Episode 10 Real Rescues

Today, a man hangs over a 100ft drop, and he's badly injured.

MAN SPEAKS

OPERATOR RESPONDS

CLIFF SOBS AND SHOUTS

Also today - he was only trying to help someone out.

Now Simon's heel bone is shattered.

-HE GASPS IN PAIN

-Do you want some gas?

-Agh!

-It will hurt. It will hurt, but it will immobilise it.

Hello. All around the country, emergency crews of all sorts

are heading out to help people like you and me - ambulances,

air ambulances, paramedics, doctors,

maybe even the new Hazardous Area Response Teams.

-We'll see what they do later on.

-All are sent out from centres

like this one at South Central Ambulance Control.

Today there's been some rain around, and it's affecting their work.

They're very busy. Michele is in charge. She may be talking to someone.

-Are you free to talk?

-OK. No problem.

-She's just finishing a call.

-I don't want to interrupt her.

-No problem. Bye bye.

-Are you clear now?

-I'm clear now.

-Sorry about that.

We've had a bit of rain, and that's affected what's going on, hasn't it?

It has. We've had four road-traffic incidents in the last few hours.

-Right.

-And that usually is due to the weather conditions.

-And what sort of incidents are they?

-A car overturned, rollover car,

-a car via motorbike...

-And that's because of the road conditions?

You could say that. The roads are slippery.

-People are still going fast.

-I know you're busy,

so I'll leave you to get on for now.

We're about to listen to a recording of an extraordinary 999 call.

A man has lost consciousness and woken up partway down

a 100ft cliff. He's in pain from his injuries,

he's groggy and confused. And this is the emergency call he makes.

This is obviously a precarious situation. In the pitch darkness,

this man, ironically named Cliff,

is trapped 30 feet down a cliff- face. He's had an epileptic fit

and has found himself wrapped in a bramble bush with an injured leg.

And as if that's not bad enough, he has another fit

whilst he's on the phone.

CLIFF SPEAKS

CLIFF GASPS AND CHOKES

CLIFF MOANS

CLIFF WHIMPERS

CLIFF MOANS

For the second time, Cliff has no memory of what's just happened.

The urgency, as we'll find out later,

is to pinpoint exactly where he is. Louise.

One good turn normally deserves another,

but unfortunately not in Simon's case.

He's only trying to do a good deed for a client,

but it all goes very wrong when he shatters his heel bone.

An ambulance crew are heading out to an emergency

in a residential street. A workman's fallen off a roof

and is now lying injured and in terrible pain in his customer's front room.

We don't know how high the garage is, obviously,

so we've got a query fractured ankle,

so we've got to take into account other things, as well.

Alyssa Musselwhite and Dave Francis arrive to find Simon

suffering a mixture of pain and embarrassment.

-What's been happening, mate?

-I made the stupid mistake

-of jumping off a garage roof.

-You jumped off a garage roof?

What were you doing on the garage roof?

Gentleman locked himself out of a door that I've just fitted.

Simon has been working at ground level, fitting new doors

along the street, when a customer locked himself out.

Simon was quick to help, and climbed onto the roof to get round the back.

That's when a good deed turned into a bad move.

-How high was it you came off?

-You can see.

-Eight foot.

-Eight foot down. And what happened then?

-I just landed a bit awkward, a bit flat-footed, on that foot.

-OK.

I can't put any pressure on it. I'm hurting from about...

-Just a massive ache from there to there.

-All right.

Because Simon landed flat on his feet,

he could have jarred bones in his back as well as damaging his foot.

-Any pains in the back of your neck?

-No.

-Don't shake your head.

Just say yes or no. Can you lean forward for me slightly?

-Any pains down here?

-Not at all.

-Any pains as I go down your back?

-No. You're all good.

-Are you normally fit and well?

-Yes.

Simon's blood pressure and pulse are normal,

but one foot is giving cause for concern.

His leg is shaking uncontrollably.

