Episode 9 Real Rescues

Today on Real Rescues: two sailors are in danger on the high seas.

Freak waves threaten to throw the lifeboat and catamaran on a deadly collision course.

The weather picked up again. It was getting quite wild, and you don't want to sink two boats.

What an entrance! The baby that's born unexpectedly in a hospital foyer, and it's caught on camera.

And caring for the carer, the young man who looks

after his family is suddenly taken seriously ill himself.

See you later, Kevin.

Welcome to Real Rescues. Here at South Central Ambulance Control

emergency calls are coming in

from four of the busiest counties in the UK. Louise?

Let me give you an idea of what they've been dealing with.

They've had a motorbike accident to deal with.

They have also had a boy with a head injury.

And one of the call takers has

delivered a baby this morning, which is great.

The lifeboat crews from the north eastern tip of Scotland are used to working in fierce seas.

We're about to see what happened when two sailors

in a stricken catamaran hit near gale-force conditions.

They were 13 miles out and at the mercy of 20ft waves.

It was up to the Peterhead lifeboat to save them.

The RNL lifeboat is plowing through the waves towards the catamaran in distress.

Coxswain Andy Brown is at the helm, and will be in charge of rescuing the two sailors in trouble.

The catamaran is a small vessel bobbing around on a large, rough sea.

And it's hard for Andy to locate them by eye or radar.

Because of the heavy swell, all you can see is the white caps.

We'd already been told it was a white-hulled vessel,

so it'll be quite difficult to spot.

Luckily, the Far Supporter was there, an oil supply ship.

The aptly-named ship, the Far Supporter, helps out the lifeboat

crew by staying near the damaged boat, and guiding them to it.

The catamaran has lost its steering system and is effectively rudderless.

Its name is Havbris, Norwegian for "cool breeze", which seems grimly

ironic, as it's pitched and tossed around in the gales.

The problem with that day is obviously strong winds, 45-55 knots of wind from the north-west.

And heavy swell.

I think it was a 3 to 3.5 metre swell.

Looking out at sea, lots of spray, lots of wind.

Every time the bow of the boat goes through a wave,

you get a lot of spray coming back all over the whole boat, making it difficult to see what you're doing.

With the conditions so bad, they decide the best plan is to try to tow the boat to safety.

It's Pat Davidson's job to throw the wrote to the Havbris' crew.

It's a lot safer to leave the crew on a vessel rather than try

to transfer them in poor conditions for the safety of them.

And the old saying is, "Your best life raft is your own vessel."

Neither of the sailors on board the Havbris are injured, so there's

no need for the lifeboat crew to risk their lives any further by attempting to jump from one boat to another.

If one of the crewmen goes overboard, then

the next crewman is going to have to go overboard and retrieve him.

It's the last thing we want, we go out with six or seven and

we want to come home with six or seven of the crew.

The skipper of the Havbris, Stein, now has the unenviable task of

perching on the bow of his boat, ready to catch the rope.

You could see the boat, where some of the waves he was coming across, it looked quite dangerous for him.

An immediate concern, certainly to the crew standing

watching him, that if he gets a wave broadside on, he could be over.

My heart was in my mouth for him, climbing out there.

The captain of the Far Supporter is continuing to aid the rescue by using

his ship's larger bulk to shield the catamaran and the lifeboat from the worst of the weather.

When we were coming round, the first attempt to try to pass the tow line across, the weather picked up again.

It was getting quite wild and you don't want to sink two boats.

As they get near, a freak wave suddenly hits the lifeboat hard,

so much so, the hat is knocked off Pat's head.

All the ships involved are now getting a little too close for comfort.

Andy decides to abort the first attempt and steers the lifeboat away.

They come back for another go. Will they be successful this time?

As they close in on the Havbris again, yet another rogue wave hits

both boats, sending them lurching towards each other.

Luckily they stop just short of colliding.

Seconds before, we were in a position to throw the line.

Again, the lifeboat took quite a big lump of water, put us broadside on.

Fortunately enough, the coxswain got us within inches of the Havbris, and

we were almost able to pass the rope straight into the crewman's hand.

He successfully caught it.

Finally Stein is able to tie his craft to the lifeboat.

But they're not safe yet. Towing another boat has its own difficulties.

