Episode 18 Real Rescues

It takes three adrenaline shots to save Dale's life after a wasp sting.

He had no idea he was allergic.

Dale? Take a nice deep breath in for me.

-And out. OK. Does your tongue feel a bit swollen, does it?

-Yeah.

-Have you had this before?

-No.

75 miles out in the North Sea, a Force 7 gale rips down the mast

of a tiny Norwegian yacht. The crew are stranded,

and to rescue them will take the Scottish coastguard more than 25 hours.

Hello and welcome to Real Rescues. On average, 104,000 emergency calls

-are made every single day in Britain.

-And picked up in places like this,

South Central ambulance control.

The duty control manager is busy at the moment,

so we'll go and see one of regulars, Claire,

and see if she can tell us what's happening today.

-What's your most recent call?

-We had a call from a gentleman

in office, from a railway station,

telling me that a toddler had got their hand trapped

-between two carriages, in the door.

-Oh, right.

So we sent a rapid-response vehicle to them,

and they were treated at scene, and then they... That was it, really.

-They carried on their journey?

-Yeah.

-Not a serious injury?

-No. Just minor injuries.

-OK. That's quite clever.

They send someone to the station. They treat them, hop off, and on they go. Interesting, eh?

We'll keep you up to date with what's going on today.

Yes. Now a story with a sting in the tail.

Did you know it's possible to develop an allergy to wasp stings

after just one sting? You could even suddenly become allergic

after being stung many times over a period of years.

The reaction can be fatal. This is very rare,

but not rare enough for Dale, who nearly lost his life after being stung.

Pilot Chris Atchell and medics Kevin Hodgson and Gordon Ingram

are racing to a man who's collapsed, seriously ill, whilst mountain-biking.

Anaphylactic shock sends the body's immune system haywire.

It can kill unless urgent treatment is given.

Dalby Forest is a popular tourist spot,

but it's remote and difficult to get people out of.

The casualty is already being treated in an ambulance.

To help the helicopter crew reach him quicker,

they've parked at the side of a picnic clearing.

Gordon has rushed inside to assess Dale's condition.

Dale? Take a nice deep breath in for me.

-And out. OK. Does your tongue feel a bit swollen, does it?

-Yeah.

-Have you had this before?

-No.

-OK. Open your eyes for me.

When we arrived on scene, Dale wasn't fully alert.

Because he had gone through a severe anaphylaxis,

he was still quite groggy, quite fatigued, quite tired.

Dale was on a ground training exercise

with fellow members of the RAF. On one of the woodland trails,

he fell off his bike and landed on a wasp's nest.

He received several stings, but didn't react immediately.

Dale's throat closed up and his tongue ballooned in size,

making it difficult for him to breathe.

Dale? Just going to give you...

-..another little injection, OK?

-OK.

-Good.

It became apparent that Dale was in quite a bad way

when they first arrived on scene. Severe anaphylaxis can be a killer.

To save his life, Dale has already needed three shots of adrenaline.

Tongue was slightly swollen, so the decision was made

to give him some more adrenaline to calm that swelling down

to fully open up the airways,

and to make sure that he gets to hospital as safely and quickly as possible.

Because Dale's reaction was so severe,

they don't want to take any chances of it flaring up again.

Hiya, Dale! Open your eyes for me again.

Good man. Well done. I'm going to stick some monitoring onto you, OK?

They want him to have a full check-over at the hospital,

as there may be other hidden injuries caused by his fall.

Right. I'm just going to pop a little needle in your arm here, OK?

I'll let you know what's going on all the time.

How you feeling now? You feeling a bit better?

-HE MOANS

-A bit...

A bit drained?

Gordon keeps a constant eye on Dale's response levels

in case he starts to drift away again.

Your mate's just next to you, if you want to chat to him.

-How's things, mate? You all right?

-What's your mate's name, Dale?

-Bob.

-Is that right?

There's also a possibility the allergic reaction may have had an effect on Dale's memory.

I'll ring Chloe. Give her a dial. I'll give her a ring at work.

-What's her extension number at work?

-Um...

At her desk? Three something?

Er...