He's also struggling to deal with the pain.

-Excuse the shaking.

-That's all right.

-Actually, have you got a wee bit?

-Yeah.

-Before we even do that.

Just to try and stop the shaking.

No. No, that's fine. Yeah.

OK.

-The valve will open.

-Cheers.

-Put that in your mouth.

Nice big breaths on it. That's it. That's perfect.

It soon takes the edge off Simon's pain.

-Take some deep breaths on that gas and air.

-Go for it, go for it.

Thank you. It's off.

Painful there?

-Painful here?

-No.

Right. Can I get you just to try and gently bring the foot up toward you?

That's as much as I can go before it stops.

-There's no sharp pain anywhere.

-Right. OK.

Yeah. I can feel that.

-What about here?

-Yeah, yeah. I can feel it.

-Just there?

-Yeah. I wouldn't push too hard on there.

-I'm not going to.

There's clearly a significant injury here, and it's going to get worse before it gets better.

His leg has to be put into a splint.

-All right?

-Agh! Jesus!

-Do you want some gas?

-Agh!

-It will hurt. It will hurt, but it will immobilise it.

-There we are.

-It will immobilise it, to protect it.

OK? That's why it's padded.

But it will protect it.

-How's that?

-Now that you've got it in there,

we won't need to touch it at all. We've got the pedal board...

You've just happened to put it in the exact position where it hurts.

-No, that's fine.

-When we're on the stretcher,

we can pad it out and make it a little more comfortable.

All right? Yeah?

Bargain.

Although it's extremely painful, the splint will protect the foot from further injury.

-I'm not going to swear.

-HE LAUGHS

-It's all good.

-Right.

Right.

-Good luck, mate! >

-Cheers. Thank you very much.

See you later! Bye! >

Simon has no choice but to abandon his customers,

his work and his van. The next stop is A&E.

Two secs. We'll get you up and then we'll get you in.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No worries.

The pain is still very severe.

-We'll take the bad leg.

-There we go.

-That's it.

Well done. HE GROANS

-Do you want a blanket under this one to make it softer?

-Let it drop.

-No. No, that's...that's nice!

-We'll leave it there, then!

THEY LAUGH

Now that we've immobilised that, is that better?

Oh, yeah. Just uncomfortable

from the fact that I've jumped off a roof onto it, really,

more than anything else. The silly things we do to help people out!

-So it's not part of the job description?

-No!

What qualifications do you need to jump off a roof?

It would appear an extreme amount of stupidity!

THEY LAUGH

Whatever the state of his foot,

Simon is determined to keep grinning and bear it.

-If you'll excuse me, I may be disappearing to the land of the fairies.

-You carry on.

It shows that the stuff's working.

Now at the hospital, X-rays can be carried out

to find out exactly what the damage is.

And that turns out to be far more serious than a broken bone.

In a moment we'll see what the A&E doctor discovers.

Marvellous stuff, that gas, isn't it? He was smiling in there.

Now, back to the unfortunate man who's fallen 30 feet

down a cliff. He urgently needs help.

It's the middle of the night. He's had two epileptic fits,

and he's in a lot of pain.

CLIFF MOANS

HE SHOUTS

Extraordinary stuff! And Jenna, who was taking the call, and Cliff

are here with us now. Um, how's your knee?

It's certainly a lot better now, thanks.

I wanted to find out straight away. What an extraordinary thing to have to go through!

Yeah, it was quite difficult.

Just hearing back to it there, I can't remember all of it,

and some of it coming back, it's just a relief to be here

-and everything being all right now.

-You were tangled in a thorn bush,

which was unpleasant, but from your point of view, you love that bush!

To bits. I think if it weren't for that thorn bush,

I probably would have fallen a lot further down.

Things would have been a lot worse off had that happened.

Jenna, extraordinary, because you had somebody in pain

but you were trying to get people to him, as well,

and you were worried at times that you might lose him.

Yeah, because he went into another fit during the call.