Towing a slower boat like that in a rough sea, you can get the tow rope

snapping, you can get the deck fittings ripping off the boat you're trying to tow.

They make careful progress, and within two hours they've made it back safely into Peterhead Harbour,

where the pleasant, sunny weather is in stark contrast to the treacherous conditions they'd faced offshore.

Thankfully, everybody has come through it unscathed.

We all got back, we got the two casualties back, we got the Havbris back, the lifeboat back, six crew.

The only casualty on the Havbris call-out was my favourite Beanie hat.

Which is somewhere in Norway now, probably.

Joining us all the way from Oslo in Norway

are the two lads who were actually on that boat, Stein and Ole, who had the most extraordinary time.

That looked terrifying?

Yup! It was kind of dramatic.

What do you think of the guys who came to get you from the lifeboat?

They were great, of course. They came very quickly.

I think they were there within half an hour?

-From leaving, yes.

-And they brought us safely into harbour.

They gave us beer!

They gave you beer? That's the main thing, isn't it?

-Not only rescued, they give you a beer as well.

-And chips!

The difficulty was that you'd lost your steering,

so you were in some difficulty being able to deal with the sudden wind and waves that came up?

Yes. The wind was so sudden, and so strong.

Given a little bit of time,

the waves become so big that you really need to be able to manoeuvre.

With a little bit more time, the waves would have been a problem even with the ability to manoeuvre.

We could manoeuvre a little bit, but very badly.

So you were very pleased to see the guys when they turned up, and took you in tow?

Getting that rope across to you seemed very difficult.

That's actually more dangerous than the actual situation at the moment. That's really dangerous.

I think I got it on the second try?

-So, they towed you back into Scotland?

-Yes.

-Will you come back?

-Did you enjoy the trip to Scotland, notwithstanding having to be rescued out there?

-Very much.

Scotland is a beautiful place. It is, really.

Definitely going back.

Definitely going back? Did you enjoy the haggis?

Yes, for breakfast!

We even saw the military tattoo in Edinburgh.

The tattoo is fantastic, isn't it?

Thank you, very nice of you to come all the way to have a chat with us,

-and amazing watching that rescue. Thanks.

-Thank you.

I was hoping to speak to Ollie, one of the call takers here, about actually something they've

been dealing with in the last half an hour or so.

There's been an accident, a car and a lorry, we understand that one person is trapped.

What she does, she took the call, basically they've got now there

an emergency care practitioner, also a basics doctor as well.

Also an ambulance, and the helicopter as well is on standby.

So you can kind of get a sense of how busy they are, and the incidents they're dealing with.

I'll come back to her if she's not busy a little bit later.

But, she's also on a call. So onto something else.

When the teenager who looks after his family suddenly falls dangerously

ill, the ambulance crew have to decide what's best for all concerned.

Colin and Dave are answering an urgent call from a GP.

What we're responding to is an 18-year-old boy,

who the doctor perceives or thinks has got appendicitis.

If an inflamed appendix is left untreated, it could be fatal.

So they want to get the teenager into hospital as soon as possible.

Appendicitis is a very painful condition.

Often appendicitis is associated with vomiting and nausea, which can increase that pain.

Ambulance service.

Hello, Adam. My name's David.

At the house, they find Adam upstairs, lying doubled up in agony.

You tell me what's been happening.

I've got bad stomach pains, pains round there.

And I keep constantly being sick, whenever I eat anything or drink anything.

-How long has that been going on for?

-About three days.

-About three days?

So you've had abdo-pain...

Having not eaten properly for such a long time, Adam is feeling very weak.

-I notice you're not retching at the moment?

-I haven't drunk anything.

Lungs are working perfectly, you don't smoke, do you?

-Occasionally.

-A little bit, OK.

He needs to be taken to hospital, but the crew have got a problem.

Your mum isn't very well, is she?

Adam looks after his sister, and cares for his mum, who suffers from

a chronic illness and is currently confined to the living room.

You're the main carer for mum, aren't you? Coz mum's not well.

And you, of course. Has anybody managed to make

arrangements for somebody to come in and fill in for the pair of you?

I look after her when he's not here.

-How old are you, my dear?

-I'm 12.

We'll need to get someone to come in here and give you a hand.

My friend is coming to. He's coming to help too.

Can you make sure that's all covered?