Don't worry if you don't know it. I'll let her know.

Dale's RAF ground training has ended up with him being back in the air

sooner than expected.

The flight to Scarborough Hospital takes just six minutes.

As chance would have it, having just brought in a patient themselves,

the crew of the local coastguard search-and-rescue helicopter are on hand to help.

-All right?

-Easy on the grass, lads.

In the short time the air-ambulance crew have been with him,

Dale's condition has shown signs of improvement.

The team can now make themselves available for further emergencies.

In the meantime, Dale will be kept under observation

until he is hopefully back to his normal self.

Well, Dale joins us now, along with Mark Ainsworth-Smith,

a friend of the programme, to help explain what was going on there.

We left you there saying you were showing signs of recovery,

but in fact you took a downward plunge after that, didn't you?

Yes, apparently I did.

Went into a cardiac arrest and they had to resuscitate me.

And quite an aggressive resuscitation, by all accounts,

because you had a bust rib afterwards.

Yeah. I woke up with a pain and broken rib,

and they told me they had to resuscitate me, and that's why.

And you'd been stung previously in your lifetime?

Yeah, several times as a kid,

but obviously not while I was mountain-biking up a hill,

so, er, never had a problem before.

And yet all of a sudden, years on... Mind you, to be fair,

you did go head-first into a wasp's nest.

Yeah. I was travelling quite fast. I'd been cycling up a hill,

got the adrenaline going and took a corner too fast.

-Went over the handlebars.

-How many stings do you think you got?

Probably five or more, but I can't be sure, to be honest.

And you then cycled on up the hill and then collapsed.

Yeah. I cycled about 500 yards, and there was a noise on the bike,

so I stopped with another two colleagues,

and just about to repair the bike, and that's all I remember.

-Six weeks off work?

-Six weeks off work,

but that was because I cracked my leg on the handlebars

-and had a big haematoma.

-All right. Obviously a very violent reaction.

At one stage he went into arrest.

-And you have a scale, don't you?

-Yeah.

-For... The coma scale?

-We do. We call it the Glasgow coma score.

It's used to assess how alert Dale is.

At the scene, it appears that he is conscious. He is alert,

but he is confused. He's unable to give telephone numbers.

So we would have scored him as 14 out of 15,

-and you or I are 15 at the moment.

-But when he got in

and went into attack, that's because...

When he was in cardiac arrest, he would have had a GCS,

a Glasgow coma score, of just three out of 15,

which is basically the same as being dead.

Really? That bad? He was that close? How often do you survive that?

Obviously, anybody in cardiac arrest, it's a very poor prognosis.

But he had expert help. He had exactly the right treatment,

and with that he's made a full and complete survival.

I don't understand why you can go your whole life being stung

and have no reaction, and then suddenly have a massive reaction.

-Does this happen a lot?

-It's very unusual.

It is very common to be stung once and not have a reaction

then have one the second time. It can only be related

to a couple of things. I think one is, probably,

the fact that he was exercising,

and that can bring on allergic reactions.

He was also producing lots of adrenaline because of the exercise,

and that is one of the drugs we use when someone has an anaphylaxis,

so I wonder if it's related to that.

Presumably you now have to carry an EpiPen?

Yeah. I've got two EpiPens with me at all times.

Right. But does this mean if he gets stung by,

say, for example, a horsefly, will there be a similar reaction?

Not necessarily, but people who have allergies are very likely to react

to other things, so he must be mindful of it.

Certainly around wasps he's got to be incredibly careful.

So there are all kinds of things that you can get anaphylaxia to.

Watching that, you had an audience during the whole process there!

Yeah, I did, but I don't remember anything at all.

We're very pleased all those people were around to help you,

because if they hadn't taken you by helicopter...

I think it was just purely luck on the day.

There was a first responder within a mile.

My teammates what was there already was virtually trained in first aid.

So without my teammates, the first responder,

the ambulance and the air ambulance, I wouldn't be here today.

Learn first aid! We have at various stages talked about first responders.

If you want to learn how to become one, and save someone like that,

then, contact your local ambulance- control room. All right? Louise.

