Episode 16 Real Rescues

Today on Real Rescues.

A joint rescue operation at sea to save a woman with

life-threatening head injuries.

A motorway accident leaves a young au pair lying on the hard shoulder.

Right, I'd like you to keep very still. Whereabouts are you injured?

And chest pains strike again for John.

I've had a cardiac arrest, I've had two heart attacks,

I've got six stents inside me.

But this might not be quite what it seems.

Hello and welcome to Real Rescues, where we go out to see the work

of Britain's emergency services.

It's places like this where calls are answered when people dial 999.

Right, let's get started. We're about to witness a challenging

rescue operation after a call comes in from a yacht in high seas.

A woman has been very seriously hurt.

Midsummer, Lee-on-Solent Air-Sea Rescue is preparing for takeoff.

They're responding to an urgent Mayday call to Coastguard Control.

It's a short flight from the airbase to the Isle of Wight.

The RNLI lifeboat from Limington

and the inshore rib from Yarmouth are also en route,

but the coastguard needs more details.

The man making the emergency call is distressed and struggling.

The winchman on board the coastguard helicopter is also

a trained paramedic.

As they get closer, more details of the injury come through.

The Limington RNLI rib is first to the yacht, Blue Boat.

The boom is swinging free. The sea conditions are rough.

First, RNLI crew Paul Harrison

and Stuart Lane need to get on board to control the boat.

The yacht's skipper, Laura,

is drifting in and out of consciousness.

Her partner, Steven, saw her thrown against the cabin.

He was left struggling to control the boat, help her,

and make the Mayday call.

The boat's still in danger.

Lifeboat crewman Paul grabs the tiller as Stuart secures the boom.

Can you grab this? Yeah.

But they need more help from the Yarmouth crew to carry out

emergency first aid.

The Limington crew bring their colleagues up-to-date.

The RNLI first-aider can see that Laura has suffered

a major head trauma.

A sudden gust of wind sent the boat into a gybe

and she was in the way of the boom.

All the time her condition is deteriorating.

Her consciousness levels are slipping.

By now, air-sea rescue is overhead.

It's too risky to follow the usual procedure.

Laura is too poorly to cope with the transfer to the lifeboat

and then an airlift.

That leaves one option for the pilot.

Immediately, they start preparing Laura for the airlift.

They have to make the yacht as stable as possible

before the winch can go ahead.

The RNLI volunteer, Paul, needs to steer the boat into the wind,

but he's struggling because of the way Laura has fallen.

'I'm on the helm of the casualty vessel,

'trying to keep the boat into sea.'

The problem I had was Laura's leg was actually trapped

just beneath the tiller for steering the boat.

Now, it wasn't causing her any pain,

but it meant that, sometimes, I was unable to get the boat around.

It's going to be precarious winching around the mast

onto the small, unstable yacht.

Winchman and paramedic Nick Horst is being

lowered onto the more stable platform

of the larger Yarmouth lifeboat...

..then transferred on the rib to Blue Boat.

Now on board, Nick assesses Laura's condition.

He needs to maintain her airways.

'As soon as I got there, I could see that she had'

quite a large wound on the right-hand side of her head.

'My initial thoughts were'

that she could well have spinal injuries.

All the time, sea conditions are getting worse.

'We were rolling and pitching'

and there's waves being taken over the bow

and we were getting sprayed quite frequently.

'It was quite awkward to do,'

but between myself and the lifeboatmen who managed to get

a collar on and then place a Kendrick splint on her back,

then basically she was ready for winching.

But the helicopter pilot is worried the boat can't be held in position.

He discusses the options with the Yarmouth lifeboat.

Later, winchman Nick is forced to make a decision.

They can't delay Laura's airlift to hospital any longer.

Early evening on the M27 in Southampton.

Rain and low sun are making driving conditions treacherous.

SIRENS WAIL

Emergency care practitioner Mark Ainsworth-Smith

is heading to a crash. Two vehicles are involved.

We have got a call to a car versus van,

it's another accident

on the motorway, unfortunately. It's a Sunday evening, so the traffic's

likely to be fairly heavy and, of course,

the road conditions are fairly wet,

so this is quite a common call to get, unfortunately.

