Episode 7 Real Rescues

Today a man clings on to a cliff and his life. Only the coastguard helicopter can save him.

A car is jammed tight between the trees. It looks like it just dropped from the sky.

It was clear that something out of the ordinary had happened. It wasn't a normal accident.

And trapped by smoke upstairs, all caused by a large teddy bear.

Hello and welcome to Real Rescues. We're at the ambulance control centre near Winchester.

When people are hurt, scared and need medical attention, this is where they call.

They've taken all sorts of calls here today. There's somebody who has fallen off their horse

and a little toddler walked through a bonfire that had been put out, but was still hot.

-Lee, are you busy? Are you OK to talk?

-Yeah.

-You've had a call from somebody in a DIY shop.

Yeah, a young lady stumbled across some garden shears in the store and sustained an ankle injury.

It sounds quite painful. What have you done about it?

We've sent an emergency care practitioner to the scene

to assess her injuries

-and hopefully to treat her on the scene.

-And the point is that she won't have to go to hospital?

Absolutely. If we can treat her on the scene, she won't have to go in.

-Which saves time for everybody.

-Yes.

-Brilliant. We'll get an update later. Lee, thank you. Nick?

Now a mystery under a busy motorway flyover.

A car is embedded in trees and looks like it's just been dropped there.

PC Adam Jackson has been despatched urgently after a very worrying emergency call has come in.

A one-vehicle accident at the flyover at Lancaster.

They're still trapped in there. Local units are on scene. I need to get there pretty sharpish.

Adam arrives to find a hive of activity. All the services are here.

This looks bad. The crashed car lies on its side on the island of this busy roundabout.

It's completely wedged between the trees as if it's been slotted in with great force.

Something out of the ordinary had happened.

With the carnage of the vehicle, parts of road signs, the trees, the way the car was,

my first thoughts are that we may well have a very seriously injured person, if not a fatality.

The 51-year-old driver Kevin is trapped inside.

He's suffered a massive impact and is hanging upside down, but he is conscious and breathing.

Access is restricted by the trees, but a paramedic and firefighters Jim Tarbuck and Christine Shepherd

have managed to crawl in.

He was fully conscious but very quiet. He'd blood around his face.

I basically tried to keep him calm while the paramedic worked on him.

The driver, Kevin, is only held in by his seatbelt and needs his weight supporting.

I was holding his head.

Firefighter Tarbuck was laid on his back with his hands supporting his hips and his legs,

just to make sure everything was held in place while the paramedics and the Fire Brigade were doing their jobs.

After talking to eyewitnesses, the police found out how the car ended up in this position.

Basically, what we've got, it would appear, is that a vehicle has come off the slip road,

for whatever reason, at 60 miles an hour.

he went straight across the roundabout to where we've got it now.

Kevin's car has ploughed straight into the roundabout at speed, apparently without braking.

Luckily, the lights were on green or the consequences could have been even worse.

-Adam wants to establish Kevin's full identity and ownership of the car, but has a problem.

-No index plate.

-Nothing on the front either?

-No.

I can't see any index number.

There's normally one number plate. To have none, back or front, you think, "This isn't right."

Is there a reason why the plates aren't on the car? Has something else happened prior to the collision?

All things you think about as a police officer - who, what, where, why and how?

While Adam searches for the car's missing number plates, the fire crew have started getting Kevin out.

To create enough room, they have to cut the roof off.

It's a challenging task for Kevin Evenett and his team.

The difficulty was a lack of space

and access around the vehicle was restricted and difficult.

Also, gravity was working against us so any movement of any glass would fall downwards onto the casualty.

They have to work carefully around Kevin and the three people helping him inside the car.

With all the cutting going on, we needed to make sure he was well-protected,

so at one point I had a canvas sheet over me, over Kevin and the paramedics so the glass

wouldn't come down on top of us.

Meanwhile, Adam and his colleague PC Andy Green have found fragments of a number plate.

-Golf Yankee something.

-Lima?

It's an unusual jigsaw puzzle.