A Norwegian yacht, the Anga, has set sail from Scotland

straight into a Force 7 gale, 70 miles out

in the freezing North Sea, and the boat is in tatters.

Its mast is ripped from the deck and its propeller is ruined.

With no radio, it's up to the coastguard

to find and rescue them.

Late morning, and the volunteer crew of the Peterhead lifeboat

are heading into the rough seas of the North Atlantic.

Coxswain Andy Brown was at his day job

when he was told a long trip was in store.

'I got a phone call from the lifeboat operations manager.'

He said, "You're going 17 miles offshore

for a yacht that's been dismasted."

"OK, that's fine. 17 miles, that's OK."

"No, 70 miles," he said. I went, "Oh, my God. 70 miles!"

I thought, "Right. I need to take my lunch,"

because I knew it'd be a long shout.

A brief Mayday call from a satellite phone

has given them the yacht's last position,

but they'll take three hours to get there.

We had a rough idea where they were,

and we just plotted that

and used the tides to see where they would eventually be.

At 1:00 PM, the Norwegian yacht Anga finally comes into view.

The yacht's mast has fallen in rough seas,

and the rigging has fouled the propeller.

With the satellite phone of limited use,

the couple on board have been rudderless, adrift

and without radio communication.

The aerial for their VHF radio is on top of the mast.

Unfortunately that was probably at the bottom of the sea.

Since the early hours, they've been thrown around

at the mercy of the ocean.

Lifeboat crewmember Peter Duncan knows it must have been an anxious wait.

'The couple that was on the yacht was very relieved to see us.'

Because their radio was out, there was no contact with the Anga

until we actually arrived on scene,

and I don't know if they knew we were coming

until we popped up over the horizon

and said, "Hello, we're here to help."

It had been up to nine hours, I think, that they had been waiting,

lying dead in the water, getting tossed about,

and it's probably not very comfortable for them.

But they'll have to wait a little longer.

The lifeboat crew need to get a tow rope over to the yacht -

not a straightforward task in these conditions.

'It was quite windy. The sea was quite rough.'

There was a lot of swell. The conditions were...not drastic,

but a bit fresh, shall we say.

If you're putting a 40-ton lifeboat

alongside a smaller yacht,

you get damage to the yacht. You could possibly sink it.

Um, so you just have to be careful.

So the best plan, plan B, was to use the little dinghy.

The team get the Anga's crew to drift out their small inflatable

towards the lifeboat. Peter has volunteered

to jump onto the Anga's tiny dinghy

before getting reeled back to the floundering yacht.

When you arrive on a scene in a case like that,

we have no idea if the people on the yacht

have any sailing experience, if they're injured, if they're capable.

So we put someone on the yacht in that instance.

In the wallowing seas, Peter manages to get into the dinghy,

and is set adrift 70 miles out in the North Atlantic.

He is slowly pulled towards the relative safety of the Anga,

but the problems aren't over yet.

'Yachts are not designed to be towed.

'The fittings they have on them are very lightweight -

'excellent for sailing, but not for being towed by a lifeboat.'

So I got onto the yacht, established that the tow

would be safe for the lifeboat and for the people on the yacht,

and that it would be strong enough to withstand the weather conditions,

and not break and kill someone.

Peter crouches on the bow of the boat, ready to catch the tow rope.

Skipper Andy expertly manoeuvres the lifeboat gently towards them,

careful to avoid collision.

The tow rope has been successfully attached,

but for Peter and the rest of the crew,

this rescue is far from over.

Once you start to take the yacht into tow back to Peterhead,

you can't travel at 20 knots. You have to pick a safe speed

of around six, seven knots in order to come back into Peterhead

without causing further damage to the yacht.

-70 slow miles.

-HE CHUCKLES

Running at quarter speed, the return journey will take at least ten hours.

And to keep the precious tow rope intact in these rough seas,

they'll need to concentrate the whole way home.

But on board the Anga, Peter has plenty of time

to get to know his new companions Ann and Eivind.

Told us where they were going, how they were getting there,

when they bought the yacht, what they did for jobs.

It was just conversation. But it was...