We've got no information on the incident at all at this stage.

I believe it's westbound,

but could you just confirm, cos it may be eastbound, over.

I've just seen the police going the opposite way,

so I'll give you a sitrep as soon as I get there, over.

The accident is on the opposite carriageway,

somewhere in the gridlock caused by a previous incident.

Oh, there we go.

SAT NAV: You have arrived at your destination.

The young woman is lying on the ground,

surrounded by a concerned family.

Right, I'd like you to keep very still. My name is Mark.

What's your name?

OK. Whereabouts are you injured?

Have you got pain anywhere?

In your chest. How about your neck?

Left ear. And that's all since the accident, is it?

Mark finds out what's happening.

You were in a different car to her? No, we were all in the same car.

OK, and you're in a car. OK. How is she, normally? Is she normally well?

Yes, she's normally well. Is she a family friend of yours?

She's our au pair. Au pair, OK, fantastic.

Where was she sitting in the car? In the seat by the driver.

OK, all right. So, has she taken quite a bit...?

The young woman got out of the car, but then collapsed.

The vehicle she was in collided with the one in front,

the impact setting off the airbags.

I don't want you to move at all. OK?

Yeah, keep very still.

What we're going to do is... I'm in a car.

We're going to get an ambulance as well

so we can properly assess her in the back of the ambulance.

I don't want to move her neck until I've got some extra help,

so what I need to do is have a little look at your arm.

Now, how precious is this coat?

Normally, we'd cut it off you to do your blood pressure.

No... No, you don't want us to do that. Take it off...

Yeah, OK, we don't want to move your neck, though,

don't let that compromise her neck, please. I understand...

This is all routine. It's normal, we do this for everyone.

Keep your head nice and still, that's it.

How bad is the pain in your chest and stuff?

OK.

OK.

Au pair Rosa has chest pain.

Mark wants to check for any major injuries.

Rosa, I'd like you to take some big breaths for me, please.

Big breaths for me.

OK, just try and take SOME breaths for me.

Because of the combination of Rosa's symptoms - hearing loss

and breathing difficulties - Mark wants to insert

a line into her hand in case she needs drugs or fluids.

I'm going to pop a little needle in your arm now, OK?

I want you to try and keep still and not to jump.

I'm treating her for the worst.

The symptoms she's saying, I've got to treat...you know?

She's quite cold. She's been lying here... It's not the easiest job.

Fortunately for Rosa, the backup ambulance has arrived.

Mark briefs the crew.

She's got good airways, but she was complaining of difficulty breathing,

says she can't breathe. Her oxygen saturations are 100%.

I see she's got a good radial pulse,

but she's got a blood pressure of 97 on 56,

and I'm just putting in a precautionary cannula

because of that.

Rosa will be put on a rigid longboard to keep her neck secure.

Once we get her rolled and on a scoop, then we'll stick

a collar on when she's on her back. Is that all right with you?

That seems like the easiest thing.

A paramedic tells Rosa what's about to happen,

but now it seems mum Olga is feeling unwell too.

Do you want us to get another ambulance here? What do you feel?

No, no, I just would like to... Are you going to be going in with her?

I don't know. So, if you are, you could get checked out in the...

I'm going to concentrate on her for a minute, OK?

Rosa, can you straighten your legs out just a little bit?

Rosa is in an awkward position, not helped by prickly undergrowth.

I've got a better idea. I'm going to use your quick-cuts...

I'm going to do a bit of pruning, mate.

Rosa is gently rolled onto her back,

so they can slide the board underneath her.

Nearly in, actually, that's brilliant.

Her head is then immobilised to protect her neck.

Good. Secured safely to the board, Rosa is finally off the ground.

Beautiful, well done. Yeah, we're going to get you

in the warm now, all right, in the back of an ambulance?

You'll be a lot warmer in there.

Mark goes back to check how the others are doing.

Right, if anyone's got any injuries,

you need to travel in the ambulance and go to hospital.

It looks like one of the children

might now be feeling a bit poorly too.