He was groaning to start with, then went really, really quiet

and all I could hear was the traffic buzzing by in the background.

But fortunately he started to groan again a bit later.

It's nice that you get to meet someone that you've...

I'm sure you were pleased to have Jenna on the line throughout that whole ordeal,

-or do you not remember much of it at all?

-You're right,

I don't remember much. But the bits I do remember,

having someone on the end of the phone was quite comforting,

rather than being stuck there on my own.

-How's your epilepsy now?

-A lot more settled down, thanks.

They've got my medication sorted out, a bit more suited to my needs.

We wish you the best of luck. Thank you for coming in.

Now, Cliff's cliff-face rescue was the first job

for the brand-new Hazardous Area Response Teams.

Unlike regular ambulance crews, HART, as they're known,

are specifically trained to go into the most dangerous places,

right at the centre of a disaster, areas they call hot zones.

In a moment we'll see why they're becoming a vital emergency service.

Still to come, a busy motorway packed with holiday traffic -

hardly the best place for a horsebox to break down,

because getting them to safety will make them panic.

My horse is quite skittish. My concern is, if we unload her,

she may not load again. They've been in there for five hours.

And a prang at just ten miles an hour,

but the emergency services are taking it very, very seriously.

We'll deal with it as final removal. We'll go for the full roof removal.

I want to talk to Debbie about a recent call that came in here

about a man who'd injured his hand, but I think she might be busy.

Yep. She's on a call at the moment. She had a call in here yesterday

while we were here. Somebody had injured his hand with an electric saw,

and he'd actually severed some fingers.

She managed to tell him to calm down, sit down, open the door,

and before he did so, the ambulance crew got there,

and they did find his fingers. That call came in here yesterday.

As you can see, she's really busy. Nick.

Now, your task. Here's your task, all right? You have two horses

trapped in their horsebox on a busy motorway.

The vehicle can't be loaded onto a tow truck with the animals inside,

and the horses will panic if they're let out. So what do you do?

Fortunately this happened in Hampshire,

home to the leading animal-rescue specialists in the country.

It's a busy Friday afternoon on the M3,

and an emergency call comes in to Jim Green, animal-rescue specialist.

-We've now had a call to...

-HE SWITCHES OFF SIREN

..assist at a fire on the motorway

involving a horse lorry

which apparently has two horses on board.

First thing we're looking for is the safety of everybody at the scene.

If the horses have been evacuated from the vehicle

prior to our arrival,

then they're obviously going to be in a state of anxiety,

to say the least.

If the horses escape onto the motorway, it could be catastrophic.

But when he arrives, the fire crews have already put the flames out,

and there's no sign of the horses.

-Hello, mate.

-HE RESPONDS OFF-MIC

Jim soon learns that the horses are still inside.

Owners Sam and Alexa have been travelling to the New Forest

for a weekend's riding. That plan's gone up in smoke.

The engine has been badly damaged by fire,

and the horsebox is stranded on the hard shoulder.

-Are you local?

-No, we're from Epsom.

-Is there a stables that you know of that would allow us in there...

-We'll find out from the vet.

The horses have already been locked in for five hours.

My horse is quite skittish. If we unload her, she may not load again.

Let me have a chat with the vet. He's local.

Jim, along with vet Jonathan Moore and the recovery driver,

urgently work out a plan to get the horses to safety.

He thinks he can tow this for a short distance,

but if it's recovered properly, it needs to be lifted up.

He's not doing that with them in it.

So we're going to get them quietly to Kings Worthy, let them off,

relax them, give them some water, give them time to settle down and then take them on.

The fire crew will escort the towed wagon to a local stable yard

to unload the horses. Once empty, the horsebox can be lifted

onto the breakdown truck to get it home.

New transportation for the horses has also been organised.

First, Jonathan needs to sedate the two horses.

Be careful with her.

She doesn't like needles.

Good girl...