You could tell they were relieved that someone was there to assist them.

Finally, at one in the morning,

15 hours after they left,

the Peterhead lighthouse appears on the horizon.

'The lighthouse is like... that you're almost home.'

You're within sight of land, and it's almost over.

Get home, get a cup of tea, get to your bed... Brilliant.

You're just glad that you've got home safely,

you've got your casualty home safely.

With the yacht secure in the harbour,

the crew can leave for some well-earned rest.

Ann and Eivind will have an unexpected stay in Scotland

while they get their boat repaired, but for now they're back on dry land.

Their ordeal is over.

Gosh, they had a really lucky escape!

Once Ann and Eivind had recovered from their ordeal,

they wanted to meet up with their rescuers.

After having to watch the back of the lifeboat for a good ten hours,

the couple finally had the chance to get on board,

when they were given a tour by crewmembers.

Looking back, Ann and Eivind remember just how desperate

the situation seemed when their mast broke

in the early hours of the previous night.

Eight hours it took, from the mast breaking

till we could see the boat. For eight hours we were drifting

in the North Sea, without really knowing...

where we were going to end.

We kind of started counting how much food we had,

how many days we will be OK drifting.

It is one thing to have enough food and water,

but it's a very, very scary feeling

to be out in the ocean. All you can see is water.

So...when we can see the lifeboat on the horizon...

-That was great.

-That was very good! We were so happy to see them.

Isn't it strange? You talk about the most dangerous part of your life,

and you're giggling. In memory it's, like...

-HE LAUGHS

-"We had a terrible time!"

But luckily they're safe and well now.

Remember when you were a kid and thought you were a superhero?

You could throw yourself off the bunk onto the floor, not a care of your own safety.

Four-year-old Micah is an indestructible superhero

in his vivid imagination. He's playing in his bedroom

when the game comes to a painful end.

Emergency-response medic Andy Rudge to the rescue.

SIREN WAILS

Emergency-care practitioner Andy Rudge

is working in the rapid-response vehicle

when he's called to a four-year-old boy

with a suspected fractured arm.

Broken bones in children can be quite difficult to spot.

If you imagine, like, a fresh branch.

You bend it, it doesn't snap directly in half.

It will snap through the middle. Children's bones are like that

because their bones are softer than ours.

When Andy gets there, little Micah is in obvious distress.

His dad heard a crash come from the bedroom.

-MICAH WAILS

-Hello! You fell off your bunk bed?

Yeah?

Micah, where does it hurt? Which hand? This one?

Yeah, that one!

I lifted his hand because I could see there was something wrong. There was a click.

He's got a little knob at the back, as well.

Andy needs to win Micah's trust in order to examine his arm.

Everything I do, I'm going to tell you.

You tell me if you don't like it. Can you feel that?

Can you wiggle your fingers?

-No.

-No. All right.

Does it hurt up here?

No, there.

Just down...

-Nothing up here?

-No.

OK. Good boy.

Although he's got pain down here, he's got quite a lump under here,

so...

Oh, yeah. I'm going to suspect a fracture till proven otherwise.

Micah fell five feet from the top bunk.

His arm has taken the brunt of it.

Thankfully his back seems to be OK.

So, what were you playing?

-Incredibles.

-The Incredibles?

Yeah?

Is that your favourite?

Yeah?

Micah's being very brave, but his arm is causing him a lot of pain.

Andy's got some pain relief for him to swallow,

but there's a problem.

I don't like it.

Don't you?

Yeah? You just try it first.

I'll bet you do.

There you go. Open your mouth, Micah. That's it.

Just give you that little bit first. You like that? Taste nice?

It's not horrible, is it?

Yeah? Right. Let's give you some more.

Good boy. Well done.

Brilliant.

The little lad will need to go to A&E for X-rays.

Can I have ambulance backup to convey into hospital, please?

I'll come with you, yeah? All right?

-So, who's this one?

-That's little Ruby.

Is this your sister? You can't see, but...

Despite the distractions, Micah's arm is still bothering him.

How old's your sister?

-It hurts!

-It hurts?

Gas and air will help, but Andy doesn't want to frighten him.

