strapped in.

Again and again, the lifeboat hits the waves.

All the crew are wearing harnesses.

The seas are so high, the lifeboat has to reduce its speed.

After an hour, they get their first sight of the stricken fishing boat,

the Silver Spray.

They're a mile away, but the conditions are so bad

this is not going to be the routine tow they were expecting.

In swells like that, you can't get too close to the other vessel.

If we're towing another vessel,

we try and get a couple of crew on board the towed vessel.

But that day it was just deemed too dangerous to do.

The gear box of the Silver Spray has failed.

A tow is the only hope of rescue.

Skipper Woody Grafton and his two crew have anchored up

on a fishing line, abandoning their crab fishing.

The Tobermory lifeboat moves as close as it safely can

towards the fishing boat.

A tow line is passed to the Silver Spray.

With the two rope safely attached at both ends,

the lifeboat starts to take up the slack.

The tow begins.

But the high waves are putting too much pressure on the rope.

They need to let out more slack.

The coxswain decides to use all 200m of tow line.

It's less than ten miles to the boat's home harbour

at Milton on the Isle of Tyree,

but conditions are getting worse.

Keeping eye contact between the boats is almost impossible.

The fishing boat was disappearing behind these swells

for seconds at a time.

Even though we could see that the tension was on the rope

and we were happily towing them, we weren't having a problem there,

it is still unnerving

every time that fishing boat disappears behind a wave.

They can't risk taking the direct route through Gunna Sound

between the two Hebridean islands,

so it is five hours before they reached the entrance to

Milton Harbour on the Isle of Tyree, the boat's home.

We kept in touch with the boys every 15 or 20 minutes or so

to make sure that everything was cool on their boat.

We let the Stornoway coastguard know where we were at

and where we were going.

As we were coming around the north end of Coll,

he let us know on the radio that his friend was coming in another

fishing boat to tow him into the bay because it was too narrow

and shallow for our boat.

These are experienced fishermen.

They know these waters and have done this many times before.

Once the tow had been transferred onto the smaller fishing vessel,

we took up a position just behind the casualty vessel.

In case anything happened, we were ready to go in

in case the rope was to break or anything was to go wrong.

The Silver Spray is so close to home

but conditions are at their worst at the harbour entrance.

The waves are crashing over the boat.

It's putting too much strain on the rope.

It snaps.

Later, the lifeboat heads into harbour.

It has two get another tow line onto the Silver Spray

before it is smashed by 5m waves onto the rocks.

The call takers here at the South Western Ambulance Service Trust -

or the Clinical Hub, as it now known, yeah -

have to be detectives as well as call handlers.

If we can interrupt Kat. Are you not on a call? No, I'm fine.

I was explaining that you have to be a detective

when people haven't a clue where they are.

No, sometimes they can be on a road that they don't know

or they're going a long distance.

So give us an example of how you help someone out.

I took a call for a road-traffic accident on a country road

in Somerset.

Right. Unfortunately, the caller didn't know where they were.

So how do you start? Do you ask for landmarks?

Yes, you start off asking if they can see any shop or any road names.

Anything like that. Did that work? They didn't have anything for me.

OK. So where do you start, then?

I asked them where they were coming from and they said Glastonbury.

Right, so if you want to come round here, you can see on the screen.

We've got Glastonbury here.

Having established Glastonbury, what do you ask then?

I asked them whereabouts in Glastonbury they started.

It seems to help. So they gave me a main road in Glastonbury. OK.

So I started from there, and I asked them for directions from there.

So turn left at the junction, turn right etc, etc. Yes.

That heads them out on this main road. The A361 heading out.

Yes. And they told me they went into a village called Pilton. OK.

They'd remembered that as they went through.

Yes. Stayed on the main road or turned off?

They turned off onto a country road.

I asked them if they saw signs for other villages

and they said they saw one for Pylle, which is down here.

OK, so we've not got them travelling down this road. Yes.

And from there, you have to ask them

if they've seen anything that will stand out.

Farms or if they crossed a bridge, anything like that

that can help narrow it down on that road.

You managed to narrow it down? Yes, eventually.