Golf Yankee... Could you try that, please? Well done, mate.

Top banana.

Now that they've confirmed the car belongs to Kevin, they can look for any medical information

that might help explain why this accident happened.

We can check the DVLA database for medical conditions.

It was clear from this incident this guy wasn't suffering from anything,

so there was nothing untoward.

Emergency specialist Dr Brando Tamayo has arrived to assess Kevin.

He thinks the unexplained crash is still likely to have been caused by a medical issue.

Why do people fall down in the street? Or crash their cars?

Sometimes it's road conditions,

sometimes driving behaviour, sometimes something happens to you - a blackout or chest pains...

Whatever the reasons for Kevin ending up in this position, attention is on getting him out.

Our next rescue is an extremely difficult one. A man is clinging on to a 45-degree slope

-which is a bit like that?

-Yeah, it may not look much, but it's almost impossible to stand.

On top of that, he has broken limbs and is bleeding heavily.

It's going to take the most exact flying by the coastguard helicopter crew, who Louise went to meet.

I'm with Rescue 106 and its highly-specialised crew.

Two pilots, one winch operator and one winchman.

They work together as a close team and they never know what they are going to be called out to.

The crew have got an emergency right on their doorstep in Portland.

A man's been spotted clinging on for dear life to a cliff face after losing his footing on a path.

Onboard are pilots Kevin Balls and Mark Bazalgette,

winch operator Steve Larson and winch man Buck Rogers.

-Why don't you just put him on the ground to walk up?

-Buck is lowered down on a wire

and carefully manoeuvred towards the man who is in obvious pain.

To the right. Right a further two.

Right one, and steady. That's good.

The camera angle from the helicopter doesn't show it, but this is a very steep gradient, at least 45 degrees,

-and covered in loose rock.

-Steady. Steady. Right one.

The winch supports Buck's weight, so it's safer and easier for him to clamber up the slope.

They come from below so that the downdraft helps the man to hold on

-rather than forcing him further down the cliff.

-Right, steady.

Buck disconnects himself from the helicopter so that it can fly away.

That's the hook now.

Winching in. OK, clear the target area while Buck sorts himself out.

He can now speak clearly with the casualty and assess his injuries.

What was difficult to see there was how steep that cliff face was.

-It was quite tricky to get Buck on there safely.

-The danger on that loose slope was

was the casualty had no firm footing and we could have dislodged him

-and made him fall further.

-How forceful is the downdraft? It could take you off the edge?

Effectively, it's a very strong wind. It's a cushion of air keeping the weight of the aircraft airborne.

And he could have easily slid down? How did you stop him?

What you tend to try and want to do is to be below the casualty and walk up the cliff on the winch

so that if anything does happen... hopefully they'll come your way and you'll be able to stop them!

And immediately you have to assess him and start looking after him.

It's a bit of an awkward one. We'll wait to see what Buck says.

A coastguard cliff rescue team have arrived. The casualty is exhausted from hanging on for over an hour.

Buck updates the helicopter crew.

Roger. Splints bag on its way.

With further examination, it appears he's actually broken both legs.

What sort of extraction are you looking at, Buck?

While the helicopter gets in position, Buck gives the casualty gas and air to help with his pain.

We can look at this as a practice extraction as well. ..Winching out.

They lower the splint equipment with pinpoint precision.

Right four and forward. Three, two, one. Steady.

Steady. Right one.

Steady. Steady. Right one and forward.

Steady. Contact. Steady. Good position.

One of the cliff rescue team has been roped down to them.

It's a bit misleading on the camera. It's quite a gradient that you're hanging on to.

He helps the casualty to hold on, letting Buck treat the injuries.

He'll have numerous lacerations.

He'll have to use all of his medical training on this job and has to strap the casualty's legs securely

-in difficult conditions.

-He's earning his supper today.

He's splinted it. He's done a good job there. He's done all right, hasn't he?

Buck, he was seriously injured. What was going on?

He had fractures to both legs, both lower legs.

One was an open fracture, so blood loss. The other one was closed.