Jump in the ambulance, we'll check you over.

Um, now Mum is saying she's got chest injuries,

the same as the little one as well.

So, are you happy to take a kid and one adult in the back?

All three patients will now be thoroughly checked out at hospital,

leaving Mark to get back on shift.

As you can imagine, not all births are straightforward

and that's true of births that happen at home as well as ones

that happen in the hospital.

So, the call-takers here have to deal with those too.

If Leanne's not on a call, can we have a chat? Yeah.

So, have you got an example of this recently? Tell us about this call.

Yeah, we had a call come in - a second call, actually -

from the mother-in-law of a daughter.

The daughter was on the floor in the pub and she was in labour...

This was the landlady in labour?

Yeah, they'd already called, but they were in quite a remote location.

It took quite a while for us to get there, so, um, she...

So, mother-in-law's having to midwife a little bit at that stage.

Yeah. And what instructions are you giving in the early part?

Presumably, you hope the ambulance will get there?

We always hope they're going to get there, but you have to prepare them,

so you tell them to get the towels out and get some water,

make sure Mum's in a comfortable position cos she's on the floor

in the pub, but you need to be as comfortable as you can and then

you need to start talking through to the mother-in-law on

how to deliver the baby there. At this stage, you now actually have

a clinician, a paramedic who works in the room here.

Yeah, if it's looking like the ambulance isn't going to come in time

and you're going to have to be delivering the baby over the phone,

then you need a clinician in to listen.

It was at this point that it suddenly became more serious?

Yeah. Obviously, over the phone it's difficult anyway,

but at this point we then realised that the baby

was in a breech position so it was coming out legs and rear first.

OK, at which point, presumably, the clinician takes over.

Yeah. They were already listening and it then gets difficult

and then you just pass it over to the clinician on duty at the time

to take over. Who's your clinician at the moment?

Our clinician is Phil. Phil, so... Thank you very much.

I'm going to have a word with Phil and see what happens at that point.

So, I don't know if you overheard there, Phil.

We were talking about the landlady who was giving birth

on the floor of the pub and suddenly...

How do you recognise that a birth is breech,

because, when a bum starts to come through,

it can look very much like a head.

Yeah, exactly.

I mean, the normal perception for any childbirth

is the head comes out first,

um, but on the odd occasion I've actually listened to a call

where somebody's actually said, "The head's coming through, but

"there's a massive, great, big crack in it."

So, it's, "OK, let's calm the situation down.

"That's actually his backside that's coming out."

Um, and on that occasion it would be just to calm everything down, um,

and just let it progress naturally and just do not touch the child.

Why not touch the child?

Because if the body is being birthed, but the head hasn't yet,

the temptation would be to try and pull the baby out, but

that's not necessarily the right thing? No, you're right there.

Normally, in a normal childbirth, when the head comes out

and most of the body comes out,

the baby will gasp for air with a bit of stimulation.

Now, if you manhandle that child before the head's out,

that stimulises that child, he will then try to breathe.

And bearing in mind that the head is still inside the woman's pelvis...

So, even if the body is out of the...in the birth,

the head is still engaged, you would still not...not stimulate the child

and you'd leave that hanging in that position for the ambulance...

Yeah, yeah. Cos the child won't take a breath till it's completely out.

Exactly. You need to support it,

cos they tend to let the mum sort of dangle into space, basically,

and let the child come out naturally. Invariably it will, and then,

as long as the cord's not wrapped round the neck,

everything should be fine.

Which is the danger with a breech birth as well, where the cord is...

On this occasion, everything was OK? Yeah, absolutely.

So, mother-in-law managed to deliver a breech birth,

something that's frightening even within hospital.

Not a call you want to get every day, is it? No, not really.

All right. Thank you very much. OK.

In the Solent, five crew from the RNLI and an air-sea rescue paramedic

are on board a small yacht preparing to airlift skipper Laura

who's suffered a critical head injury.

She needs urgent specialist care.

The yacht is at the mercy of the rough seas,

making an airlift difficult.

The more stable Yarmouth lifeboat would make

a better platform, but winchman Nick fears time is

running out for his casualty.