And how long from the point they called in to the point where

you'd established where they were?

The whole process took about ten minutes.

Which, given that the South Western Ambulance Service Trust

covers one fifth of the country,

to find someone in ten minutes is some going.

You must have been pleased?

I was quite pleased, yes.

Real detective work, as you can see. Thank you very much. Thank you.

The Southeast ambulance control room in Lewes, East Sussex.

Emergency medical adviser Ali Denison

has just answered a call from a worried child.

The caller is 12-year-old George Davey.

His mum Kerry has just collapsed in front of him.

I was just sat down on the sofa with my mum

and she just stood up

and straight away just...fell,

completely fell face first.

Then I saw like bloodstains on the carpet,

and that's when I really got scared.

So I phoned for an ambulance.

He did exactly what I said.

He asked for specific instructions

and he followed them out, I could hear him doing it.

He was very, very good.

He was better than most people I speak to.

Ali needs George to put his mum into the recovery position.

We have to straightaway if somebody is not responding, get them

on their left-hand side so their breathing is not compromised.

And he did this straightaway.

But at last there's some good news from young George.

Ambulance technician Nick Russell has arrived in a rapid-response car.

He was dispatched from his standby position just 300 metres away.

George came out and met me as I was walking in.

He seemed very relieved when I got there.

I think just having somebody there with him was enough.

I found Kerry in the lounge,

lying on her front with her head in the carpet basically.

And quite a fair bit of blood around her head.

Quite a distressing scene to walk into.

She had an obvious head injury

which appeared to be coming from her mouth and nose

and probably as a result of where Kerry had fallen against the floor.

Immediately I knew that she needed to go to hospital

and needed further care, so I immediately called for backup.

So did George.

I went and phoned my Nan to come around and help,

like give me some support really.

And then they put her on a stretcher and wheeled her out to the ambulance.

George remembers staying behind to help his Nan clean up,

although he would have preferred to have gone with his mum in the ambulance.

That was a bit frustrating.

I understand that that was the best thing to do,

but it didn't particularly feel like it to me at the time.

I did just want to go and see her.

A photograph of Kerry taken at A&E

reveals just how serious her injuries were.

There are no physical scars,

but she is still suffering the after effects.

I broke my nose and for quite a few hours,

or if not a couple of days afterwards,

I was still really disorientated and quite confused

and trying to do simple things that you would normally remember easily.

It was a struggle to remember.

It feels a bit weird.

Kerry has suffered with a rare nerve disorder in the past

which caused her to black out,

but she had not fainted for 13 years.

She had a brain scan at the hospital and has since been

to a neurologist, but they have yet to find a reason for this fall.

They still can't decide.

There's things that happened that point towards me

having just fainted, but lack of memory from the day before

and for hours afterwards, they're not sure

if it was that I fainted or a fit,

or whether I knocked myself unconscious as I fell down

because my face fell on to the floor

and I didn't try and stop myself.

George is delighted to have his mum back home and on the mend,

but memories of that day are still vivid.

I thought she might have been playing with me to start with

until I started to roll her over

and then it was just plain fear, really.

I was really scared.

He's a very kind, a very generous, very loving he's...

He's my world really,

but the fact that he did what he did for me,

if he hadn't been there, I don't know how long

I'd have been lying on the floor or what would have happened really.

It was an alarming experience for a young man.

George was delighted to receive a certificate for his bravery

from all the team who helped get his mum the help she needed that day.

They were all there, the three paramedics

and Ali who had taken the call.

That was really good, yeah,

that felt really nice, yes.

I've never actually met another caller before

and to put a voice to a face made it a bit more real to be honest.

It was lovely, he's such a lovely boy

and his mum was really nice as well

and for me to thank him

in person was really special, very good.

I'm very, very proud of him.

It's not a nice thing for anybody to have to go through,

but for a child and the fact that he stayed so calm

and managed to do what he did, I am very, very proud of him, extremely.

Coming up on Real Rescues:

Traffic cop PC Sam Silk heads up the M1.

A car has suffered a major impact, the driver is inside and injured.

We've got somebody trapped in that one? Really trapped as well.

It's going to be roof off to get him out.

