Episode 6 Real Rescues

Today on Real Rescues... the mountain rescue negotiate the South Ridge of Mount Snowdon

to save a walker who's collapsed.

A bit more tension.

A 999 call comes in from a desperate father.

His partner's given birth but the baby's still in its amniotic sac.

And fire-fighters are on the alert for hidden dangers

after fire rips through a garden shed.

Contents? Could be anything. It could be quite hazardous to the guys.

Hello, and welcome to Real Rescues.

There are four blue-light emergency rescue services in the UK,

the police, fire and rescue, ambulance and the coast guard,

and all 999 calls go to them.

But when it comes to dealing with an emergency, other specialists may be called in,

so when a walker with a heart condition collapses at the peak of Snowdon,

it's the volunteer mountain rescue teams in North Wales who are called out.

Llanberis mountain rescue are heading to the highest peak in Wales.

A young man, Sean, has made an emergency call from Mount Snowdon. His father has collapsed.

The casualty and his son are only a few hundred metres from the summit.

The phone signal has dropped out.

When the team call Sean back, there's more worrying news.

From the 999 call,

we were able to call Sean back and ask him for some details.

I seem to remember that the phone call was a bit distorted

with the signal, but there was history of a heart condition of some sort.

It was an immediate call-out so far as the team was concerned.

They could only go so far by Land Rover.

An RAF helicopter is going to take them on from here.

It's late May, but conditions are cold and extremely windy.

The team are updated. The helicopter has already found the casualty.

Two RAF personnel have already been dropped off,

but they can't get very close to the stricken man and his son.

They reported very windy conditions

and that they wouldn't be able to land anywhere close to Nigel and Sean

or be in a position to even hover the aircraft to go down on the winch.

The mountain rescue team are set down on Snowdon's South Ridge.

It's 20 minutes' hike up the mountain to get to the casualty.

The helicopter pilot did a fantastic job of getting us as close as possible,

and then we had the task of walking up to the casualty site in strong wind and cold conditions.

Are we all good?

When they reach walker Nigel he's being treated by the RAF and wrapped in an insulating blanket.

Despite this, he is still complaining of feeling cold.

Nigel has a heart condition which could make him more vulnerable to hypothermia.

Once we'd made the decision that he was safe to move

we then loaded him into the stretcher and tried to keep him as warm as possible.

First base, just to let you know we're now on scene with the casualty,

and just getting ready to move him. Over.

They need to get walker Nigel off the mountain and into hospital as soon as they can.

But this is a difficult path with loose rocks underfoot.

It's potentially very dangerous.

The first part of the descent was down a steep rocky scree slope.

Despite the terrain, Nigel's son Sean is now feeling strong enough

to climb down alongside the stretcher.

Watch yourself!

The experts aren't taking any chances.

With steep cliffs dropping down one side, they've attached a safety rope to the stretcher,

anchoring the rope higher up.

Also we're in the strong winds at that stage as well,

so having that extra support from the rope was really good.

At last, they're reached the grassy area where they can lower the stretcher to the ground

and use ropes to tow him down the next part.

It's a slow and tortuous journey for Nigel.

The descent with the stretcher took probably three-quarters of an hour.

During that time we had to rotate between different members of the team

with different sides of the stretcher.

We had lots of big rocks to carry the stretcher over

and also a fence to negotiate at one point as well.

The mountain rescue team are keeping in radio contact with Air-Sea Rescue.

In these conditions, there's a worry that the waiting helicopter

might get diverted to another incident.

The aircraft was a vital component in this rescue.

Without their support we'd be looking at at least another two hours of descent time,

and also we would require assistance from more team members and more people on the hill.

Finally they've reached the helicopter.

Everyone is exhausted.

The last sting in the tail for carrying the stretcher was lifting it up that little bit higher

through the door on to the aircraft.

The hospital is just a few minutes' flight away,

but Nigel's condition is still causing concern.

Later his son reveals the moment his father collapsed

after they turned back from the summit.

About 100 foot down he started feeling worse.

So we sat down for a little bit, but my dad was suffering from extreme exhaustion

and couldn't get back up.

It's 8am at the start of the new year.

A 999 calls comes into the North East Ambulance Service from a desperate young father.