Yes.

Because we were taking Adam into hospital, one of the possible outcomes was that

he'd require surgery, which would have resulted in him being away from the home for a few days at least.

Obviously, as he was the sole carer, responsible for organising care in that family, when we're taking him

away we need to try to make sure there was a safety net put in there

to look after both mum and her daughter.

To a large extent, that helps out mum, but it also

means Adam can go to hospital, happy to know that somebody is going to be looking after his mum.

He can get healed, and then come home again.

Before they leave, Dave pops into the living room to let mum know what's going on.

He'll be all right, mum!

The young man who cares for his whole family now needs care himself.

-See you later, then.

-See you later.

What I'm going to do now is just check what your blood pressure is,

and then we'll be taking you off to hospital, OK?

With his painful stomach, Adam finds it more comfortable to sit.

Dave needs to make sure his condition is stable

before subjecting him to the movement of the ambulance.

Just sit back and relax, I want that level with your heart.

Meanwhile, Colin has managed to sort out some help for Adam's family while he's away.

Your mum has got some chronic illnesses, hasn't she?

We were just concerned about your little sister.

She's got a next door neighbour that's popping round to deal with pills and stuff like that.

OK. I'm ready to proceed.

With his patient made as comfortable as possible,

Dave takes a moment to talk to him about his long-term health.

It says 98, which means that 98% of your blood is full of oxygen.

Obviously, being a little bit of a smoker, that does have an affect on it.

So, in the long term,

grab the extra 2% back, you'll feel better for it. Have you ever wanted to give it up?

I have given up.

You have given up, have you?

What happened last time?

I was back to smoking through stress.

It was stress, was it? He's a young man at the start of his life.

He's obviously a very caring young man that feels for people.

If the reason he's smoking is because he's stressed,

then if we can sort the stress out, he can have a much healthier life.

What they might be able to do through your GP, is to try to

get some help for you coping with it, because you're doing a really good job of looking after your mum.

But, I think that's probably having a bit of stress on you.

We come across a lot of hidden young carers.

It's something that doesn't often get reported.

Youngsters hanging around in the street being hooligans hits the front page.

However, young people looking after somebody and

being really socially responsible tends to be hidden behind doors, because it's not in your face.

As they reach the hospital, Adam's clearly still in a lot of pain.

How do you feel? You feel OK?

Adam and his family will now wait to see if his suspected appendicitis

is confirmed, and whether he'll need emergency surgery.

Actually, Adam was operated on straight away.

He did have appendicitis, and he was in hospital for a couple of weeks recovering from it.

Luckily, other members of the family stepped in to help look after his mother.

It's really difficult when someone's a carer, because what happens then?

That's what they did. They sorted it out. Amazing thing to do.

Nice that the family could come and help out in a situation like that.

Appendicitis, that's a very strange thing as well, because I've had friends... and you had...

I had a burst appendix. One week after my first baby was born.

Which is complicated by the fact that if you've just had a baby...

They didn't know what it was.

Because I was in excruciating pain, and they thought because I'd had a baby, it was to do with that.

Turned out to be nothing to do with that at all.

How did you get round to realising it was serious?

Because I was so ill, I had a very, very high temperature,

and they'd given me lots of drugs in hospital, and they couldn't control the pain.

They said, "You had a baby last week, if it was appendicitis, you'd be in pain." I was like,

"That wasn't pain, this is pain". Much more painful.

More painful than having a baby?

-For me it was.

-Really?

-Yeah.

-Good grief.

So if you've got pain like that, you need take it seriously.

If you're suffering... We keep saying with these things - if in doubt, make a call, get yourself

a paramedic round or somebody from the ambulance service, they'll tell you how to deal with it.

I feel quite...

-Sorry to take you back to that moment!

-You're taking me back!

Take a break for a moment, because we're going

to tell you what's still to come on Real Rescues.

More peril on the water - this time it's a river.

A fisherman is drowning just metres from safety.

And a two-ton road sweeper turns turtle.

The driver can't believe he's alive.

You've got a bit of bruising there, does it hurt there at all?

When Caroline told her husband Mike to get her to hospital fast because

their baby was on its way, he did just that.

But it still wasn't quite the birth Caroline or the hospital midwives were expecting.

Just as they reached the doors to maternity, this is what happened.