And the summer heat wave gets the better of Dorothy.

I turned round and walked on to the rough edge of that arm. It's rough.

In the seas off the Isle of Tiree in the Inner Hebrides a rescue

is being recorded by a camera on board the RNLI lifeboat.

The Tobermory volunteer lifeboat crew have endured horrendous

conditions towing the stricken Silver Spray home to Milton Harbour.

In the entrance the tow line is passed to a smaller boat.

The lifeboat is standing by,

but everyone involved thinks it's the end of a seven-hour rescue.

Suddenly, everything changes.

The fishing boat and crew are now at the mercy of the waves.

How quick it did go wrong was surprising, really surprising,

and quite scary for a wee while.

He dropped the tow for my boat, and I established a tow

with his friend's vessel, the smaller fishing vessel.

Just as they were going into the main mouth of the bay

they got on the radio.

They had snapped the line and they were adrift again in the breakers.

You could tell by the tone of his voice he was frantic,

talking fast, and almost shouting.

I think he realised how quick it had gone wrong and what danger he was in

with the boat bouncing around and everything, so he was quite frantic.

The coxswain turns up full throttle and heads into the harbour.

The waters are shallow and the rocks are all around,

but the Silver Spray is now helpless. No tow and no power.

There are jaggy rocks in the seabed there.

The boat could have easily been taken side onto these waves

and they could have been knocked off their feet

and swept off the deck and that could entirely change things.

People going in the water, with those jaggy rocks and those swells,

would not stand a very good chance.

We could have jeopardised our boat as well, going in so close,

so we had to get in fairly quick.

The crew have to get another tow line on board the Silver Spray.

We had to pass it over their stern which is not standard practice.

We would always try and tow someone from the bow, but due to

their positioning then this was the only effective way we could do it.

They do it in just 90 seconds. Now the backward tow begins.

The lifeboat has to get her over the breakers between the harbour

and the sea.

Through these breaking waves that were breaking against the back

of the lifeboat and pushing the lifeboat forwards,

the lifeboat was surfing forward in these waves even though

we had power on all the time

and the same was happening with the fishing boat.

The amount of lift and fall in these waves

was absolutely incredible that day.

Time and again huge waves crash across the deck of the Silver Spray.

The coxswain has to push the lifeboat to its limits.

Then they find out that the Silver Spray hasn't completely

escaped its contact with the seabed.

We got a call from the casualty fishing boat

to say that they were taking on water.

For 20 merits minutes the Tobermory lifeboat

battles against the churning sea.

Finally, they reach relative safety.

At this point we've been at sea for some nine hours.

We haven't had breakfast, it's been a long day so far.

We are now getting to the stage where we've only got

a couple of hours of light left.

So once we get the boat out into safer water

we attach the tow onto the bow and start making way for Tobermory.

Darkness has fallen before the crew reach home

11 hours after setting off.

They've covered a total of 95 miles.

On the quayside the community is waiting to welcome

the stricken fishing boat and its rescuers.

The Silver Spray will moor up here closest to the quay.

When the tide goes out they can then inspect the damage.

We were met by a coastguard team and other local fishermen.

They had no idea what had just happened in the 11 hours

previous to this.

And it's just amazing that you can never tell when a lifeboat goes

out what it's going to encounter and what it's done before it goes back.

The rescue over,

the Tobermory lifeboat can finally return to its station nearby.

Later, Willie recalls the moment the tow line between the two

boats snapped. We drift over onto the reef.

As soon as we hit the rocks I started to think, "That's it, the boat's lost."

I didn't believe we would be able to get off from that position.

We've talked in the past about children eating things that are dangerous

because they don't know any better.

But it's not always children

and it's not always eating things as much as drinking things.

Richard, are you free to have a chat? Yep.

So you had a call about somebody who had drunk something dangerous?

Yes, it was a chap who was out painting his garage,

had a glass of water where he was working

and next to it a glass of white spirit for his paintbrushes.

You can see where this is going straightaway.

Yeah, he picked up the wrong glass, had a drink,

so his wife called an ambulance. Right.

On that call do you have to ascertain how much has been

drunk and how dangerous is white spirit?