As the sedation takes effect, they get the horsebox hooked up

to the breakdown truck, but Jim still has concerns.

He was putting this bar on there, and he reckons there's going to be

-a phenomenal amount of banging and crashing.

-Yes.

He says it's like a gunshot going off,

because it's taking up slack and knocking all the time.

He cannot put this on his proper lifter with the horses in there,

so that's his only option, but there is going to be quite a lot of stimulation.

They're going to react, even if they're sedated.

I think, to a certain extent, we've got to wait and see what happens.

To close the motorway in both directions is an option,

but one the team are keen to avoid.

The sedative is now working. They have to get the horses to the stables

as soon as possible.

I'm on radio communication. I'll be in front.

Anything goes wrong, he'll tell me, and we'll stop.

They're ready to go ahead with the towing.

All the vehicles will form a convoy, with Jim at the front

and two fire engines behind the lorry, until they get off the motorway.

This is quite a tricky part of the journey,

because we're not quite sure how the horses will react.

Using the hard shoulder, they carefully make their way

off the motorway.

But to get to the stable yard, all these heavy vehicles

have to go through a village - and there's a problem. The road is very narrow.

-What are you going to do?

-Get the bus over as far as I can.

OK.

Because the horsebox is being towed, it can't reverse,

so the bus will have to.

As the convoy manoeuvres down a tiny country lane,

it comes to a complete halt. Now it's a low bridge blocking the way.

-What's happening, mate?

-The bridge is too low.

I forgot that bridge is as low as it was.

-Right. Well, how low is the bridge?

-12ft. He's 14.

Right. OK.

Vet Jonathan wants to unload the horses here

into a nearby empty field, and then walk them to the stables.

We'll take them down to the yard as soon as we get everything...

-I got you. How far is the yard?

-It's just under the bridge.

THEY LAUGH

After seven hours in the lorry, the horses, Freya and Leah,

can finally stretch their legs and grab a snack.

It's great news that they're so calm.

As you see, they're absolutely fine,

so we just need to get them to a yard,

and then get everything settled down

and then transport them away back home.

Just a short walk to the other side of the bridge,

and Freya and Leah will be settled into the stables.

It'll be a bit of a wait for some new transport to arrive,

but at least they've survived the motorway fire.

They were so calm when they came out! A quick favour for a client,

and workman Simon has ended up shattering his heel bone.

Doctors at A&E have now examined the X-rays,

and his injuries are far from straightforward.

So this is the bone, when I examined you...

This is the anatomical position where he has got pain,

this part,

where the calcaneal bone is. All right?

And this is the same bone on the X-rays.

-And your fracture is...

-Ah, yeah!

-There is a disruption, yeah.

-I can see it.

-So this line is going all the way.

So this is a calcaneal fracture.

Simon has a fracture in the calcaneum bone, or heel bone.

Dr Babar Mageed explains possible complications of the injury.

I wouldn't say at the moment it's a complicated case,

but it needs to be treated appropriately.

If it is not treated appropriately, then the complications,

like compartment syndrome or many other things, that can occur.

Compartment syndrome can result in tissue dying off in the foot.

It's basically when there is so much compression

around the bone,

and there could be... The vessels can be compressed,

and, er, it's an emergency.

It's so serious, Simon will need an orthopaedic specialist,

and possibly an operation. In the meantime,

he just has to cope with the pain.

-Do you need any painkillers?

-Not at this precise moment in time,

-but I'll keep you posted.

-OK. All right.

So it's off to see the specialist, where Simon will find out

how long he'll be out of action.

Simon is here. Despite the pain, you just kept on smiling, didn't you?

-Got to, haven't you?

-You've had an operation. How are you doing now?

Not so bad. It's getting there slowly. Just hobbling about now,

-waiting for it to sort itself out.

-And you're a really busy person.

-What's it like, being at home for the last few months?

-Er, interesting!

-Just not used to being sat around all day.

-What about the missus?

-She's suddenly got you at home. How's she coping?