It was all caught on CCTV, and as you can see, Caroline

manages to make it, in quite a rush, through the first door, to buzz on the second door, but then she doesn't

get actually through that door. Her husband quickly comes in to help her.

Luckily, this was 1am, and it was spotted because she had to buzz through by one of the

people on reception who basically called the midwives down to try and give her a bit of assistance.

Alice was causing all the trouble.

Mum, Caroline is here. Jamie, who was in charge of midwives.

What were thinking when you went through that door?

Just get indoors, out of the cold - it was freezing, it was February.

Just get indoors and have the baby indoors!

Kind of lucky that she made it as far as she did because the midwives were then called?

They were, they came down, and the telephonist called up to say,

"A lady looks like she's going to give birth in the foyer!"

I think the midwives thought, "No she's not, we'll get her upstairs to the labour ward."

Let's see what happened next.

Caroline, you probably don't remember much of this, do you?

I don't remember much about that, though, at least I can look back and laugh now.

At that point the baby's head was out, and Mike thought he was going

to be delivering her on the floor there and then.

Right. Luckily, somebody came, because somebody was on the way, trying to get up the stairs.

Yes, they did.

Midwives were down very quickly, just before the baby was going to be born.

You can see the first thought was, "Let's get this lady

upstairs and in a bit of comfort and privacy", but they quickly realised there wasn't even time for that.

Did you think you're going to make it to the labour ward?

No, not at all. When we were in the car, and the waters went,

I knew that she would be quite quick after the waters had gone.

They were telling me to get in the wheelchair, and I was just like, "No, it's coming!"

Let's give people at home a sense of how quick that was.

How quickly from the waters breaking to her being born?

-About 18 minutes.

-18 minutes!

So your midwives had no chance, did they?

Not at all. The waters broke in the car on the way to hospital.

And what you did try to do - luckily as I say, it was the early hours of the morning, at least put a sheet up.

So that people wouldn't see her.

The midwives are conscious of two things - one, to help Caroline

and to get Alice delivered safely, but also to try and give a bit

of dignity where they could, because they were very conscious that this was all being captured on CCTV.

Did you mind at the time, were you worried or you just wanted the baby to be born?

I wouldn't have known where I was, I could have been on the moon, it wouldn't have made any difference!

I just knew the baby had to come out and it was happening there.

We can see also, very quickly, there was a clean-up operation as well.

There was, they were busy scrubbing the floor.

I believe the mark is still there on the carpet!

-Are you quite proud of that, in a strange way?

-I am, yes!

I think Alice should be as well.

You've obviously seen millions of births, or hundreds of births,

does this rank as one of the most ridiculous, in some way?

It absolutely does. There's no such thing as a normal day in maternity services.

All of us have exciting stories to tell,

and I think we'll all be dining out on this one for some time to come!

I understand that her big brother likes watching this video.

Oh, over and over again! He asks to watch it all the time!

-Why is that?

-He's four, he just must be fascinated by Alice arriving.

How is she? You've been really good this morning, haven't you?

She has, she's a lovely baby, ever so good. Hasn't fazed her at all.

Nice to meet you, Alice.

Thanks for coming to see us.

We're going to leave you now. Nick.

I'm just trying to get updates for you on the things we were talking

about earlier, the motorcyclist accident, he's got a damaged knee, he's gone to hospital.

Hollie can give us a bit of an update on what's going on with

the incident with the person that was trapped, the traffic accident?

Yeah, it was a car versus a lorry.

We've got a basics helimed and a basics

doctor on board. It's non-life-threatening injuries.

But there's someone... do you make a decision to send out the helimed?

Our dispatch team decide to send out the helimed, they look at the job and decide it from there.

So we know they're on scene at the moment, that's interesting in itself. Thanks, Hollie.

Julie, if she's not on a call, she's one of the dispatch team who

makes that kind of decision, and if she's not online... Can I speak ...?

OK. I'm going to get close

to you, because you don't have a microphone on and I do.

How do you make a decision about what things you...

did you send the helimed out?

Yeah, we deployed the helimed, because when the details came in,

it was mentioned that someone was trapped, so that is their criteria.

They were trapped, so a helimed is deployed.

-So you have a set of criteria, it comes up on your screen, that looks like...

-Exactly.