Call handler Melanie knows a baby born at 22 weeks is very unlikely to survive.

Yeah.

At home in Middlesbrough, it's been the most horrifying few minutes for these young parents.

After hearing Amy's screams for help,

Mark's run down the stairs to find her.

I seen Amy lying on the floor...

crying.

She felt her seat slipping away from her,

and when I walked in Jessie was there in a sac.

Just helpless, I didn't know what to do, I just crumbled.

She was basically just trying to keep me calm,

just telling me to keep Jessie warm,

and that the ambulance men will be on their way straightaway.

Suddenly the baby stops moving.

MAN'S HEAVY BREATHING AND WOMAN CRYING

She was moving at first,

but then all of a sudden nothing was there,

there was nothing, no response from Jessie, the baby.

A nurse comes on to the line.

The baby is still in the amniotic sac.

It means dad Mark can't access her mouth.

Later traumatised Mum Amy takes over to try and save her baby's life.

He's crying and just hysterical,

so I thought someone's going to have to do something here

or we're going to lose our daughter.

As usual there's a hive of activity in amongst the call takers here,

one of whom is Sarah who we're going to have a chat to,

if she's not on a call.

Are you all right to chat? Yeah. Lovely.

This is every parent's worst nightmare,

thinking their child's gone missing. This was the call that came in. Yeah.

Yes, we had a call from a very frantic mother,

reporting that her four-year-old child had gone missing

who she thought was perhaps playing in the garden. So she's in the house when the child's gone missing? Yes.

So what's the procedure when you get a call like that?

Firstly it's just to try and calm her down, try and get her to listen to the questions that I'm asking,

you try and get a description as soon as we can so we can circulate it to the officers,

find out were they playing with anybody,

where are they likely to go, have they done it before,

is there any parks or friend's houses in the area that they may have gone to.

This is quite a young child that's gone missing on this occasion. Yeah, four.

Four years old? So presumably then you would get them to re-search the garden and house

and so on and so forth? Yeah, we ask them to check the house,

make sure that they've checked under stairs, cupboards, under beds...

they could be anywhere, so we do ask them to do quite a thorough house check.

Still no sign of the child until the officers arrive? Yes.

We go in and it's standard for us to do a complete house search just to make sure that...

because sometimes if you're panicked you don't necessarily look in all the places that you should,

and we found the child behind the sofa, unconscious.

So how did the child end up unconscious behind the sofa?

We believe that they were perhaps trying to climb on the back of the sofa

and they've fallen and smacked their head on the windowsill.

I see. Knocked themselves out. And of course not responding... No.

And you wouldn't end up looking behind the sofa for your child. No, absolutely.

Perhaps for loose change, but not for a child.

So was the child OK then? Yeah. Very quickly we called an ambulance, got the ambulance there,

they were taken to be checked over and they were released later that day, absolutely fine.

A good outcome in the end. A good outcome. Smashing. Thanks very much. No problem.

Midmorning and an ambulance crew are on their way to a teenage boy

in the middle of what appears to be a worrying allergic reaction.

The crew, Julie Whitefrench and James O'Kennedy,

have been sent by Control after the boy's mum dialled the non-emergency number 111.

The really concerning thing is the facial swelling, as to whether it's anaphylactic.

Paramedic Mike Francis has already arrived in the rapid-response car.

Hiya. All right.

He's in the kitchen...

He brings the ambulance crew up to date.

Eric is 13 years old, right?

Basically, he's had an onset this morning.

He's woken up with developing hives, you can see on his legs there...

and on his forearms, you can see up here.

He's got no known allergen. He's running a little bit of a temperature, sort of 37.3,

it's not horrendous.

Eric has quite an angry rash on his arms and legs

and his mum has noticed slight facial swelling too.

Open your mouth up nice and wide. His lips are puffed up. I mean, his whole face is...

Yeah. The tongue's not swollen, is it?

Now just say ah again.

Ah.

Eric's condition started in the middle of the night.

I couldn't sleep. I woke up at 3, lying in my bed till, like, 7.

But was that like that then?

Well, it...

It was more like a nettle rash first thing.

On the arms? On his legs and arms, and then it's gone on to here into bigger welts.

Yeah. Mmm.