'So you've really got two fractures and you've also got the blood loss to take care of

'before we could take him anywhere.'

He'd taken his t-shirt off to do something pretty important.

Yeah, very clever, actually.

He'd taken the t-shirt off and used it as a tourniquet above the open fracture,

which meant he reduced the blood loss through the wound. Clever stuff, bearing in mind he was a cliff faller

and was in a bit of a state.

I know it took you about 45 minutes to get him sorted out and you also had concerns

that drugs could have a bad effect.

Yeah, we were using Entonox on this. The problem with Entonox is

with too much of it it will make you unconscious, make you go to sleep.

What we don't want is for the person to become completely limp and roll the rest of the way.

-Cos he was holding on.

-Right.

-Eventually, you did get him sorted and you called back the team.

They're going to lower two harnesses that Buck can fix around himself and the casualty for a quick getaway

but first they need to retrieve all their equipment.

OK, left two.

Left one.

And winch again. OK, we have recovered the gear.

-Just bringing the gear into the cabin.

-Is that a thumbs up?

-I'm not too sure. I think it was.

-Clear to winch?

-Clear to winch.

So really the pick-up is up and just left a bit.

Yeah, just left so we can get to those bushes.

And steady. Steady.

Steady. Contact looks in hand.

Steady. Just about to hook on.

Hooked on. Winching in.

After desperately holding on for well over an hour, the injured man can finally be lifted away

from his ordeal.

Left two.

Left two. Left one.

Going slowly. Still all clear.

15 foot of cable to come.

Down four, down three, down two. Down one. Steady.

Just below step height.

Coming to the step.

Safely onboard, they head straight for the Emergency Department at a hospital in Dorchester

where his injuries can be fully treated.

I'll look at some of the other hazards Buck and the crew face a bit later.

Just listen to this.

-CHATTER

-That's the general hubbub of people very calmly answering calls

from people who are generally in a panic because they need help. That's the general hubbub you hear.

We're not disturbing them. Chris is here observing from Bicester. He's watching Charlee Buckles here.

He said he'd take advantage of me coming in to make a cup of tea.

-People observe different units...

-Yeah. They come and see the difference between our systems.

Yeah. I wanted to ask you about a case recently

where you had a phone call from someone... We want to talk about amputations, toes, fingers.

Yeah, I had one from this lady whose son...

sorry, husband was mowing the lawn

and he went over his son's foot. She thought it was just cut, so we gave her bleeding instructions

to get a clean, dry cloth or towel and place it on the wound to control the bleeding

until her husband piped up that he'd found a toe in the grass.

-He'd cut his son's toe off?

-Yeah.

-So what advice do you give then?

-We advise them to put them into a clean plastic bag

and to save it until the crew arrives and we'll try to reattach it.

Should you wash the grass off the toe? Or wash dirt off?

We say to put it straight into the bag and let the crew deal with it.

-And put it in ice?

-We just advise to keep it where it is in the bag.

-So the thing about ice isn't necessarily true?

-Not necessarily.

It depends how long it's been out. We just advise to put in in a bag and preserve it for the crew.

There you go. It's interesting. You expect the old advice,

but you don't want to over-freeze a toe or a finger or whatever.

So just put it in a bag, keep it cool, don't play around with it, and wait for the ambulance. Thanks.

Earlier we saw a car wedged sideways between trees under a flyover.

The driver, Kevin, is trapped inside suspended by his seatbelt.

All three emergency services are working hard to free him.

Rescue teams are at work.

Inside the car, firefighters are helping to support his weight as he's suspended only by his seatbelt.

After about 15, 20 minutes, Kevin's legs started to go numb because of the pressure

and weight all being on one side, even though we supported him.

It was a very awkward position.

They're working as fast as they can to release him.

To create enough space, they cut the roof off the car using electric saws.

They also use a more traditional type of saw to cut back the trees.

After being trapped in a very uncomfortable position for half an hour, Kevin sees the outside world.

He's being held in mid-air as they delicately manoeuvre him out.