We know the helimed's arrived on scene?

Yeah, it is on scene.

-Not looking life-threatening at the moment?

-We haven't had a sit rep.

You haven't. OK.

We'll try and find out a bit more later, thank you very much.

Helimed is an air ambulance, in case you're wondering - the trouble is,

you work in a place like this and you start to use the jargon yourself.

But fascinating, there's a set relay that works to make sure

the right people turn up at any given accident.

Car versus a lorry, you always knows who's going to lose in that situation.

As we heard the lifeboat crew say earlier, when in trouble, stay with your boat.

But, if you have to abandon ship, Louise has been finding out what to

do at the headquarters of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution at Poole in Dorset.

It's not very often you get to control the weather, but this is what we're doing right here.

We've got raging seas, strong winds, there's thunder, crashing waves and lightning as well.

I am at the RNLI's sea survival Centre in Poole,

and this is a world-class rescue training facility.

If you want to save someone in dangerous sea, this is where you learn.

What's the scenario today?

What's happening is we're teaching our crews how to abandon ship,

and thereby, when they enter the water, reduce the effect

of cold-water shock on the body.

-Grant's going to do that for us?

-He's going to demonstrate that.

What he's going to do is cover his airway, and keep that covered

so when he comes back up above the water, the sea water is not going to egress into his airways.

He's very experienced, but an incredibly scary thing,

to jump off a ship...

It is. What will be happening now to the body and head is that

the cold water will start to reduce the temperature, being in the

water reduces the body temperature four times faster than in air.

The key here is he's not swimming.

What he's doing is getting into what we call the HELP position.

The Heat Escape Lessening Position, almost like a foetal position on top of the water.

Sounds extraordinary, I'm sure you're going to tell me more a little bit later. Thank you.

It was like any other Sunday morning for Maureen, as she set out for her local church.

But she never got there - instead, a terrifying crash

left her urgently needing the skills of the emergency services.

The Great North Air Ambulance is on an emergency call

to a head-on collision on a remote country road in the Lake District.

Dr Tim Lowes is on board.

He can carry out emergency treatment at the roadside if needed.

Also on board are paramedic Andy Dalton and pilot Clarke Priestley.

Coming in to land, the crew can see that this is a high-impact crash on a bend in the road.

A Land Rover and Honda have collided head-on.

The 4 x 4 driver is already on his way to hospital,

but the driver's side of the car has been crushed

and a 71-year-old woman is still trapped inside.

-Hi, I'm Tim, one of the doctors. Where are you? Round here?

-Yes.

Maureen was on her way to church when the accident happened.

She's complaining of neck pain.

Rapid response paramedic Philip Reed has put a collar on to immobilise it.

She's also suffering from chest pains.

Whereabouts in your chest?

Are you able to put your hand where it hurts?

Just across the front. Sort of where your seatbelt's been, is it?

As far as the pain in your chest is concerned, out of 10,

how many would you give it?

And is it there all the time?

'When Maureen said that she had chest pain, there were two issues'

I was concerned about - one was that she may have had a direct trauma

to her chest, and possibly had a fractured sternum or fractured ribs,

or even worse than that, she may have had some problem with possibly

tearing of her large blood vessels inside the chest cavity.

The firefighters are about to start cutting the roof off Maureen's car,

but there's just time for Tim to take a closer look.

Tender? OK. Because you have got pain in your back,

we just need to be a bit cautious, because we can't really assess it,

so we'll try and take you out without twisting or moving your back.

That's what all this messing about with your car's all about,

to make sure we don't have you twisting and turning as we take you out of the car.

Cutting the car will be a noisy, frightening experience for Maureen.

It's vital her pain is kept under control.

I'm going to give you some morphine, have you ever had it before?

It can make you feel a bit woozy, so I'll give you some of this now.

We'll give that a few minutes to work, then I'll come back

and see how you're feeling, is that all right?

Pop your hand back under there and we'll let these gentlemen carry on

removing bits of your vehicle.

There's obviously been significant impact, looking at the front of the vehicle.

There is a risk that she could have an injury to her spine.

If there is a fracture,

and it's unstable, and we just sort of twist her out, or assist her

out of the car, then that could dislodge the fracture, and cause permanent spinal cord injury.

Has the morphine had any effect at all?