I was a bit itchy but I just tried to ignore it.

OK, so it sounds like... And is it itching now?

Yeah.

- It's itching now, yeah? - Yeah.

It turns out this isn't the first time Eric has had problems with his skin.

At Christmas he developed blisters on his hands.

His skin started to shed. His parents fear it could be happening again.

I thought that, you know, because they were all over his body,

was his whole skin going to shed, you know, that same as what had happened on his hands previously?

Because they were really angry welts, you know,

and getting worse in front of our eyes as we were looking at him.

Check-up at the hospital, then, I think. Yeah.

Eric's illness originally started with a streptococcal throat infection.

But they've no idea why his skin is flaring up again.

Onboard the ambulance, the crew goes through the usual checks,

blood pressure and blood-sugar levels,

all the time keeping a watchful eye that Eric's allergy is not affecting his breathing.

It's spreading... In front of our eyes.

And he does look puffy.

Yeah, I think that's sort of hand in hand with the rash is all this puffiness.

Technician Jason sends the case details through to the emergency department.

What have you put? Developing allergic reaction, hives on limbs.

No airway compromise. The doctor said he'd be there in about 15.

Yeah, perfect stuff. Thank you.

On the way to hospital, emergency-care practitioner Julie mulls over Eric's other symptoms.

And he has got a bit of a temperature at the moment,

so I wonder if maybe he was getting a cold and this is just his body's reaction to it.

Yeah, yeah.

His mum has seen this happen before.

He's had spiky temperatures on and off.

They don't sort of stay for a long time.

It'll just spike up, then he's extremely poorly,

he's had terrific headaches, pretty much constant since November.

At hospital the teenager is well enough to walk into the emergency department.

We'll be finding out later what could be the cause of Eric's skin problems.

Coming up on Real Rescues...

..fire-fighters rush across the city to a residential area.

A garden shed is burning fiercely, the flames are spreading.

We've cleared away as much as we can for you. Thank you.

Started taking out the neighbour's fence.

And a young motorcyclist is catapulted off his bike,

but there's no sign any other vehicle is involved.

Speaking to the paramedics, it's a motorcyclist was overtaking a car,

so he's possibly lost it on the uneven road.

Back in the North East Ambulance Call Centre, nurse Gill Meddis is helping desperate mum Amy

and partner Mark whose baby has been born at home three months early.

The baby is so premature she's been born still inside the amniotic sac

and she's showing little signs of life.

She's telling us to open it. Who's going to open it, Mark or me?

He's crying and just hysterical,

so I thought someone's going to have to do something here

or we're going to lose our daughter.

Amy opened the sac and started giving her CPR.

And I just seen out little bundle of joy entirely blue,

she was resping...resping a bit and there was little noises coming from her,

so I knew there was something there,

and I thought there's no way I can just let her fight for her life on her own.

Paramedic Colin Gibson is the closest

and is diverted to the emergency.

I set off as quick as I could,

a couple of further updates en route.

Initially the message was 22 weeks which isn't viable,

so, yeah, a lot of thoughts going through the head on the way there.

You hope for the best, prepare for the worst.

Colin's only a few minutes away, but the wait is agonising.

It took about seven or eight minutes, I think, roughly,

but in that time it felt like a very long time.

Amy is doing her best to keep the baby breathing,

but nurse Gill tries to prepare Mark for the worst.

Mark was out the front, really, really distressed.

I went past him into the front room where Amy was sat on the floor in the front room, holding the baby

in her arms.

I said, "Is she going to be OK? Is she going to be all right?

"Please, just save her life, please save her."

When someone says that to you, it tends to focus the mind a little bit.

I just took the baby off her, tried to reassure Amy

and took some quick basic obs which were quite poor.

After the initial panic, Colin realises the baby may have a chance of survival.

She's not as premature as he'd first feared.

The baby was a bit bigger than what you'd expect for 22 weeks.

I asked Amy how old... what the gestation period was,

and Amy said it was 27 weeks.

At that point, I realised that it was possible that it was going to be viable,

and that I would have to do everything I possibly could to resuscitate.

Quite quickly afterwards, Michelle and Alan and the double-crewed ambulance, the paramedic crew,

they arrived and we just worked as a team.