-She's been an angel.

She's done everything, waited on me hand and foot,

especially whilst I was laid up with a cast and everything

and I couldn't walk anywhere. It was absolutely spot-on.

It's quite tough, though. When are you hoping to be back at work?

God, as soon as possible, really.

When I get to the point where I can jump about and carry heavy things,

-more than anything else.

-You're slightly accident prone,

to have a job like... You've done your elbow, as well.

A few years ago I had a bit of glass fall on the back of my elbow,

-which cut through to the bone.

-Just a bit!

Yeah, that was a goodie.

Um, I just seem to not have little accidents.

Keep saving up and have big ones instead.

You cut your funny bone, which is not funny at all.

Tell me, you're hoping to be back by Christmas,

and things will get better. You were doing a favour, though.

That's what must be really disturbing.

Yeah. I'd fitted the gentleman's front door and his back door,

explained how it works and everything,

-went on to the next job.

-And he shut the door.

And the door shut on him, yes.

So he come round and asked if he could borrow a ladder,

and I said, "No problem," and got one from the van.

His back door was open, and to get to there, you had to go over...

-Will you do a favour for somebody else again?

-Oh, God, yeah.

-Ahh...

-Yeah. Can't change a man's nature, unfortunately.

-Good luck and thank you, Simon.

-You're welcome.

We're talking about slippery roads today. Driving a car with a trailer

is not easy, whether you're going round corners or in a straight line.

Joseph Perkins was towing a trailer when it started swerving out of control.

He was slammed into the safety barrier, and when you see his truck,

you'll agree it's a miracle no-one was killed.

PC Phil Robertson has been called to what sounds like a serious accident

on the M27.

There's a 4x4 overturned into the central reservation,

and a trailer of some sort parked on the hard standing

next to the crash barriers.

There's only a small amount of traffic coming the other way,

which, for this time of day, might mean that there's a real build-up

further on down the road.

Phil arrives just ahead of an ambulance and fire engine.

He soon discovers the cause of the tailback.

It's an upside-down pickup truck.

It's smashed into the crash barrier and completely flipped over.

Its contents are strewn all over the road.

-I'm sorry about this.

-No worries. We'll get it sorted out.

Amazingly, the driver, Joseph, seems to have escaped without any injuries.

I was just going along steady, towing that,

and it just started to snake. It snaked, turned me over.

The trailer is a heavy industrial tarmac heater.

It still has the tow-bar attached after it sheared off the truck.

Looking at it, the driver is incredibly lucky.

We're on a very, very busy stretch of road.

He's got a small wobble on the trailer, then, like a pendulum effect,

that's pushed the van, which is possibly lighter,

to wiggle even further. The vehicle's lost all control,

has come straight across and hit the central reservation,

and he's walked away with a couple of scratches

from the shards of glass coming from his windscreen.

In order for the emergency services to work safely,

Phil has coned off the fast lane on both sides of the barrier.

Now our priority is to get these roads back again.

There's two miles of traffic down towards Chichester.

To get them going. Problems tend to happen in a tailback.

He wants to get the road cleared as soon as he can.

Hello, mate. Do you have a recovery garage,

or do you want us to arrange recovery for you?

-I'll ring my boss and find out.

-OK. We can't leave it here too long.

While Joseph phones his boss to break the news of the accident,

Phil and the firefighters continue to sweep up the scattered debris.

-How'd you get on with your boss?

-I can't reach him,

-so you better take it away.

-All right.

Could we arrange recovery, please? It's upside down on its roof,

and there's approximately a ton- and-a-half vehicle on the trailer.

After seeing the state of the truck, the ambulance crew have decided

it's best to take Joseph in for a check-up. He could have hidden injuries.

He doesn't need to go to hospital by the looks of him,

but looking at that, you'd say he probably needed to go, wouldn't you?

Yeah. Probably. I'd probably go down the hospital.