We try to minimise any movement.

One, two, three.

'To lift him in a smooth manner.

'Instead of walking with the casualty, we'd pass them from one set of hands to another set.'

Many hands make light work.

Kevin is finally free and out into the open.

The car had hit a roundabout at 60mph and gone through a sign before flipping onto its side,

yet Dr Brando Tamayo's initial examination finds that, amazingly, Kevin is relatively unscathed.

At the present time, it looks like he's gotten away pretty Scot-free.

He's still going to hospital.

We'll do all the blood tests, make sure he's well before he goes home.

The outcome of this accident could have been a lot worse.

He's very lucky. If he'd gone against a red instead of through a green,

he could have been hit by another vehicle and the force could plough him across the carriageway.

If he hit something hard, a concrete barrier, then significant injuries.

Here he's gone through the trees and they absorbed the force.

These springy young trees may have saved Kevin's life,

but the reason for his crash is still unknown and PC Adam Jackson needs to check

whether alcohol was involved.

-The cause is probably medical.

-Right.

-Something's happened to him, he's felt a bit unwell,

he's blacked out, something's happened to cause that.

-Does he smell of alcohol?

-Not to me.

-Is he up to providing a blow sample?

-Has he got any facial...?

-Personally, I think you could.

-Right, OK.

-Hello, Kev. How are you? Have you had anything to drink?

-No.

Put this tube in your mouth, blow quite hard for about 10 seconds. All right? As hard as you can.

Go, mate.

Good lad. Well done, mate. Beautiful.

The breath test results confirm that Kevin has not drunk any alcohol.

He's taken to hospital for further medical checks.

A vehicle recovery team has arrived to pull the car from the trees.

Adam has seen a lot of incidents and is astounded by Kevin's good fortune.

You can see the extent of the damage to the roadside furniture,

to the vegetation, to the car. And he's got a little bump on his head.

-So he's very lucky.

-This incident tested the skills of all three emergency services

who worked closely together to get Kevin out of the wreckage.

Christine is taking a well-earned break after holding his head steady for such along time inside the car.

Because it's so cramped, you are in the same spot

so, yeah, fingers go numb. Very hot.

Yes, it was a great relief to get myself out the car.

Kevin did black out and lose control. He is recovering well now

and wanted to thank everyone involved in his rescue.

Still to come on Real Rescues:

if a coastguard rescue goes into a spin, it's a perilous moment - how do you stop it?

And does my bum look big in this? The fat-bottomed pony who... well, she just got stuck.

Now to a serious fire caused by a teddy bear. The smoke spread throughout the ground floor,

trapping the owner upstairs. Terrified, she called 999.

So much smoke fills the upstairs that it's starting to seep into the bedroom. This happened next.

Ian, you took that call. You were incredibly calm! How did you manage to do that?

Just talking to her and giving her the information that was going on,

telling her where the appliances were. I watch them on a map to keep track of them.

It helps keep her calm because she knows the area and can visualise where they are at the time.

When you talked to her about going to the window, she got confused. She thought she had to get out.

Yeah, I didn't want her to get out! She had to be on at least the first floor. I didn't want her to go out.

I just wanted her to get fresh air so she wasn't breathing any smoke.

She was sounding really croaky. I wanted her to get fresh air.

You were very concerned to get the layout of the house. Why is that?

So we can tell the crew where they are, so they go straight there.

They can go straight up the stairs to the room where the lady was,

-rather than search every room.

-Which makes it safer.

-It makes it quicker for her, so we can get the lady out.

-And safer for the firefighters.

You warned her about the breathing apparatus. Why was that?

The sets make a noise. The exhalation valves make a noise when the firefighters breathe out,

so for anybody who doesn't understand that or know what to expect, they can be quite frightening.

-It sounds a bit like Darth Vader.

-Yeah.

-That horrible breathing.

You made sure to stay on the phone until you spoke to them. Why?

What I didn't want the lady to do was put the phone down and disappear off into the house to get out.

-And I wanted to make sure that the firefighters knew where she was.