But even if Blue Boat is undertow,

this will be precarious for the helicopter.

The yacht's mast is a potential hazard.

But they can't wait any longer.

A decision is made to go ahead with the winch.

They're going to use a high line - a wire that will allow

the helicopter to fly to the side of the boat.

Avoiding being directly over the mast,

it needs a lot of expertise and specialist knowledge.

We lower a line with weights on it

to the yacht, they take the line in hand,

and then they pull in the slack,

and on the end of that is the hook.

The line comes in without a hitch and is connected to Laura and Nick.

This is the most critical time.

The helicopter is now connected to the people on the boat.

Any contact with the mast and everyone is in danger in the air

and on the boat.

The pilot needs immense precision to avoid the yacht mast,

but if he's too far away, winchman Nick

and Laura will swing violently off the boat.

One forward...

One only...

Touch.

Right, one...

Winch, you clear?

Clear, clear, back and left.

They swing, there's not a straight lift,

the crew on the yacht would then stabilise the swing using this

attached line and then we winch them to the aircraft.

On target.

As Laura is being lifted, winchman Nick tries to rouse her,

but with no success.

In the doorway.

Bring her in.

On board.

I'm going to clear the high line and throw it overboard.

As soon as she's in the helicopter, the crew work to stabilise her.

Both of us maintained life support for the young lady,

she looked quite bad. She looked very pale, unconscious.

It was... It looked quite serious.

We made the decision to take the casualty to Southampton,

because that is the major trauma unit for this area

and if there's any complications,

All you need to do is take one deep breath

and blow till I tell you to stop.

Ready? And just blow. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going.

Stop. That's perfect, thank you.

I shall leave your souvenir in the car. They're both clear.

That's a zero as well.

The other chap's provided a negative breath test as well,

so he hadn't had any alcohol, OK?

And what is he to you, relation-wise?

Right now, a friend of one of the drivers has arrived.

Was you in the car with him or not?

He didn't see anything and was not involved.

So, you've come to help him? OK.

Mat's going to interview both of the men at the hospital,

but first he needs to gather all the evidence from the crash scene.

What I'll do now is I'll take pictures of the scene

and then I'll start building up an investigation into what's happened.

It's turning into a very long day for recovery driver Alan.

I'm dying to find out - what was your dinner?

What was it?

A salad?

Oh, not a...not a roast dinner or anything like that?

No, mate!

And it's not over yet. Alan's proving too useful.

To PC Water's relief, he agrees to recover one of the cars.

No rest for the wicked. So, it's back to the day job for Alan.

It's going to be a while before he sees that ready meal.

One zero, can I have your own details, please?

Time of call, time of arrival?

The damage to the front of the car makes this slow work.

Yes, yes, both vehicles are leaking coolant. It's just the debris that...

It's just the coolant to remove from the road surface and, yes,

Alan sees to that as well.

Mate, so this stuff they're putting down is dry sand,

which will absorb the... like, the oil and the coolant,

to prevent it being slippery.

Obviously, there's motorcyclists going over it

and if it's not treated, it could be dangerous for them.

At last, Alan's work is done.

Thanks for your help. Traffic flowing again,

Mat can get off to the hospital to continue his investigations.

Coming up on Real Rescues.

Why violent chest pains don't always signal

heart failure for a patient with a serious cardiac history.

They're saying I've got so many stents on one artery now that, over

a period of time, they said it tries to reject and it goes into spasm.

And Laura the yacht skipper rescued from her boat at sea

faces a long road to recovery.

Partner Steven recalls the moment it happened.

It was quite horrific, really,

cos she was over the other side of the cockpit.

It just caught the back of her lifejacket and flicked her

and she went across like a ragdoll and just dashed

against the side of the cockpit, which was a horrible thing to see.

This is Julie who's a clinician here at the hub and, indeed,

a paramedic as well. That is correct.

Tell us about this call that you had from a carer recently.

We had a call from a carer come in to the 111,

it was earlier this year.

She actually looks after a 90-year-old lady and, um,

she was very concerned this particular morning, the lady

was quite cold, she felt cold to touch and she was somewhat confused.