They've cleared the debris on the other side of the road,

and can start to open both lanes.

The barrier did its job in preventing a far worse accident,

but it's been left with a huge dent.

We'll await the Highways Agency to come.

They've damaged quite a considerable amount of barrier,

but it's done what it's supposed to do.

It's taken all the pressure out the crash.

Joseph has now left for hospital in the ambulance.

Phil's colleague, PC Jim Chapman,

is worried about the condition of the trailer.

Bits of metal are falling off that, big bits.

It literally just came off. If that had bounced on the road,

someone could be seriously hurt. There's no play on it,

and underneath, they've just got a braking system that doesn't...

It's just got bits of putty and rubbish holding it together!

Recovery have arrived, and start work on the wrecked pickup.

Before it's taken away, Phil wants to look at the trailer for himself.

It should be braked. It's such a heavy trailer,

when this moves back and forward, it would apply the brakes.

But as you can see, can't right-lock.

Hopefully when they pick it up we'll be able to see

where the problems are where the braking area is.

That...is locked solid with roofing tar.

And that really should...move.

Because there's some mechanical deficiencies on it,

we'll get that looked at, and take a full mechanical report from it.

After seeing how the accident happened,

Phil is still amazed that neither Joseph nor anyone else got hurt.

This is normally a fairly busy route,

and not another vehicle has been hit

by either his swerving vehicle

or with the trailer coming off and hitting anyone else.

Really... Well. Work of God.

No further action was taken, but the police did give the company some training,

so it shouldn't happen again. Louise.

In the last few years, a brand-new ambulance service has arrived -

a group of elite medics trained to enter

what is known as the inner cordon. That's the area

close to the centre of chemical spills,

terrorist attacks, or areas where treating someone is dangerous.

Joe Crowley watched them in action

at a recent international training exercise.

Now, you may not have heard of HART.

It stands for Hazardous Area Response Team.

It's a group of specialists in the ambulance service,

and it's a new addition to the emergency services.

-Sloane, you're a HART paramedic.

-Yes.

-What exactly is HART?

Hazardous Area Response Team. We've been set up in various locations

around the UK, strategic places.

We've been trained to work alongside the Fire and Rescue Service

and provide paramedic care during an incident.

-Instead of casualties being brought out to you, you go to them?

-Yes.

You've got some specialist kit. You don't look like a paramedic!

-What is all this?

-This is all our safe-working-at-height equipment.

So if there was someone caught up in this caravan,

and they were secure, you could go to them,

-be lowered down to them?

-We would work with Fire and Rescue.

Obviously they would lead it.

But if that was the scenario, we could do that.

Can you also use breathing equipment and go into fires?

Yes. We've been trained, and can go into smoke-filled environments

and gas-filled ones where you couldn't go in without apparatus.

I know HART is a new addition to the emergency services.

This is the perfect sort of exercise to test your skills, isn't it?

Definitely. We've been up on that collapsed roadway up there today

with two patients that were up there.

We were able to start providing them with paramedic care very quickly,

and stabilised them before they were extricated down.

-You're all kitted up. I won't take up any more of your time. I'll let you get on with it.

-Thank you!

HART is the most advanced addition to the ambulance service,

but things haven't always been so high-tech.

Soon we'll have a look at one of the first-ever ambulances.

Three vehicles collide at just ten miles an hour,

but one of the drivers, Sayeeda, has developed a sharp pain in her neck,

and may have suffered serious spinal injuries.

Within moments, 11 firefighters, two ambulance crew,

one specialist spinal-injury medic and a policeman are cutting her from the car.

Green Watch are on a callout.

-SIREN WAILS

-There it is. Police cars.

Just pull up on the fend-off.

Three cars have collided on a city high street.

The driver of one car is complaining of severe pain in her neck.

Crew manager Steve Evans is brought up to speed

by the paramedic who's treating her inside the car.

-Hello, there. All right?

-Yeah. Not so bad.