With Maureen's pain under control, the firefighters can start work getting her out.

They are about to start taking the car roof off when suddenly

the air ambulance team suggest a change of plan.

-You don't need to do that, just

-... It'll just flatten forward, that...

It was then noticed that actually the rear seats in the car went completely flat,

and her front seat was able to fold almost completely flat as well.

So once that became apparent,

it was then easy, and much quieter and less stressful for her,

to simply do that, put the seats down and extricate her through the boot, there was plenty of space,

rather than have the noise of more cutting, and the roof being taken off around her.

Very carefully, the firefighters have brought Maureen out of the car,

they've laid her flat on the ground

where Tim can get a better look at her.

-Are you OK?

-Yes, thank you.

-Pain, out of 10?

It was six...

OK. Would you like a bit more?

Are you sure?

Doesn't cost you anything! It's free!

In spite of her ordeal, Maureen is keeping very calm.

Keeping her neck and back absolutely straight,

they can now roll Maureen onto the scoop stretcher.

Ready, steady...

Ready, steady, roll.

Maureen can now be carried safely across the field to the waiting helicopter.

She'll be taken to A&E in Carlisle,

a half hour journey by road, but only ten minutes in the helicopter.

Once there, she'll be X-rayed to find out what's causing her pain.

And Maureen did suffer severe bruising.

I wanted to tell you something - if you phone 999 from your mobile,

you might assume the call operators would immediately know where you are,

but that is not necessarily the case, and Karina has a good example of that.

You had a little boy, he'd fallen off his bicycle, and lost his front teeth, in a bit of a state.

He had a mobile, but that didn't help you very much, did it?

No, when a mobile call comes in on the system,

we get a mobile ellipse, like a circle here.

It will show us the area that the mobile is possibly in,

but it's sometimes only 80% or 90% accurate.

-And could be quite a big area?

-It could. In this area, the boy that called up wasn't in this area,

but he said he was near to a car park, and as you can see here,

near to this town, we have several car parks showing on the map.

We need to know exactly what road he's off of or landmark he's near,

somewhere near that car park, so we can pinpoint exactly where they are.

I imagine he was really distressed.

How did you find him in the end with the ambulance?

Luckily, we had a passer-by walk past, and the boy had said

there was a house about 1.5 miles away from the car park.

Luckily for us, a passer-by knew the name of the house,

so we were able to establish which car park was closest to that house and pinpoint exactly where he was.

And what sort of thing is useful for people to tell you?

For example, if they had a pub name, would that help you?

Anything. A local pub that you've driven past or the name of the roadis great,

-or any landmarks or points that we can pinpoint.

-OK, so we've got an example.

If you put in the White Hart, for example, in here, because I imagine there are lots of White Harts around.

They say, "I passed a pub called the White Hart,"

you've immediately got the addresses of them all here.

Yeah. Say for example we had one in Andover,

even if they're not actually at the pub, we can go through directions

with the caller and say, "Where did you turn from that pub to go down which road?"

So we can track them down to exactly where they are.

Which is really useful information. What should people learn from this?

They should look out where they are, I guess.

If they can make a mental note if they're going anywhere,

particularly in the summer around the New Forest or rural areas,

make a mental note of landmarks you've gone past or roads that you're on.

You've got to be a bit of a detective. And you found the boy.

-We got to him in the end and he was taken to hospital.

-And he was OK.

-Yep.

-Brilliant work. Thank you.

-OK!

I wonder, if you had to do that, whether you could tell people where you'd been to get to where you are.

There's a little game you can play at home!

The UK's lifeboat crews regularly work in tandem with the emergency services.

We're about to see them working with the Royal Navy, rescuing a drowning fisherman.

First, Louise has some more details of vital survival techniques.

You've managed to get everybody safely off that burning ship into this icy-cold water.

You said don't swim. Why not? What are they doing now?

The reason we say not to swim is to reduce the effects of cold-water shock on the body.

What we've done now is get the guys into a huddle position.

The benefits of getting into a huddle position is they can look at each other,

they can make sure that everybody's OK and any ill or injured they can start to look after.

The temperature of the water in the centre, is starting to warm up a little bit.

Anybody that is ill or injured, can get straight into the centre and feel a little bit more loved.

And, crucially, more heat, as well.