She just didn't seem to be herself, so the call was made.

Um, and from the information,

we were concerned and a clinician called her back

to speak with her and from lots of questions

about how the lady was and how she was presenting,

and how she seemed, signs and symptoms, and, um...

Although it was confusion, originally,

that the carer was concerned about,

confusion is a symptom of hypothermia.

Oh, was that what it was - hypothermia? Yes, yes.

So, what do you look for in a relative or somebody

that you know that might be hypothermic?

Well, there are three stages to hypothermia.

There is mild hypothermia,

the body's temperature's usually about 37 and, um,

when it drops to 35, then it's starting to go into mild hypothermia.

So, only a two-degree difference will take you into mild hypothermia?

Two degrees, yes. Wow.

The elderly and the very young are the ones most at risk

and this is what we have to be aware of. And what are you looking for?

What are those signs?

Uh...

Someone would be maybe cold to touch, they'd be tired, um,

lethargic, um,

maybe loss of appetite...

It's easy to be confused with many things... Yes.

Especially with the elderly, who might be feeling that way anyway.

Well, by the time confusion comes in,

we're well into moderate hypothermia where someone would then be

starting to get a little colder and the symptoms would change.

That's when the confusion would start to come in.

They would still be shivering, they'd still be cold,

they may be sleeping a great deal, but, um...

When we take calls, when we consider anyone who we are

concerned about, we also have to take the whole picture on board.

It's not just the symptoms, it's where the person is.

This particular lady was in a very cold house,

because she didn't want to put the heating on

and this is the concern that we all have about the elderly,

when they don't want to put the heating on.

So, it's not an unusual call here during the winter months?

No, it's not, no. OK.

How do you warm someone up or how do you help someone in that situation?

Plainly, medical attention is a good idea

when it's something serious like that, but should you warm them up,

put a hot-water bottle on them,

or give them a hot drink or something to...?

Um, what we need to do is we need to warm them up slowly.

Oh, slowly, not quickly. That is the main thing to do.

Putting extra blankets on them, maybe a warm drink, um, not alcohol,

not hot-water bottles, don't put them in front of the fire, you know,

put the fire on and then snoodle them up right in front of the fire -

we need to do it very slowly,

the body temperature has to return slowly back to normal.

So, warm drinks, you know, blankets, duvet covers,

even, if you're very close to them, even giving them a good cuddle will

help as well because the warmth from your body will help them.

So, there you go - the message is cuddle a pensioner this winter

and you can help people out. Important information, though.

Thank you very much indeed. You're very welcome.

In the Solent, a critically injured woman has been airlifted to

safety from her yacht, the Blue Boat.

Laura, the skipper of the boat,

suffered a very severe head injury and has been taken to

Southampton General Hospital, a six-minute flight away.

She was slammed into the cabin by a rope on the main sail.

Her partner, Steven, was left stranded,

struggling with the boat at the same time as trying to help Laura.

It's taken a coastguard helicopter and two RNLI crews to

pull off the rescue in some of the most demanding conditions.

All the time, Steven was fearing the worst.

The conditions were so rough that I could sort of anticipate

further things happening, but as soon as she got into that helicopter,

I felt so relieved and I looked up at the helicopter and

I remember one of the lifeboatmen put his hand on my shoulder

and he said, "Are you OK?" And I said, "Yes.

"I'm so glad that she's gone onto the helicopter now."

And that was the point when I was relieved that she was in safe hands.

But Steven and Blue Boat are not out of danger.

As one crew escorts the yacht back to the Isle of Wight, their

RNLI colleagues on board suddenly notice water pouring onto the deck.

Because the sea was so rough, it was taking on water

and we started sinking.

But the pump's not working, the gasket's gone.

I gave them a washing-up bowl, which they said was perfect,

a big, square washing-up bowl

and they were chucking the water over the side

and they decided that there were too many people on board

because the water was just coming in over the sides of the boat

and over the back and it was filling up more than it was emptying.

We were just paddling that out as quickly as we can

and then we decided to take a couple of crew members off.