Micah, this arm - is it really, really painful?

Do you want to try some other medicine I've got?

OK.

Good boy. If you don't like it, you don't have to take it.

We'll stop, yeah? Yeah? Might make you feel just a bit...

You're doing brilliantly.

As well as relieving his pain, it's making him very sleepy.

The ambulance crew arrive. Andy hands over.

He's had ten of Calpol.

-He's great self-administering the Entonox.

-Right.

It's certainly doing the trick. He seems quite happy with it.

They need to support his arm in a sling before he's moved.

Can you sit yourself up? Yeah?

He's a good boy!

Right!

Good man!

Well done, mate. You are so brave!

We get Daddy to carry you to the ambulance?

Inside the ambulance, they check out Micah's heart rate and blood pressure.

And Dad is by his side all the way to hospital.

Make your muscles pop up.

Show the man your muscles.

Once in A&E, Micah's arm will be X-rayed

to find out the extent of the damage,

and he will be given a thorough check to make sure he has no more injuries.

See you later. Goodbye. All the best.

A nasty greenstick fracture there, but no lasting damage for little Micah.

Still to come on Real Rescues - it's a painful fall for painter Robert.

He's going to need a trip in the ambulance,

but his workmate Paul can't resist a quick ribbing.

THEY LAUGH

And we put to the test two furry friends of the emergency services -

Spanner, who hunts for hidden explosives,

and Freckle, the fire dog who even has his own boots.

He has those to protect his feet from pieces of glass

when he goes into buildings. I want to update you on something

-that's been going on this morning. Jack, are you on a call?

-No.

You had a call from somebody who thought they'd seen somebody

-who had a problem with electrocution.

-Yes. I took a call from a lady

who was with someone who'd just arrived at work,

and somehow received an electric shock.

There was people with him in the background,

and one of the routine questions I asked him was whether he had fallen from anything.

-What was his reply?

-They passed on the questions,

because they'd just arrived with him. He said he hadn't fallen,

but he felt like he'd been thrown a good ten, 15 foot away from where he was originally stood.

-Which is a long way.

-It was quite a shock he'd received.

-So somebody is on their way to help?

-Yes. We're sending someone

to check him out, see what we can do for him.

Hopefully we'll be able to update on that later. Thanks, Jack.

You wouldn't think, when vandals set fire to a bin outside a building,

that it would be particularly dangerous to deal with,

but in this case, a fire crew are faced with toxic smoke

and burning plastic that could eat through clothing and even skin.

The firefighters of Green Watch are on their way to a sports centre.

It's some wheelie bins apparently on fire.

Oh, yeah. I see it.

-Down there.

-Right side.

The bins are well alight when they arrive,

and they can't get the fire engine up close,

so crew manager Steve Evans gets out to do a recce.

Start getting the reels off. It'll be quicker in the long run

to take a reel across and extend it.

I mean, it come through as wheelie bins.

I don't think, perhaps, that is wheelie bins.

There's a distinct possibility this could be an abandoned vehicle

or something like that.

Until we get closer, it's difficult to tell.

But as they get closer...

No. It is a bin. Yeah. It was two wheelie bins,

that have since melted.

Obviously they've been having a little party or something.

It looks like the revellers have set fire to these bins

as part of the entertainment, but it's not just a bit of harmless fun.

Because of the plastic in the wheelie bin, you need a lot more water to put it out.

Er, if it was just the rubbish, we wouldn't need quite so much.

That's why we've got the hose reel coming.

But the fire's just out of reach of the regular-length hose reel.

Each hose reel's approximately 60 metres long,

and the distance from the fire appliance,

the nearest point we can get to, is more than that,

so we've had to extend one hose reel with another.

So we've got one line of 120 metres now,

so we've got more than enough to get the water to the fire.

Paul O'Donovan is wearing full protective gear,

but pools of molten plastic could react

when the water gets onto them. No-one knows what could have been thrown into the bins.

Thankfully no-one has been hurt tonight,

but all the time spent on this fire is keeping a fire engine and crew

tied up and unavailable for a real emergency.