-Is that what people do?

They'll put the phone down, thinking they can get out

and from the sounds of the call and the amount of smoke there was, I didn't want her making herself ill.

Absolutely. Also, you did find out later what caused the fire. Tell me what caused it.

I believe the lady had thrown a teddy bear into a room, which landed on the gas fire.

-I don't know what size the teddy bear was.

-I understand it was quite a big teddy bear.

-I didn't know.

-Did the teddy bear make it?

-I doubt it!

I expect so, too. Thank you. Lovely to speak to you.

Earlier in the programme we saw the coastguard rescue helicopter saving a man with two broken ankles.

The crew talked about how they avoid the dangers of rotor blade downdraft

which can occasionally result in the winchman going into a spin.

The crew gave us this footage. Hello.

They gave us this footage of the rescue of a young woman recently.

Yes, this is Buck Rogers, who I met. he's on the end of the winch with this young woman

-who had an accident while climbing.

-It's extraordinary.

She's got a leg injury. He's trying to winch her in and they spin.

And it's not something that's slowing down. It's getting faster.

It gets faster and faster.

They start separating, which must have been terrifying for her.

Quite sick-making. Quite painful considering she has an injury.

And as you can see it gets faster and faster.

I asked a pilot how and why that happens.

The downdraft from the aircraft rotor blades hits whatever is beneath

and that can induce a spin.

That can get so bad that the winch man and casualty pass out.

So the way we can get round that is to get forward airspeed

and that pushes our downdraft away from the people underneath

and stops the spin. If it gets really bad and we can't do that,

the last option we have available is to dunk them in the sea.

And you'd stop feeling sick quite quickly.

-That has to be an option?

-Yeah.

And on this occasion this is how the stopped it - they dropped gently onto the ground.

-Which looks pretty uncomfortable. They'd rather not do that, but...

-He said they could pass out.

He said, "We just plonk them in the sea." I think he meant they gently touch them onto the surface!

It's amazing the skill they have.

It happens only when there's no breeze for them to fly into. The breeze takes it away.

-Otherwise it goes straight down. Extraordinary stuff.

-Scary.

-We have more take home facts now.

-I'll do a bit on chest pain and you're doing...?

-We saw that injured man on the side of a cliff.

He'd broken both ankles. One was an open fracture and he'd made a tourniquet from his t-shirt

and tied it around his leg. Mark is an expert on all this.

As a member of the public, it's controversial. Should people use tourniquets?

We normally advise that they shouldn't in the civilian world.

They can cause big complications.

-What sort of things?

-Potentially, people can suffer very serious nerve damage,

or they don't get enough oxygen to their cells and end up with necrosis, where limbs are seriously affected.

But you might occasionally use them in an emergency?

-It would be rare.

-You've got one.

-I've got a real one here. It would be very rare to use them.

It tends to be at major incidents with masses of casualties and delays going into hospital.

It goes on like this and then we tighten the Velcro up...like this.

The word tourniquet comes from to turn. That's what this does.

-You see how quickly that would cut off the blood.

-And we secure it.

-I'm not going to do that!

-No! You also put the time on it.

-That's important.

-It's very important to note when it was applied. For every minute,

more damage is done to the cells. We'd make a note in the record and even on the tourniquet.

So if we saw somebody with a very serious injury, there's basic first aid you do before you do that.

-If there's a single casualty, apply direct pressure to the wound.

-So press it.

-Yep. Or go above it.

-Then elevate it, ideally, above the level of the patient's heart. The higher the better.

-Fantastic.

-Great talking to you.

-No problem.

-I have a quick question.

-Go on.

-If you damage a main artery and you're losing blood really fast,

-surely the tourniquet is the best of a bad job?

-If you directly press on the artery affected,

you can stop the bleeding yourself. Sometimes, with a groin injury, you have to use your foot.

-Better to press something on?

-Yes, direct pressure.

We try to avoid these. There is a need in the military, but not here.

Thank you very much. OK, I was just interested there.