Michelle cut the cord and Alan sort of got Amy ready.

As soon as Michelle cut the cord, that was it.

We had to go straightaway,

and we all got in the van Mark got in the front and we all went straight to the hospital.

I think the driver, he wanted to keep me calm,

so he was just asking me different questions about just general day-to-day activities

and what I do with my general day life,

cos I was a wreck. I didn't know nothing about what was happening there in the back.

We got Amy laid on the stretcher and put baby Jess on top of Mum just for a bit of bonding,

a bit of reassurance.

I was telling them when she was letting a resp out, like breathing a bit more

and they were doing the CPR.

And Michelle and myself carried on the chest compressions and looking after the airway and the breathing

all the way to hospital, really.

Later, mum Amy tells of Jessie's fight for life at the hospital.

It was awful to see her fighting for her life,

but I thought I'm just going to have to keep trying and sticking with her.

You may have heard us talking in relation to motorways

of the ANPR system which is the automatic number plate...

Recognition. ..Recognition,

which for the police is very handy.

You have an example of one that happened just today.

Yes, we do. This morning we had a car activate an ANPR camera on the M4 going westbound

round about here. It was reported shown as a stolen motor vehicle. Right.

So what we had to do was try and get units to the motorway.

We got some on this junction here... Junction 7 on the M4. Junction 7, yes.

And were they in front of it or behind it?

Well, due to the time lapse they believed that they would be behind the vehicle,

so they came on the motorway and went westbound to try and catch the vehicle up.

So presumably you want something in front then to identify it? Yeah.

So where was your next place? So what we did, we got some more road policing cars

and they came and sat on top of the junction at junction 11... and waited there.

Did they spot it? They saw the vehicle, yes, they chased after it,

and we actually had about three cars and did a rolling block on the vehicle,

and brought it safely on to the hard shoulder.

And so the thief was brought to book?

The thief, no...! It wasn't a thief. It was the owner of the car.

Apparently, what had happened... he'd put the car in for service...

Right. ..Forgotten to tell his wife who had reported it stolen.

No?! Yes.

Well, on the one hand, brilliant that the system works so fantastically,

on the other hand probably important if you're going to put the car in for service

that you let the other half know, otherwise you end up really wasting the police time.

A very embarrassed person driving the car, I should imagine. Oh, dear! OK...

No, fantastic how it works, though. brilliant. It is, yeah. Thanks for that.

It's early evening and Green Watch have been called out to a busy suburban area.

A shed is on fire.

These kinds of fire can spell hidden dangers for the fire-fighters.

It's vital they find out what's inside as soon as possible.

Contents? Could be anything. It could be quite hazardous to the guys,

so we like to try and fight the fire from behind cover if we can.

They are met by a neighbour.

At the right-hand side... Right.

The guy isn't in at the moment.

We've knocked the door a couple of times. OK.

We've cleared away as much as we can for you. Thank you.

Started taking out the neighbour's fence. Right.

All right. Do you know the guy? I don't, no.

So you've no idea what's in it?

No owner means they have no idea what might be inside.

It's not the only problem.

The fire is quite a distance from the pump.

It's going to take a lot of hose.

There's not much left of the shed.

Watch manager Sean's priority is searching for dangers.

Yeah, I can't see anything that shouldn't be in there, Rich, at the moment.

The next problem is stopping it spreading to neighbouring gardens.

Are you able to get the fence, Rich, first?

Do you want me to come round the back now?

Just conserve your water.

All the time Sean is watching out for other hazards that might hinder or even injure his crew.

You got a knife on you, Nige? Yeah.

Can I have this line down before someone... Garrottes themselves.

You see, these are... apart from the hazards of obviously the contents of the shed...

..you've got this washing line here at throat height.

There's a fork in the garden here that someone could stand on, so...

Inside the shed there are the remains of potentially valuable items, but so far no hazards.

I'm not sure what's actually in there. Looks like an old PC and some general storage.

I couldn't see anything potentially hazardous to fire-fighters, like a cylinder,

but obviously they still need to fight the fire with a certain amount of caution.

'Major Foster, the tanker is here, crew of four.'

Yeah, if you can run in a hydrant for Liam, please. Over.

'Yeah, received.'