Rather than just enjoying themselves and keeping themselves to themselves,

they decide it might be a really good idea to set light to some bins.

It's just mindless vandalism.

Now, the car's crashed, but there seems to be very little damage.

However, the driver knows something is wrong.

She dials 999 and keeps absolutely still,

and it was exactly the right thing to do.

Ambulance crew Dan Major and Julie White-French

are on an emergency call to a road accident.

A young woman is trapped in her car with suspected neck injuries.

Well, there seems to be one vehicle,

so we'll find out exactly what's happened.

A local traffic cop, PC Freeman, fills them in.

On approach to the junction, just waiting at the junction there,

the give-way signs, another vehicle, a Rover, has come up behind her

and not stopped. It's gone into the back of this Rover,

which has shunted her going forward.

After the other car went into the back of her,

24-year-old Gillian discovered she had neck pain.

A first-responder medic has already spoken to her.

About two years ago she had an operation on her right shoulder,

with a tendon in there, again from an accident.

All her obs are absolutely fine at the moment.

After her previous accident, Gillian's well aware

that she should keep her neck as still as possible.

-Hello.

-Hi, there.

So you weren't knocked out? You were stationary when it happened?

-Yeah, I was.

-And the other car was slowing...

For the junction, yeah.

There are no dents to the car, but Dan knows that low-impact collisions

can still be harmful, and Gillian's neck pain

is in a different place from her old injury.

-Could you ask if there's ECP available to do a C-spine?

-Yeah.

Dan is calling in a special type of paramedic,

an ECP or emergency-care practitioner,

who's qualified to check for spinal injuries at the roadside.

This has been a fairly slow-speed impact,

and they should hopefully be able to clear it here and then. We'll still take you in.

If the ECP can give Gillian the all-clear,

she'll be saved an uncomfortable move out of the car on a spinal board.

Probably pop a collar on you to start with,

just so it keeps you in the same place,

then we'll wait and see what they come back with.

We'll slide this round there.

Gillian is worried about the fuss she's causing.

I felt really guilty calling you, but you don't...

With something like that, you can't...leave it, can you?

You shouldn't feel guilty about calling us at all.

It's just embarrassing, cos the car's a tip.

We'll not take any notice of that at the moment.

Within minutes, Di Humphreys, emergency-care practitioner, arrives.

With the same technique that doctors use in hospital,

she's going to examine Gillian's neck for injuries.

I'm just going to feel down your neck. Don't move.

-Just tell me if it hurts, will you?

-Yes.

Well, it's tender.

If I touch you here and here, does it feel the same both sides?

-No.

-No?

If I say the right side feels normal, and the left side...

-This side?

-Yeah.

-Feels different?

There's a very real possibility that Gillian has suffered a spinal injury.

This means the team will have to take great care,

and get her out of the car the hard way after all.

Dan prepares the KED, or Kendrick extrication device,

which will keep her head, neck and back in a straight line

ready for the move.

What we're doing now is, we're going to slowly spin you round.

Keep yourself as square as you can.

There you go. What we're going to do,

we're going to bring this board in underneath your legs and slowly slide you out.

-I'm so glad I've got trousers on!

-Aren't you ever!

Inch by inch, Gillian is lifted out as gently as possible.

-All right. Got your head.

-One, two, three.

-Where's it hurting now?

-Just all the same places.

When you're in a situation where you get strapped in,

all the muscles that were hurting slightly tense up a bit, as well.

They waste no time getting underway.

Steady. Roll.

At the emergency department, Dan hands over to Dr Ryan Thomas.

-Is it more painful...

-Yeah.

Well, when you were higher up on the neck, it was tender,

I suppose, but...

-Yeah, there.

-There. OK.

Dr Ryan can't rule out the possibility of a spinal injury,

so Gillian will need to have X-rays

to see exactly what's happened to her neck.

By taking all the right precautions, Dan and the team

have minimised the risk of further injury,

giving the grateful Gillian the best chance of a full recovery.

-I'll finish my paperwork and give you to these chaps.

-Thank you!

-I didn't catch your name.

-Dan.

-Thank you, Dan!

That's all right.