Now almost 10% of all 999 calls to the ambulance service are for people with chest pains.

Symptoms vary, so paramedics have to work skilfully to detect is it a chest pain or a heart attack?

Paramedic Angie Carter is on duty in a rapid response vehicle.

-Hello?

-'Hello, Angie. We have an 81-year-old male with chest pains.'

-OK. On my way.

-'OK, no worries.'

-Bye.

Anyone with chest pain should be going to hospital.

No chest pain is normal so it needs to be investigated anyway.

Chest pains could lead to a potentially fatal heart attack, so Angie wastes no time.

At the house she finds Ray who was outside with his wife Jean when his problems started.

I went in the garden to pluck a few weeds and I felt this pain,

-mostly back there. And it came across the chest.

-OK.

And, er...

It gradually got worse.

And now it's... it's making me shake, you know.

Angie has to work quickly. Ray's told her he had a heart bypass ten years ago

and she must assume the worst.

I'll just do your blood pressure, then we'll pop some of these on your chest to look at your heart.

There is an ambulance running.

If you take a deep breath in, does it change the pain at all?

-No. Worse.

-Just makes it worse.

-Yeah.

-Can I get to your chest?

-Up this way?

-That'll be fine.

-The next step is getting an electronic reading from Ray's heart.

-Still got that discomfort?

-Yeah.

-Things aren't looking normal.

-There's some slight discrepancies on the ECG.

Ray's had surgery, a triple bypass. So I want to be sure if that's new or old, looking at the ECG.

We'll be taking him to hospital because he has chest pain and they can compare ECGs with the last time.

The ambulance has arrived.

Hello. This young man is Ray. Ray's been out gardening to pull up a few weeds

and got a sudden onset of chest pain.

Ray's heart condition was originally diagnosed from shortness of breath.

How's your breathlessness been since then? No problems?

Actually, in the last 10 minutes, quarter of an hour, it seems to have got a little bit worse.

Ray's condition is worrying the team and they quickly get him into the ambulance.

I'll go with the crew. Ray's heart rate has gone right down. It's a little lower than we'd like.

I'll go with them so they've got paramedic back-up.

All right there, Jean?

Inside the ambulance, he's connected up to the ECG again to spot changes.

All this valuable information can be called through to the medical team at the hospital

-while they're still en route.

-The hospital know we're coming in.

-We'll just keep an eye on things. You all right, Ray?

-Yeah.

-Yeah?

Jean watches anxiously as he's given gas and air to relieve the pain.

Just suck the gas out of the bottle. Like breathing the morning air.

A spray medication will lower his blood pressure and take the strain off his heart.

-You've had this spray before, haven't you?

-Mm.

OK? So...under.

-Carry on with this?

-Yes, please!

It certainly won't hurt.

As they make their way to A&E,

the gas and air take effect and Ray gets onto his favourite topic.

Last time I went to Wembley was the Zenith Data Cup. How old am I?!

I was only little then.

I've still got tickets from 1956.

Have you? Wow! That's something worth keeping.

-Do you know of Stanley Matthews?

-Yes.

-I was there when he won his medal.

They're soon at the hospital where A&E staff are expecting him.

They'll do more ECGs and run some bloods and a thorough check up

to find out if the cardiac rhythm we were getting is normal for him.

And here is Angie. Every time you get a call, it can be very different.

I said I'd give you information on this. There's no way of narrowing down if it is indigestion

or a chest pain or heart attack.

No, we have tests. If you think it might be indigestion,

if you haven't got some Gaviscon, you can try some milk.

That should help with indigestion.

-But you'd rather hear anyway.

-We'd rather come out for a look.

We've got other tests. ECGs will see if there's any discrepancies on the ECG tracing,

but we'd normally take you to hospital for a blood test.

-There are other brands of indigestion drink available!

-Sorry!

-It's all right.

The other thing is, if someone actually has a heart attack or think they're having one,

-what do you do?

-Stay still. Don't go upstairs or downstairs, if you're experiencing chest pain.