Two hours after Laura's accident,

yacht Blue Boat finally limps into Cowes on the Isle of Wight.

It had all started so differently.

Steven and Laura had set sail that morning with their dog

in good weather, but, out at sea, conditions became rough and windy.

Steven remembers vividly what happened next.

The boom flicked right over and the main sheet that holds

the boom down to the deck was caught on the back of Laura's lifejacket.

It was quite horrific, really,

because she was over the other side of the cockpit

and it just caught behind the back of her lifejacket and flicked her

and she went across like a ragdoll and just dashed

against the side of the cockpit, which was a horrible thing to see.

I could sense that her head was hurting,

cos she put her hand up to shield her head and she turned and faced me

and she was just completely different, she wasn't really there.

Her eyes were completely black.

It was so scary. I just thought she wasn't there any more.

It was very, very frightening.

After Laura's accident,

Steven finds her in the Trauma Unit at Southampton General Hospital.

They didn't sort of give me any false hopes and they didn't scare me

to death either.

Laura's head had been badly fractured

and there were fears she had a bleed on her brain.

They'd said that, from the CT scan,

liquid inside her skull had probably come from the fracture

inside her skull,

which wasn't as concerning as what it would have been

if it had been from the brain, which was quite a relief, really,

and they said that she was going to be OK.

Later, Laura faces a long recovery to full health.

Bournemouth, mid-morning,

a 999 call has come into South-western Ambulance Control

from a GP's surgery.

A doctor fears one of his patients is having a heart attack.

He needs to be taken to hospital by the fastest possible means.

Ambulance crew Phil Barrett and Karen Wright need to wire him up

to an ECG so they can monitor him on the journey.

It might seem a silly question, John -

zero, no pain, ten, the worst pain you ever had.

What number would you give it at the moment? It's about eight. Eight, OK.

Can you give me something for it? Yeah, I'm going to sort that out.

60-year-old John is suffering from severe chest pains.

'They came on last night, but died down again.

'This morning they're back with a vengeance.'

When did you last have a squirt of GTN?

When I was in the reception, I... Oh, God... OK.

So, how long ago roughly

did all of this episode sort of occur, previously?

I was in hospital back in May. May, was it? OK, right.

I'm just going to look underneath your tongue, then.

The GTN spray dilates his arteries and eases the pain.

The crew also want to minimise the risk of a clot forming.

If we can, we'll take your top off, if that's all right.

Aspirin in some water for you there, John. All right? So, if you...

can drink that for me.

'The ECG will tell Phil if John is having,

'or about to have, a heart attack.'

This patient has a long history of serious heart problems

and cardiac surgery.

I've had a cardiac arrest, I've had two heart attacks,

I've got six stents inside me.

Stents are minute wire mesh tubes inserted into arteries after

they've been cleared of any blockage.

OK, there doesn't appear to be anything new or acute

showing on the ECG there, John, all right? That's good.

That's a huge relief. There would be clear signs of another heart attack.

But John's still in great pain.

Although the spray has taken the edge off it,

he needs more powerful painkillers.

A sharp scratch to the back of your hand, all right? Yeah.

Paramedics are going to give him the strongest painkiller they carry.

All right, so you've had some morphine before? Yeah.

So, you know, it might make you feel

a little bit woozy and light-headed. OK.

Like, maybe, you've had a few of your favourite tipple, if you enjoy one.

It seems the problem might be caused by the body reacting to

the stents, trying to reject the foreign bodies.

It's the second time this has happened in three months.

After going through so much,

John has a good understanding of his heart problems.

Did they say last time anything sort of about the arteries just

sort of, you know, almost consistently spasming at all? Or...?

Because a part of my heart's died... Yeah.

..and I've got a blocked artery, which they...

they have tried to drill out...

but it's very small.

Um...I've had more stents put in my other artery.

Yeah. Um...

and they're saying I've got so many stents on one artery now that,

over a period of time, it tries to reject and it goes into spasm.

It sounds a similar sort of episode to... Something's not right. No.

It's possible the coronary artery is going into spasm as the body

tries to reject the stents.

If that continues, it could cause another heart attack.