We have a lady here who's been involved in a fairly minor shunt,

approximately ten miles an hour. She has some neck pain at the moment,

so whether it's whiplash... She said it feels central,

-so I'm waiting for a colleague...

-To do the spinal clearance.

-Yeah.

-No-one else is hurt?

-No other casualties or other injuries.

Just this one lady.

The ambulance crews are waiting for a colleague to arrive

who can say if it's safe to carry the woman out through the car door.

Once he comes down and clears the spine,

we either twist her and bring her straight out,

or we may need to remove the roof.

So if we've just got the stuff ready to go... But don't go too mad.

It won't be a hurry-up job, I don't think.

We're waiting for the ambulance service's specially trained personnel

who can do what they call neck clearance, spinal clearance.

And they will assess to see whether she can be brought out,

under supervision, through the door, or whether we need to take the roof off.

On a further look, the paramedic already on the scene

decides that there is no way this woman can be rescued

through the doorway. Her pain is too intense.

If she's in that much pain, there is one sure way of getting her out.

If you want us to remove that roof, we'll remove that roof.

We'll deal with it as final removal, yeah?

We'll go for the full roof removal.

She's not saying a lot.

When they're quiet, that's not a good sign.

When people are more vocal, that's quite a good sign

that their health is better, but because she's so quiet,

I would say she's in a lot of pain and grinning and bearing it.

Sayeeda's daughter was in the car with her,

but she was properly strapped in and has escaped unharmed.

The first step is stabilising the car.

The crew do this by placing blocks behind and in front of the tyres.

All the time, the ambulance crew are keeping Sayeeda's head as still as possible.

We're doing a roof removal. We'll have the dedicated stuff off.

Let's do the glass ones now. If you can get that off and sorted, that's all we're doing.

The fire crews then put up cloth screens

which will protect the injured woman from any broken glass

as they cut through the windscreen and roof supports.

It's partly the driver's build which is making it difficult to get her out.

Because she's such a small lady, she's very tightly packed

against the steering wheel, and to remove her safely,

with suspected spinal injuries, could cause her additional problems.

For that reason, the paramedics have decided she needs to come out

with a spinal board, and the safest way to do that

is to effect a full roof removal and bring her out in a nice straight line on a board.

SAW BUZZES

Within minutes, the roof is ready to be removed.

Fellas, once it's free,

come over, back, and then over there out the way.

OK. One, two, three. Up!

With the roof off, the fire crews can now get the long board in.

As soon as the roof's off, we'll create enough space

to get a spine board down behind the back of the lady.

We'll slot it in there, wind the seat away,

and then nice and gently we'll lower her and the board

to the horizontal position and slide her up.

What that does is keep all of her spinal cord in a nice straight line

and make sure we don't aggravate any injuries she's got.

Yeah, I've got it.

Adam Bundle sits alongside Sayeeda, keeping her calm

as they start to bring her out.

When I'm with a casualty, it's best to reassure them.

There's a lot of noise, especially when we're manoeuvring her

and she's got back and neck pain. I was just letting her know

when she was about to move, telling her why,

and just to squeeze my hand if the pain got too much.

It's just that helping hand. You just want someone there

to tell you you're going to be all right.

The main purpose is to calm people down and reassure them.

Handling both sides to get her up the board now. Lift and drop.

All these moves are carefully choreographed

to cause as little discomfort to the patient as possible.

Lean against the board.

On a count, they start to slide her.

Ready, steady, lower.

-That's good.

-Sayeeda, relax.

You need to relax. OK. Well done.

Well done. We're just laying you backwards.

Sayeeda is still in a lot of pain.

And slide. Ready, steady, slide.

SAYEEDA MOANS

Lever the board up. Lever the board up.

At last she's out and on the stretcher, ready to be taken to hospital for a full check-up.

There's just a bit of tidying up to do for the fire crews.

Unfortunately, with the amount of vehicles on the road,

this is becoming a common job for us.