Dial 999 or get someone to dial for you. Try to make yourself as comfortable and relaxed as possible.

-Can you take any painkiller?

-If you've got aspirin at home, take up to 300mg.

If you've got GTN spray, which patients with angina may have,

take that as well to relieve the symptoms.

The last thing we should say is if someone them stops breathing, that's not game over.

-If you can keep them going with CPR until the ambulance arrives, they've a good chance.

-Early intervention.

So compressions in the breathing. Keep it going for as long as you can.

-It is quite difficult, but until the ambulance crew get there.

-Brilliant. Thank you. Learn CPR.

When Molly the New Forest pony fancied a scratch up against a tree,

she ended up walking into a trap.

This needs a man with a gentle touch, so it's one of Hampshire Fire Service's animal rescue specialists.

Animal rescue specialist Buster Brown is heading to a stables where a pony is in a predicament.

Buster meets an extraordinary sight. Molly, a New Forest pony, is stuck

between two large branches of one tree. She wanted a good old scratch,

but clearly underestimated the size of her rear end.

The owner sensibly kept her calm. If she's calm, the animal stays calm.

Owner Louise continues to soothe Molly. Equine vet David Langrish is also on hand

-as well as the local fire crew.

-Happy with the plan, David?

-Yeah.

The fire crew are going to prise the trunks apart to release Molly,

but first she has to be sedated.

'When horses are released from a situation'

where they are trapped, they often panic.

Then there's quite a serious risk to the people around and the horse.

'By sedating a horse sufficiently, but not unduly,

'you can actually control that.'

Being trapped brings on a natural sedative in the animal, so they don't have to give her too much.'

'The two trees squeezing the abdomen of the horse'

has created the animal to naturally produce endorphins which are painkillers

and stress-free relief agents in the blood.

Owner Louise has an important part to play as well.

I'll leave you on the head because it's your horse.

Otherwise we would take over.

Before the fire crews start to winch, they remove some small branches from the tree.

It's time to widen the gap. This is the moment that could cause Molly to panic and lash out.

Tony, can you take up the... the tension on that?

'The winching is very quiet. It has no mechanical engine running.'

So it's kept very quiet. My only concern really was that once the horse realised

that she was becoming released, she might react and try to get herself free before we're ready.

So we must keep good head control.

Slowly, inch by inch, the trees are pulled apart.

Molly has kept her head and with a little more help from vet David, she can finally walk free.

Good girl.

'She had minor abrasions to her pelvis, just in front of the pelvic bones.'

And a few scratches to her abdomen. She was a little sore.

'Otherwise, she was fine and was happy to go and have her breakfast and go on and be a normal horse.'

Owner Louise is delighted Molly is out and safe.

I think she can just rest. When she's woken up a little bit, I'll walk her over to her stable.

She can eat in about an hour.

Then I'll let her rest for the day.

They get all sorts of calls here.

Linda, you're a bit of a specialist. You've delivered lots of babies over the phone. How many?

-17 in total in two years.

-You're kidding me!

-No.

One was particularly dramatic because the baby was in trouble.

Yes, when it was born it had the umbilical cord around its neck.

It came out and wasn't breathing.

So we had to take off the umbilical cord, or get the father to do it,

and then get a towel and rub the baby's back briskly to stimulate it to breathe.

-And...?

-And then the tiny little noises that I heard were just such a relief to hear.

-That is just a fabulous story. Are there any little Lindas named after you?

-No, I don't think so!

-I bet there are!

-I'm sure there's not.

-Good luck with the next one. Lovely to talk to you. Thank you.

I've got some updates for you. The person who fell off the horse,

perfectly fine, gone to hospital for a check-up.

The toddler who walked through a bonfire has gone to a specialist burns unit in Salisbury.

And the lady in the DIY store.

They treated her on the scene - a couple of stitched and she's OK.

I'm surprised we don't teach CPR as compulsory in schools.

-Good idea.

-We'll have more for you of all kinds of rescues soon.

-Bye-bye.

Subtitles by Subtext for Red Bee Media Ltd - 2010

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