Further investigation showed that Gilliam only had whiplash

and severe bruising, but it is worth making the point again

that you can restrict the damage that happens to you

even in a low-speed accident if you have your head restraint up

in the right place in your car. Worth looking at next time you get in.

Now we're going to pop outside, where Louise has something special for us.

Yes, I do. Man's best friend can play a vital role

in emergency services. Dogs' incredible sense of smell

is used to find hidden explosives, and even detect whether fire has been started by arsonists.

I don't know if you spotted this guest, Nick - Freckle.

Lovely Freckle! And Dave as well. Hello, Dave.

You've worked with Freckle for two years. What is he trained to do?

To identify ignitable liquids at a fire scene,

so once the fire's been put out and the crews have damped it down,

his job is to identify how that fire was started.

So he can find if there's petrol, and it's actually been started by arson.

Yes. If we can find petrol at the scene when it started,

then we've got evidence of a deliberate ignition.

We've set up an experiment to see if he can work this out.

A bit earlier, you burned these five pieces of carpet.

We used a blowtorch to burn them, and we've contaminated one of them

with a tiny drop of petrol.

-So his job is to find which one it is?

-Hopefully, yes.

I like the way you say "hopefully"! Shall we let him do it?

At home... Don't give him a secret sign!

It's the one in the middle, OK? Let's see if he can find it.

Ready, steady...

Ready, steady.

Go find Mum.

-So that's him indicating now.

-And almost immediately,

-he stopped. He's looking at you.

-He's telling me now

that that square of carpet is where the accelerant is.

That is the seat of the fire, and the petrol you put on is there.

-Yeah.

-And he could do this in a house? How many days later?

The best result we've ever had is four and a half weeks post-fire.

So he has an incredible sense of smell,

-and you couldn't have done that otherwise.

-No.

-What do we need to do now?

-I'll clip him back on the lead

and give him his reward, this tennis ball.

I thought he'd get a biscuit or something!

No, no. Freckle! Good boy!

And he's been really successful this year. Tell me what he's done.

So far this year we have had about 130 years of convictions

-and sentences based on -

-The work that he's done.

So he found it there, and then you would take him

to a suspected arsonist's house, and he would look for the petrol

-or whatever it was.

-Yeah. This is only half the job now.

We've identified accelerant. We now need a suspect.

If the police can identify a suspect, what we can do

-is search the suspect's clothing -

-Or their house.

-Or their house, or their car.

-So, we've got a line-up

that I prepared earlier, everybody from the office.

A line-up of suspects, and you've put a tiny piece of petrol

on one of your shoes, haven't you? Thanks, everybody!

-Tell me what you've done.

-Just to give you an idea,

this is a one-millimetre pipette,

so we've taken a little drop of the petrol

-and put a little trace on.

-That's all it is?

It's not even the contents of the pipette, just the trace evidence.

Come on, let's do it. And, at home, it's Kit. He's the one in the red!

-OK? Don't listen, Freckle.

-Ready, steady.

Freckie! Freckie! Go find Mum.

Come here!

So again now he's gone passive. He's gone still.

He's identifying accelerant actually on the shoe,

-and he's waiting for his reward.

-Brilliant work!

Thank you very much for that. Thank you, Freckle, and... Ooh!

Are you going to let him go and have a run around?

Well done, Freckle. Thank you very much.

Brilliant work!

Isn't that lovely? Isn't that brilliant, as well?

I love the way she whispers when she was telling you,

in case the dog heard which one. Right! A real DIY SOS now.

Robert's helping his mate Paul out with some painting and decorating

when he trips and crashes down the stairs.

Right now, laughter might not be the best medicine.

Mind you, it doesn't stop his mate from cracking a few jokes.

SIREN WAILS

Ambulance crew Ian Moss-Bowpitt and Dan Major

are heading to a house where a man is in pain after a fall.

We're going to a 44-year-old male who's fallen downstairs

and twisted his ankle. Basically we're going to assess the injury,

bearing in mind the distance he may have fallen down the stairs.

When they arrive, the injured man's friend Paul is waiting for them.

He's slumped on the stairs right by the front door.