Absolutely. But also, the other benefit that is even more important

is that the huddle is more of a visual target to passing ships or passing aircraft going overhead.

They're now going to try and get into the life raft. How will they do that?

What they'll do now is get into what we call a crocodile position,

although we did talk about not swimming. But they've got to get to the life raft,

so they'll swim together in a crocodile.

So safety in numbers, get themselves to the life raft and then start getting into the life raft.

And you also talked to me about the key to survival here.

There are three things to think about, aren't there?

That's right. It's called the survival triangle.

You have equipment, knowledge and, fundamentally, you have willpower.

OK? And a combination of those three elements basically will

increase your chances of survival dramatically.

That's interesting that willpower is part of it.

Absolutely, because once they get into their life raft,

they'll have to go through their survival bag they have in there.

So, that will include things like a hand-held radio, a mobile GPS,

water, food, first-aid kit and, more importantly, sick bags, as well.

Let's face it, being in a life raft like that is a confined environment.

Being thrown around on the open waves, you do tend to be a bit seasick.

-Well, we'll let you get in.

-OK.

This type of rescue doesn't always happen far out at sea.

The Falmouth RNLI had to act very quickly to save a fisherman

who was fighting for his life only metres from the shore.

The RNLI inshore lifeboat's been launched to help a fisherman

who's got into trouble in the River Fal.

He was using his punt to carry his catch, when it drifted away.

He tried to wade after it but became trapped in a current.

Although he's got himself back close to the shore, he's too exhausted

and cold to do any more, and he's in danger of sliding beneath the water.

The lifeboat crew need to act quickly.

Two of them get straight in to keep the man's head above water,

and, with the help of local fishermen,

get him onto the relative safety of the rocks.

It's a cold December afternoon,

so he's wrapped in a blanket as the lifeboat moves in close.

Once on board, the fisherman is given immediate first aid,

but it's clear he needs urgent hospital treatment.

A Royal Naval helicopter is already overhead.

Just five minutes after the launch of the lifeboat,

a winch man is being lowered onto it, and one minute later, the injured man

is being hoisted to safety on his way to the Royal Cornwall Hospital.

So, I'm now in a life raft, where the RNLI are training to do exactly that,

get somebody off a small boat. It's incredibly difficult, isn't it?

-Very much so, yes.

-So what are the priorities?

The priorities is having a nice, skilled rescue.

It takes a lot of training,

and as you said, it's a very extreme situation to be in,

and the training is imperative at that point.

We have a winch man coming down.

We'll direct him in. OK?

The casualty comes to the winch man.

Listen carefully to what the winch man tells you.

Keep your arms down by your side at all times.

OK. The casualty's now being winched away.

Wow, that is incredible!

-And there she goes.

-There she goes.

-Hopefully safe.

Straight into the helicopter.

But this is entirely different. This looks dangerous to me as it is, but

that would be a helicopter, so that brings its own problems, as well.

You'd have a massive down draught, as well, forcing more air pressure down onto the life raft.

Possibly the sea state would be an issue, the swell and the surf etc.

The spray if it's bad weather, as well.

So at this point you've done your job, haven't you?

We have to a certain extent, but you're never a true survivor

until you're actually home fit and well and you can

tell the story of what's happened to you.

It's only then you're a true survivor.

The fire and rescue service has to deal with all manner of accidents,

and when more than two tonnes of road sweeper tips over,

it's the fire service which is called to the rescue.

Green Watch are heading out. They've been told a heavy vehicle has tipped over with the driver inside.

Off to an RTC.

Probably a road sweeper. I don't know how many other vehicles.

They arrive at a residential street in the city to discover it's a mini road sweeper.

It's on its side, and fuel is seeping out onto the road.

This is diesel, isn't it? Diesel.

If we can knock off the drain, AJ... Do you know how much the tank holds?

-It was a full tank.

-A lot of diesel, isn't it? A full tank.

The driver somehow leapt clear, and he's being treated by an emergency paramedic.

The emergency services have attended many similar accidents

when the driver has not been so lucky.

-You've got a bit of bruising. Does it hurt there at all?

-No.

Are you sure? And your legs are all right? You'll probably have a bit of bruising there as well.

But I think you'll live. I think you'll live, fella. All right?