Feeling anything yet?

A little bit more relaxed...? Yeah.

OK. Right, we'll see how that goes. Yeah.

All right, what sort of number would you give it at the moment

between zero and ten?

About four or five now. It's about four or five. It's come down now.

John's had a rough time, but, for now, the morphine is doing its job.

Pain under control,

John's stable enough to start the journey to hospital.

Phil stays by his side, continually monitoring the ECG to make sure

there are no signs of a heart attack.

With John's history, they can't take any chances.

Everything's checking out all right, John. OK?

All your observations are stable, which are good

and there's no changes on the ECG at all. All right? That's good.

At hospital, John will be taken to the cardiology unit,

where his chest pains will be fully investigated.

The au pair who collapsed by the roadside after

a shunt on the M27 motorway was checked over at hospital.

Have you got pain anywhere?

In my chest. In your chest? How about your neck?

Rosa suffered serious bruising from the seatbelt

and was sent home to rest with painkillers.

Right, if anyone's got any injuries,

you need to travel in the ambulance and go to hospital.

Both Olga and her son, Alec, also suffered minor bruising,

but are now fully recovered.

At hospital, the driver of the car that went into the crash barrier

was found to have a broken rib and fractured bones in his feet.

No charges were brought against him

or the other driver, who was treated for whiplash.

As for Alan, the recovery driver who stopped to help,

he didn't make it home until the early hours of the morning.

Too late for dinner.

John, the heart patient taken into hospital with severe

chest pains, was kept in for a week.

During that time, his anti-rejection medication was adjusted.

He's now back home and feeling much better.

It's three months since Laura's accident on Blue Boat.

She was left with multiple fractures to her skull.

Although she was discharged from hospital after a week,

she may still have to undergo surgery,

but doctors want to wait for the injuries to settle.

What I understand is that I had a fracture in my skull here

and that fractured the eye socket on the right side.

They had to shave my head and put stitches under here

and I have had something that feels like a concave kind of crater,

I called it a crater, here,

but even that is becoming more and more normal.

It's fantastic, actually. I'm incredibly lucky.

One of the most disabling effects of a head injury is coping

with double vision, which makes everyday tasks much more difficult.

My two eyes are working quite differently

and it's too much for my brain to pull it together.

In hospital, they were trying to encourage me

to do things independently and pour a glass of water, and I couldn't.

I couldn't see where the glass was

and I'd be pouring it all over the table,

but just walking about, it's amazed me

how much you count on your eyes to see if the ground's uneven

or if there are steps

and I've become someone who thinks there should be

a yellow strip on every step now.

Life is now continually interrupted by medical appointments, but Laura

has been reassured that, in time, her sight will return to normal.

Every morning as I wake up and look,

"Have I got double vision this morning?"

Um, unfortunately, I always have so far, but I am hopeful that

it's going to correct itself and will sort itself out.

Laura can't remember anything about the accident

and it has not put her or her partner, Steven, off sailing.

I think Laura has always had sailing in her blood,

she's always been sailing, she's always done something on boats.

She's drawn to that lifestyle and those activities.

She's a very positive person. She's always upbeat about everything.

She always sees the bright side of things

and I think it's that ambition and that drive that keeps her going and

I think we will start to sail again, maybe after Christmas

and maybe next season.

The rescue operation saved Laura's life.

The difficult weather conditions requiring all the experience

and expertise of the coastguard, air-sea rescue

and two RNLI crews.

Oh, it was a superb team effort.

I don't think we could have got the casualty out from

where she was without the effort of the RNLI.

Um, they were very good.

There's three of them on the yacht all doing different jobs and, uh...

they all acted extremely well.

It was a good shout for us.

It was where we all worked together, it's where the training kicked in.

It was the first time I had done a high line with the winchman.

So, again we knew the theory,

but it was nice to put some of that theory into practice

and it's nice to hear that, obviously,

Laura's making a recovery and we were able to help her that day.

It never fails to amaze me -

the skill, dedication and selflessness of the helicopter crews

and RNLI who are out there helping those in need around our coastline.

That's it for today's Real Rescues. See you next time.

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