It contains a lot of solvents

and in great quantities it can be very dangerous.

Especially to your lungs.

So they went to a full triage

to find out how much he'd had, how much he'd drunk.

During the course of the questioning, we've got clinicians here,

he jumped in as well because they need to know exactly what type

the white spirit was, how much and so on.

And if it's a small amount, how do you treat it?

Thankfully, it was just a mouthful.

Basically, if that is the case, it was plenty of water, dilute

it down and didn't need a hospital, just needed to see his GP later.

If it's a large amount,

interestingly the instruction is not to try and vomit it up. Aye. Why?

People's natural reaction is

if something's gone in that shouldn't be there to make people vomit.

But with chemicals they've burned the soft tissue on the way down

and the last thing you want to do is bring them back up

because they're going to burn the soft tissue way up again.

Whereas the stomach, because you've already got acid in it,

is much more capable of looking after it and sealing it in.

So it's best to dilute it with plenty of water

and if it's a small amount like this case was, seeing the GP.

OK, smashing, thank you very much.

It's the evening rush-hour,

there's a pile-up on the M1 at Milton Keynes.

The traffic's in chaos, the tailback is jamming up the town centre.

PC Sam Silk needs to get there as fast as she can.

And we're off to another crash

which is four vehicles, two lorries and two cars.

Sam arrives to find the Highways Agency

and two fire engines are already there, the ambulance is en route.

Hello, where are the ambulances? Sorry? Have you got an ambulance?

No, not yet. Have you got someone trapped in that one?

Really trapped. It's going to need the roof off to get him out. OK.

The collision has happened on the slip road off the motorway.

The front of the car is damaged as well.

The driver's still inside.

He suffered a major impact and can't be moved.

One of the drivers is heavily trapped in his vehicle.

The fire brigade are on scene

but, unfortunately, we just have no ambulance.

Can you, um, try and chase up some ambulances for me?

The firefighters will have to cut the roof off his car

and slide him out on a long board.

Sam needs to talk to everyone involved.

Andrew was driving the white van still tangled up with

the other car.

He'd just pulled on to the slip road when it all happened behind him.

This lorry? Yeah.

He's obviously... He's obviously hit that car, he's hit...

Oh, right. OK. And then he's gone down this side of...

He's just shot down here.

Okey-dokey. Hello, mate. Are you all right?

Are you driving this one. Yeah. How you doing? I'm fine.

Lorry driver Barry had just turned off the motorway onto the slip road

to find queueing traffic.

I'm on the brakes. OK.

I'm on the brakes, I'm ON the brakes. Right. I'm standing on the brakes.

It's not doing anything? Didn't do nothing.

His lorry went into the back of the silver car which was then

pushed into the white van.

Another lorry was also caught up in the collision

but escaped any damage.

I've got his details. You've got his details? Oh, yes. OK.

The main concern is getting the trapped driver out.

PC Silk is in charge until the paramedics arrive.

Have we...? I don't know serious he is, you see..

Bit by bit the car's being taken apart to give access to the driver.

It's vital the injured man is kept as still as possible in case

he's damaged his spine.

Two off-duty paramedics have stopped

and one has climbed inside the car to hold the driver's head still.

Now the ambulance is on scene, the driver can be lifted out.

Inside the ambulance, the crew can examine the driver

more thoroughly and there are worrying signs -

his blood pressure is high.

Still a little bit concerned about him.

Still running some tests, and when they've finished those,

they'll come back to us and let us know

so, maybe getting the helicopter

to take him off but they're still deciding.

So once we hear on that, we'll find out.

Landing an air ambulance would mean closing the M1 in both directions.

The driver's injuries could be serious,

it means the Police Accident Investigations Unit

is needed on site in case it goes to court.

At the moment, the paramedics believe

that he's in a bit of a poorly condition.

His blood pressure is quite high

which they indicate could be down to a intracranial bleed.

So with any head injury, we always treat it as serious

so we're going to have the Accident Investigations out

just to cover all the bases

and make sure that we've secured the scene as best we can.

The decision has been made to take the patient by road.