The driver, Len, appears to have escaped serious injury,

but he's in pain. This is a very heavy vehicle.

He's very shaken and opts to be checked over in hospital.

I can still take you down for a check-up.

I'll put something on your arm cos that'll sting like hell.

-Then we'll take you for a check-up. Is that what you want?

-Yeah.

-OK. We'll do that.

The area is not safe. This vehicle actually weighs over two tonne.

That's about twice as heavy as a small car.

A lamppost is dangerously out of position

and there's a risk it could fall over.

Can you set a cordon up across here, please, guys?

He has hit a lamppost that's damaged, so we need to

try and get someone to come and make that safe.

Also there's quite a large spillage of diesel,

so we've made a cordon, trying to keep the public away

from the spillage and prevent the diesel from going down the drain and polluting the area.

Diesel is still leaking from the sweeper's fuel tank.

-Where's this tank?

-On that near side, it's just completely drained.

-And all that down there is just a big pool.

-That's his filler cap.

He's obviously sheared it off when he came round.

This is proving to be quite a clear-up operation.

The sweeper may be out of action, but the fire crews may still be able to make use of it.

A dustbin's what we want. I'll see if he's got one.

Have you got a dustbin or bucket or anything?

I'm looking for a tank, cos there's a lot of diesel I want to try and scoop up and put it somewhere.

A bit of ingenuity is needed, and the fire crews quickly requisition

buckets and a dustpan from the vehicle to start scooping up the fuel.

Len is taken off to hospital, leaving the fire crew to make the area safe.

It's not really flammable in this situation.

The problem is it is a pollutant, and we don't want it to go into the water course.

And it's also a hazard for motorcyclists and cyclists.

It makes the road surface very slippery, and it can also over time

eat into the road surface, so we need to try and absorb it as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, the council has sent a team to remove the lamppost.

Once the electricity is disconnected, it just takes a bit of brute force to remove.

He's finished? Yeah?

With the post safely dealt with, the toppled vehicle can now be removed.

It's a job for the recovery team.

I'll just put it back up onto its wheels, then I can turn round

and come back in front and then just winch it up.

Fire crews stay on the scene in case any more diesel spills on the road.

But there's a problem.

The little road sweeper is too heavy for the recovery truck's cable.

That's a one-tonne cable.

-Well, I mean, I can double the cable up and get two tonnes.

-Yeah.

But the problem with it is that I can't really get a straight enough angle on it.

And obviously, I don't want to twist my bed,

otherwise the truck's out of action.

Time for Green Watch to come to the rescue again.

Their heavy-duty chains are just what's needed.

Point of no return, eh? Yeah!

Finally, it's upright and the remaining mess can be cleared up.

We need a road sweeper to clear the road up!

And there's a chance to get at the controls to see if they can bring it back to life.

Got no fuel left, that's why.

Extraordinarily, only bruises. Isn't that amazing?

Talking of which, our update on our road-traffic accident that we sent that helicopter out to,

they finally got him out of the car, the trapped person. Only bruises.

They had to cut him out and he's still only got bruises.

It's amazing. I said, lorry versus car, there'll only be one winner there.

Turns out there's more than one winner. Everyone's a winner!

You seemed to really enjoy yourself with the helicopter.

It was really interesting seeing the RNLI,

because I was only in the survival "tank", that they call it,

but trying to imagine that out in the real sea is something I wouldn't want to do.

Absolutely. And how did you get out? Presumably you had to hop out and swim.

I thought I was going to swim, but no, that's not what happened.

Oh, here you go, here's pictures.

There you are. Oh, they winched you!

They winched me. There I was, sitting quite happily...

You've got your hands round the guy's thighs. Oh, that's better.

It's imperative to keep your arms down, because that's what keeps you in the harness.

But when you've been taken up 20 or 30 foot, I just wanted to hold on to something! It made me feel safer.

But it was NOT safe. Keep your arms down.

What did they say? You're not a survivor when they pick you up.

That was really interesting, actually.

You're not a survivor until you get home and you can have a cup of tea

and you can tell everybody about it.

What fantastically exciting day for you.

And it is for all of is, as well.

When I stood down there, I didn't like that very much, actually.

We'll have more, of course, Real Rescues for you very soon.

-Yes, we'll see you very soon. Bye-bye.

-OK, bye-bye.

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