They clear the area so the crews can work unhindered,

making sure the flames are well and truly out.

It takes gallons of water before the fire starts to die down.

They've just caught it in time.

I was more worried about the fence going and spreading,

but it seems OK right now.

The quick response time has minimised the damage.

It was a neighbour who raised the alarm.

I was sitting in the front room,

about to make dinner,

and I look outside, I heard a big bang,

and I thought someone's in the back garden,

looked outside and there's a mass of flames, the whole shed was ablaze.

And the whole thing was just burning so quickly, I just phoned the fire brigade straightaway.

Even though the flames are out, sparks could still reignite.

Everything has to be raked.

The fire is still smouldering underneath.

The house owner has arrived home.

After being told his home was alight, he's relieved to find it's just the garden shed.

Somebody just rang me up on my mobile and said, "Your house is on fire!"

Well, fortunately it's not your house. Yeah, I'm lucky in that.

That's it. We just rushed over here.

The next task is working out how the fire began.

Do you have electric out...? No. No electric. No, no.

Right. And you haven't had a bonfire today?

No, it's definitely somebody that's just jumped over from wherever...

Sean double-checks the debris inside.

No aerosols? No. Petrol? No. Cylinders? No.

Nothing like that?

I think that's an old TV that he's just pulling over.

It looks like the owner's fears are correct.

All the indications are that someone's set light to the shed from outside the garden.

This is the first sort of type of this incident?

You haven't had any problems with any neighbours? No.

Just left you with a mess, unfortunately, sir.

Now the fire is completely extinguished,

the crew clear the remains of the shed.

The owner has decided not to take up the matter with the police.

Looking through the debris, he's lost a few pounds' worth of goods,

and he's also unfortunately... the fire from the shed has spread to the neighbour's fence

and that's been destroyed.

Traffic police Barry McLaughlin and Ray MacNaught are on their way to an accident.

Single vehicle.

Well, they've only mentioned the motorcycle, so...no more than that.

All they know is a motorcyclist has come off his bike.

Tango Papa 9206 at the collision.

Paramedics are already at the scene.

A young man is lying injured on the ground.

It's the traffic police's job to find out how it's happened.

Do you reckon it's just a single vehicle? Single vehicle, yeah.

He was overtaking and lost control? Yeah.

He wasn't really tanking it, though. No... It just seems a little bit slippy, I think. Yeah.

I'll get all your details in a minute and leave you to it. Thank you.

Speaking to the paramedics, it's a motorcyclist was overtaking a car,

so he's possibly lost it on the uneven road.

Unfortunately, he's come off his bike.

So we'll get some information

and hopefully he's not too badly injured.

Yankee Whisky 03...

His bike is in one piece and in the care of the injured man's friend.

Is his licence in his wallet? Yeah.

The tyre's not brilliant. There's no tread at all on that.

His friend can't see the need for the medical emergency.

The motorcyclist was not wearing any protective clothing,

and the professionals still have to take all the necessary precautions.

They can't let him get up. Don't hassle them because of the injury.

Ray and Barry compare notes as they decide what's gone wrong and if anyone's at fault.

He was coming down here and he's obviously done an overtake...

He's overtaken that lady. And for some reason he's lost it.

He's lost control in the middle of the road. He's not hit anything. No, he's not hit anything.

He's lost control.

The paramedics want the motorcyclist to be checked in hospital.

His friend saw the accident happen.

I've come down and I've seen his bike there,

so I picked him up off the side of the road,

but he's all right, he's sound. I was a bit worried but he's all right.

He said his hands hurt and he said his shoulder's hurting a bit...

He doesn't seem like he's had a knock on the head, so hopefully... fingers crossed.

His mum's coming to hospital now to get him, so he should be all right.

Barry wants to double-check the condition of the bike

and record some of the damage.

But another motorcyclist grabs Ray's attention.

He just had to accelerate like that, didn't he? He's off like...

What a plonker!

The motorcyclist has been strapped to a protective rigid board and is having oxygen

in case of serious injuries, but he's bearing up well.

Yeah, he's fine, he's sound, he's just...

he'll be all right, he's still talking, still communicating, he should be all right.

Barry's got one piece of positive news for the rider.

He's showing up a negative breath test, that's good.