The vehicles will have to stay where they are until

the crash investigators record the scene and photograph it.

They'll also inspect the lorry's brakes

after the driver said they locked up.

These two lanes of the M1

will be closed for at least a couple of hours.

It's a hot summer's day on the south coast in Hampshire.

Emergency care practitioner Malcolm Silvester

is heading to an elderly woman who's injured her leg.

She's knocked her leg, lower leg, on a fan.

And so she's lacerated her lower leg.

She's got a skin flap on that leg.

And they've passed it to me

to go and see if I can deal with her at home.

Malcolm's training means he can stitch up cuts and dress wounds

at the patient's home so they don't have to go to hospital.

91-year-old Dorothy has already managed to charm everyone who's

spoken to her at the Emergency Call Centre.

She's a sweetheart, apparently, so... looking forward to meeting her.

Dorothy's living in sheltered accommodation,

where the warden has been keeping her company until Malcolm's arrival.

So how did it happen, then? I turned round and walked on

to the rough edge of that...

it's rough.

On the side... Right, OK.

So you didn't fall? No. You just walked into it, did you?

I forgot it was there. Oh. SHE LAUGHS

She doesn't usually have a fan in the room

but with the current heatwave has brought it out to try and keep cool.

It's nice by that fan.

Do you mind pressing the...?

No, no. I want it up a bit to the next...

You want it up a bit? Onto the next one, yeah.

I don't mind that, cooler the better.

I thought of getting up and doing it but I thought, "Better not."

Dorothy is in the best of health, she doesn't suffer

from any medical conditions other than high blood pressure.

Just blood pressure, anything else?

Hypertension. Everybody has blood pressure. Yeah, that's true.

The flat warden has already put a bandage on Dorothy's

leg to stop the bleeding

and once it's removed a nasty wound is revealed.

Oh, yeah...

I squashed it all back, you know. Mmm.

That's fine.

Yeah, we can sort that out for you.

Good news for Dorothy. If Malcolm can treat her at home,

it will save a trip to the hospital.

But she'll have to be stoical while he cleans it up.

What I'm going to do...I'm going to, sort of...

it may be a bit sore, OK, so I'm going to lift that back and clean it.

And then I'm going to put it back...

together, all right? Mmm.

As he works Malcolm's trying to take Dorothy's mind off the pain.

How long you been living here, Dorothy? About...nearly two years.

Nearly two years. Where were you before that, then?

Isle of Wight.

My husband retired 26 years ago. So, you retired there? Yeah.

There's one thing that's worrying Dorothy.

I'm supposed to be going on holiday on Monday.

Where you going? Malvern. Malvern Hills.

And Worcester. And how are you getting there. Coach. Coach?

I don't see why you shouldn't be able to go.

I think that's going to be fine.

The sterilised strip will hold the wound together

so Dorothy won't need stitches,

and it turns out she has experience of this type of medical procedure.

Where did you used to work?

I worked up at the hospital. The hospital? Oh, right.

Auxiliary nurse. Were you? Victoria House as it was then.

All that remains now is for Malcolm

to bandage her leg for extra protection.

Dorothy...I need you to hold your leg up.

Oh! Not quite that hard. That's it, just for a moment, all right.

Done a few bandages yourself, in the past, have you? Yes.

I'm sure you have.

Now, I'm afraid this is going to be a little bit warm in this weather.

But...it will do you good. Just drop it down for a moment.

Sorry? Keep the veins together. Absolutely, that's what it's for.

Dorothy will need to see her district nurse in a few days' time

to check her leg and blood pressure

but with any luck she should be able to make that holiday

in Malvern she's been so looking forward to.

But I'm sure you'll be fine to go away next week, all right?

It's nice and flattened. Yeah.

Right...so, I can walk on it a little bit.

Yeah, you can walk on it. All right. But, just when you're at rest,

keep it up, OK? Yeah. But don't stop moving around because...

I won't...

Thank you very much. OK. Thank you.

12-year old, Elodie, the schoolgirl who was airlifted

to hospital after falling off a rock in Dorset

escaped without any fractures.

She fell seven feet after climbing with friends on the sandstone boulder.