Paul tells Ian exactly what happened.

-He's come off the step there...

-Yeah.

-As he's come off the step,

his full weight on there, he's twisted his ankle...

-OK.

-..and gone down.

-Right. What's your name?

-Robert.

-Robert, I'm Ian. My colleague's Dan.

Robert's ankle is already starting to swell rapidly,

and it's hurting.

-What's the pain like?

-Pretty bad, is it?

Can we have some Entonox, please, Dan?

Before Ian dares to ease off the shoe,

Robert needs to get dosed up with the analgesic gas.

-Have you had gas and air before?

-Yeah.

-OK. We'll try that,

then put a splint on you and get you down the hospital.

Robert's looking very fed up.

Paul's doing his best to take his mind off the pain.

He certainly owes him! Paul had popped round to Robert's before work

to help him out with some decorating when he took a tumble.

See if it works. You need to pull on that with your breathing.

It takes about three minutes or so to actually work.

When you stop using it, the pain-killing effect will actually disappear.

Most people think it's better than beer.

It turns out that this was not the first injury of the day.

Ten minutes ago I hit my shin with a hammer,

and the bruise is just starting to come out now!

He was laughing at that!

Very carefully, Ian removes Rob's trainer.

-You're going to lose your laces.

-Don't mind about that.

The combination of the gas and Paul's quips

is certainly putting a smile back on Rob's face.

OK, let's get this shoe off.

Ian carefully feels Robert's foot

to check if the circulation is still working OK.

So you can feel everything in your foot, can you?

-I can feel it, but it seems like pins and needles.

-OK.

-How's that? Is that all right?

-Yeah.

-That's good.

Although it's going to be painful, they need to get a splint

around Robert's ankle to keep it immobile for the journey to hospital.

It looks like a fracture, so we're going to the minor-injuries unit, which can deal with this.

It's just a few short hops to the stretcher.

Don't put that down.

HE CHUCKLES

At last Rob seems more comfortable.

His mate Paul can't resist a few more jokes.

I know how many brushes I've got, an' all.

And I know how much I've got in my car, so leave it alone.

Cheers for that, Paul.

I will reply later!

Judging by the amount of painkiller Rob is using,

he's not going to be much help with decorating for a while.

This is good stuff. I might get some of this for at home.

Rob did suffer a nasty break and was off work for several weeks.

Louise has got some more for us outside.

Yes. I've got another friend. He may look like Freckle,

but he's Spanner, and he's got a different job, hasn't he?

He's an explosive-detection dog.

We've got some pictures of him working. What does he do,

-and where was he searching?

-He's trained to search

to find military / commercial home-made type explosives,

and the venue we went to recently was the Royal Marines Museum

in Portsmouth. The Royal Marine band did a concert for the public.

We attended prior to their arrival to make sure the venue was safe

-to carry out this concert.

-OK. We've hidden something here.

-That's correct.

-Tell us what we've hidden.

-You've hidden it.

-We train regularly with the real stuff,

but obviously we can't carry explosives with us

when we go to do a live search.

I've got a wrapper from a Semtex block.

It's four years old and used as a training aid.

It's over there, by that water butt. Shall we see if he can find it?

You take him into an area, let him off

-and give him an area to search.

-That's right.

-Let him go.

-What's he found?

-Good dog!

He's straight over there, because you told him to go in that general direction.

Just working round. He'll work off his own head

and do what he's got to do, and if I've got to,

I'll guide him in a bit. There we go.

He's stopped and he's looking back at you, telling you where it is.

He's saying, "Dad, that's where the device has been hidden."

That's where it is. Brilliant work. Thank you.

It's fantastic watching them work. He gets his reward, doesn't he?

If you look over here, they get the same reward. It's a tennis ball,

and Freckle has got tennis-ball envy!

Ahh! Thank you very much.

Fantastic stuff. Just to let you know

that the chap who had the electric shock is fine.

Now we've finished the programme, I'm off to get my tennis ball.

Louise and I, or, as we're now known by the crew,

Freckle and Spanner, will bring you more Real Rescues very soon.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

E-mail [email protected]

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