We are getting very technically skilled in removing people from vehicles,

and we've got some fantastic equipment to do it with, as well.

We saw a pretty new ambulance being used in that rescue.

We have one here. Not all of us have seen inside an ambulance,

-so I want to show you round this brand-new one. Sarah is a paramedic inside. Hello!

-Hello.

Kit here works for us. He's fine, but he's pretending to be a patient.

Amazing equipment. Tell me about this. It's really sophisticated.

Yeah. This is our MobiMed system, our patient-monitoring system.

It records blood pressure, ECG,

oxygen saturation and respiratory rate.

And that information goes straight to hospital, to A&E?

That's right. For example, if the patient's having a heart attack,

we can send their information, their ECG primarily,

to the hospital directly, which means they don't have to go to A&E.

-We can take them directly...

-To where they need to go to.

Amazing. Let's look at what Kit's got on here.

If he'd broken his leg, you'd use this.

This is a traction splint. Rather than just immobilising a limb,

we can put some traction on a broken bone to put it back in alignment.

I'll show you how it works. We've connected it to the patient's leg,

-and we just apply the traction, which looks very painful...

-Was it?

-No.

-It actually reduces the pain,

because by putting the bones back into the right place,

we minimise the muscle contraction around the bone,

-and that helps the pain.

-So you're really treating them

-on the way to hospital. He's doing fine, isn't he?

-He's fine.

I'm glad to hear it! That's what we've got these days.

It's like a mobile hospital. I've got a real treat for you now, though.

Look at this! This is a 1948 Austin, and this is what they used to drive.

It's absolutely beautiful. They didn't use to have blue lights.

They used to have a red light. Look at the front of this,

the headlamps. Amazing piece of kit. It belongs to Paul, who's here.

-He used to be a paramedic. Hi, Paul. And John...

-Hello.

..one of the longest-serving paramedics.

They've done some statistics on you. How many lives have you helped save?

Well, they say I've saved 17,000 or something like that.

That's amazing. So thousands of people.

-Things have really changed, though, haven't they?

-Certainly, yes.

-When you first started, you just needed a first-aid certificate.

-That's what we needed,

from St John or the Red Cross Society.

-And you didn't even use to do mouth-to-mouth in those days.

-No.

If we had anyone unconscious or drowning, we laid them on their stomach and pulled their arms up,

to move them up, making them look like a pair of bellows,

-and press into your back.

-So CPR's quite different to that.

-But that was good in those days.

-We've seen a modern-day ambulance.

Show me yours. It's a little bit different, isn't it?

-Yes, slightly.

-What kind of equipment did you carry on board?

-Well...

-Look at this!

This is your friend Terry. Show me the equipment.

The basic equipment was our first-aid kit.

-And that is it! That's the extent of it?

-That's it.

A few bandages, some scissors, wooden splints to put on fractures.

-Quite different from what I've just seen.

-Slightly, yes!

Dressings for burns, a little airway...

And your patient hasn't quite been here since the 1940s.

How would you get her out of the ambulance?

-Do you want to show me?

-Yes, I will.

-Are you ready?

-Are you ready, Terry?

-Yep.

-Mind your head.

CREAKING

-Which is quite hard work for you!

-It certainly is.

This is very different, but people saved lives in these, didn't they?

Course we did! Just as many as they do today.

That's the thing I'm interested in. What was this used for?

That's a Neil Robertson stretcher.

That was used for lowering people down from a cliff top

-or a tower or a building...

-Made of bamboo?

-Yes.

Perfectly safe unless you're getting someone out of a panda enclosure.

-THEY LAUGH

-In which case you're a human taco!

-This is amazing!

-How many babies have been born in this ambulance?

I was told that seven or eight babies were born in here,

and also Princess Anne was carried in this ambulance

-when she was at the dressage.

-We've run out of time!

Princess Anne was in this! We could talk for ages. We have to go now.

-We'll see you for more Real Rescues soon.

-Bye bye.

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