He's in a bit of pain, so they want to get him off to hospital straightaway.

I just need to find my pen now.

The motorcyclist is off to hospital, leaving his bike behind.

A family friend has come to collect it.

Ray and Barry point out the state of the rear tyre.

Yeah, if you have a look at the tyre,

that could have been something to do with it.

I don't propose to do anything regarding the tyre.

It's enough loss that he's probably lost his bike now...

And that's not all.

He's got a bearing problem on the back here.

Whether that's as a result of the impact... It's probably not.

Probably before that because there's no sign of excessive sort of wear on the tyre,

but he'd feel that if he was riding that.

That might be one of the reasons why it was a bit unstable, to be honest.

It's not roadworthy.

Instead the bike is transported by other means.

It's a tight squeeze, but they'll get it in.

There you are. That's it. Thanks for your help.

The road is clear, but the police work is not over.

They want to talk to the motorcyclist, so that means a trip to hospital.

Inside he's still waiting for X-rays.

Ray and Barry warn him about the condition of his bike,

but they decide he's learnt his lesson.

There will be no further action taken against him.

So with regard to the collision, we won't be doing anything.

I think you've suffered enough with regard to what happened.

What were you wearing? Did you have jeans on or a tracksuit...?

Tracksuit.

God! Yeah, proper equipment!

Don't do it again, young man.

All right? Yeah. Take care. Speak to you later. Bye.

He's fine. Still waiting to do an X-ray on his knee, on his leg,

it's swollen a little bit, just grazing.

And that's it.

And it must be teatime.

The climber who was rescued by Llanberis mountain rescue

close to the summit of Mount Snowdon in Wales has made a good recovery.

Nigel's son Sean had to call the rescue services after his father collapsed.

45mph winds prevented an RAF Sea King from landing near them,

and rescuers had to make an arduous hike from lower down the mountain.

Nigel suffers from an undiagnosed heart condition

that can affect the body's ability to respond to temperature changes.

At hospital, doctors confirmed why he collapsed.

Hypothermia

and extreme exhaustion

brought on by the hypothermia.

They'd removed anything that was cold

and then put what they call a bear hug over the top of me,

which they then just pump warm air through...

it was just so nice actually getting some warmth and being able to move,

especially in my legs.

It was so nice once I could finally stand up again.

Nigel and his son are seasoned hikers, familiar with the area.

His experience shows that anyone can fall foul of hypothermia.

We were really well prepared.

We had all the right equipment,

all the medical equipment, storm shelters,

extra rations of food in case we ran out...

We always make sure we've got extra fleeces if the weather looks like we need it,

rain jacket, trousers...

normally carry an extra litre of water, more than what we need just in case things go wrong.

And Nigel recalls when everything did go wrong.

I just started feeling really exhausted

and becoming really, really dizzy.

Physically, I just couldn't go on any further.

So it was just easier to turn round and walk downhill.

Even so close to the summit it was a straightforward decision for Nigel.

It's just something that I've always been told.

If you're ill or in trouble or in any doubt, turn round and head down.

It doesn't matter how close you are to the summit,

you know, that mountain's still going to be there tomorrow.

Sean was glad his dad made that decision

as he remembers how things soon deteriorated.

About 100 foot down he started feeling worse.

So we sat down for a little bit, but my dad was suffering from extreme exhaustion

and couldn't get back up.

I mean, I couldn't pull myself up on to my feet, I couldn't get up on to my feet.

I didn't have any strength in my arms,

and the cold set in and started to work up my legs.

Sean had to summon help.

I called 999, asked for the police and asked for mountain rescue.

He wasn't showing it at first, but he was panicking inside.

He thought that his dad wasn't going to be coming off the mountain at the end of the day.

Nigel's son then put a survival shelter around his dad.

All they could do then was wait.

We could hear the helicopter coming in the distance,

and Sean sort of shouting, "It's here!"

But their relief was short-lived.

It soon turned to panic when they flew off because it was so windy they couldn't reach down to us.

Sean got on the phone again and was reassured it would be coming back.

Sean did a grand job.

He stood out there on the mountain, wouldn't come in at all until that helicopter had arrived.

Eventually the rescue team reached them and the difficult descent began.