I like, kind of landed on my leg,

so it went like that and then I landed on my butt,

so I...so for a few seconds I couldn't breathe.

And... I was like, completely, like, kind of freaked out.

And let out a wail that I'll never forget,

And let out a wail that I'll never forget,

so it was a big wail and then she shouted, "Dad!"

So I knew from that minute there was something wrong.

She then, sort of keeled over.

Elodie was in severe pain after the fall,

but mum was relieved it was all muscular.

I think it took about a week to completely get over it.

And we're keeping an eye on her. But she's pretty good.

She's up and running around and back at school.

It was over an hour before all the vehicles involved in the M1 accident

were finally recovered, and the carriageway cleared.

After investigations by police, no charges were brought

against the driver of the lorry.

He was invited to attend a driver awareness course.

The driver of the car suffered injuries to his shoulder and knee

and was in hospital for three days.

It was five days before fisherman Willie Grafton could set sail again

on the Silver Spray.

His boat needed vital repairs after his 11 hour rescue.

Only then could he safely return to the Isle of Tiree.

The lifeboat crew that came to his aid had to endure a 30-mile journey

from their Tobermory base

in some of the worst conditions they'd ever experienced.

The way the wind direction was...

The lifeboat has got to punch into that sea to get to us.

That's heading head on into the waves, so...

It won't have been the nicest of journeys for them to get to us.

Willie recalls the moment when he thought his boat

and the lives of all on board were at risk.

As soon as we hit the rocks,

I started to think, "That's it, the boat's lost."

In that kind of heavy swell,

you're only going to hit the bottom so many times

before you'll break something, burst a plank.

And the reefs behind, once we went in there,

there'd be no chance of getting us out.

I didn't really believe we'd be able to get off from that position.

But the coxswain showed excellent skill

being able to come in there in that weather,

to get that close to us, to those reefs, to throw us the rope.

But even once they were in safer waters,

heading back to Tobermory, there was more drama.

The conditions were so severe, the tow broke for a second time.

This rope here is what we were using for the bridle.

It has a break and strain of about 10 or 12 tonne on it.

That parted on the way over to Mull on the tow-in, so...

It shows you the kind of strain that was

being exerted that night between the two boats.

It was another two hours before they made it back into Tobermory.

It had been a long day by this point, obviously. We'd left the harbour at six o'clock.

This was seven, half seven at night, when we arrived in Tobermory.

It was good relief. Looking forward to a pint and a hot meal.

Normally a day in February, I think, we're maybe doing

700 or 800 kilos of crab a day.

That day we got six kilos on board and maybe managed 10 crabs that day!

It didn't quite cover the first round anyway!

The Tobermory lifeboat itself did not escape undamaged.

This is the exhaust pipe off the back of the boat.

It stops sea water going up the exhausts. So it is hinged.

It normally comes out of the way.

So when it has been on the back, it's been forced up

and the force of the water has ripped the mounting bracket on it.

There were other small things on the boat

which had impact damage just from the sheer force.

The G forces that are coming with hitting down onto these waves,

was tremendous. The boat coped well.

Nothing was broken that stopped us from operating.

Willie has nothing but gratitude for the RNLI volunteers

and for the local people who came to his aid that stormy Sunday in January.

I would like to say a very public thank you.

It was a very great service.

We certainly would have been stuck without you that night.

And very, very definitely wouldn't have had a boat

if you haven't been there to save us.

So I'd like to say thanks to the people of Tobermory

who obviously helped us as well once we got ashore.

We were five days in Tobermory without a pair of socks

or a clean pair of pants between the three of us, so...

We were certainly looked after.

For fishermen, the occasional call for help goes with the territory.

But Willie's record is pretty good.

There's always a bit of embarrassment about getting towed in.

That was the first time since 2001, I think.

2001 was the last time I got towed in by Tobermory lifeboat.

So... a 12-year break's not too bad!

LAUGHTER

Difficult to imagine anywhere more remote or difficult to get to

for the emergency services than the Inner Hebrides.

Other than the Outer Hebrides, of course.

Right, I'm off to revise some geography.

See you next time on Real Rescues.

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