My first time ever in a helicopter. Hopefully my last!

But once inside the guys constantly keep checking on you all the way to hospital.

The experience hasn't put Nigel off mountain walking.

He's even planned a sponsored return to Mount Snowdon with Sean

in aid of Llanberis mountain rescue.

I'm hoping he'll keep coming out with me.

I actually feel a lot safer on the mountain with him, because he knows what to do now!

But he has made one promise to his family.

I've told the wife that if I do end up being taken off the mountain ever again,

that's it, I'm going to hang my boots up! Which hopefully will be never!

Earlier, 13-year-old Eric

was taken to hospital after his skin erupted in huge hives.

He was given a course of steroids. It was several days before it calmed down.

They gave him the medicine, an antihistamine immediately,

and then it was the waiting game to see what was going to happen.

And after a couple of hours, the steroids started to work.

Come the Sunday, he flared up quite bad again,

and they gave him another five days of the steroids,

and they seemed to do the trick.

Gradually each day the hives then got less and less.

Eric's now undergoing more consultations.

Doctors need to rule out Kawasaki disease,

a rare autoimmune disorder which can be triggered by a severe throat infection.

Throughout the programme

we've been following the emergency call made by dad Mark

after baby daughter Jessie was born three months early.

Three months on, baby Jessie is finally home with her parents.

After the paramedics arrived at their home in Middlesbrough in the early hours,

it was a battle to keep her alive as they made their way to the James Cook Hospital.

En route to the hospital we could see there was...

slowly signs of improvement in baby Jess, so...

I think Amy could see that Michelle and myself were looking quite hopeful

so it sort of picked up the mood a little bit.

And on arrival at the hospital, we'd already alerted the medical teams,

so the James Cook casualty team and the paediatric team were already in there waiting for us.

It was awful to see her fighting for her life,

but I thought I'm just going to have to keep trying and sticking with her.

It was the moment they arrived at hospital that the baby gave them her own sign of hope.

As the doors opened to actually come out the van, she let out a whimper,

which was... as we got to the hospital, which was fantastic news to hear that.

Jessie was taken into neonatal intensive care.

Her lungs not properly developed, her mum Amy was warned things may not go smoothly.

I kept on going in in the mornings,

thinking, "Oh, God! Am I going to go in and she's back on the ventilation?" but she wasn't...

She amazed us every day that we went in, and heard something new about her.

It was just like a little story getting told, a little journey she took us on in there.

I mean, it was terrifying at first, but all you're seeing really is Jessie growing on the outside

to what she should have been in the in.

That's the way I was thinking of it, that's what made me feel better.

I've got to meet her early, basically.

She's special and she's given me a treat.

And seeing her growing, how beautiful she was, it was just amazing.

Jessie has continued to thrive at home with her brother and sister.

Dad Mark can't forget the horror of that night.

Nothing can prepare you for, like, the situation that we were in, nothing at all.

Er...just the different emotions that went through your body...

Luckily, Amy was there to save the day,

cos I was just in total shock. I was just a wreck.

From Amy making the call...

through the call taker, dispatcher...

..the crew that backed me up...

James Cook A&E on alert,

the A&E staff and the paediatric staff that were all there waiting for us when we arrived,

just a massive, massive team effort...

with a good result.

That teamwork means the whole family are enjoying life at home.

She's just so much of a miracle, it's unbelievable.

She's had a long journey and she's come out of it at the other end, so an absolute star she is!

Both Amy and Mark know that Jessie could not have made it without the right care

at the right time from paramedic Colin.

Oh, he's an absolute gentleman.

To be honest, he saved my daughter's life.

I get emotional now...

there's no way to explain... what I think of him.

He's an amazing man.

Colin says it was mum Amy who should take the credit.

Amy was remarkably calm and composed, which assisted us so much.

Because she was so calm and so composed, it just made it so much easier for us,

and she was part of the resuscitation team, really.

Yeah, a very happy ending. Baby Jessie's scrumptious.

Aw! Fantastic outcome for baby and parents.

Very trying time, very frightening, though.

I remember my eldest son was premature and it was a very frightening time.

You wonder how he's going to get on. He's now 6 foot tall, strapping, eating me out of house and home!

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

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd