Episode 10 Real Rescues

This car was hit by a lorry, overturned and hit the back of another.

I looked at my mirror and see a blue car flipping over onto its roof.

But what's happened to the people inside?

And how firefighters entered a burning house

in an effort to save a soldier's ashes.

Welcome to Real Rescues. We'll be hearing about a woman

who fell through the roof of a bank.

She was badly injured and the bank was deserted for the weekend.

How could she get out? We'll find out later.

This is the South Western Ambulance control room,

one of 25 across the UK.

Up to 90 staff work here at any one time, taking 999 calls,

dispatching ambulances, co-ordinating out-of-hours doctors

and providing help and advice through NHS Direct.

It's the regional hub for medical emergency care.

On a busy motorway, one accident can quickly lead to another.

Two teenagers have been struck by a lorry and flipped over into the outside lane.

Their car is upside down and is sent spinning into another vehicle.

'There's been a report of a serious car crash on a major road.

'All three emergency services have been called

'and traffic cop Rob Tompkins is escorting the firefighters to the scene.'

The vehicle is alleged to have overturned.

Also, a tanker driver may have been involved.

It's on a main stretch of carriageway, the A27, which we're just joining now.

'As they get closer, they hit the tailbacks from the accident.

'Rob has to weave a way though for the fire engine.'

-Move over! Thank you!

-SIRENS WAIL

RADIO COMMUNICATION

I think he said it's in lane three. We're coming on the hard shoulder.

Just coming into three now. Thank you.

'They find a car overturned in the outside lane, its roof caved in.

'Two people were in the car when it crashed,

'but incredibly, they've managed to crawl out and walk away.

'Paramedic Mark Roberts was the first to arrive.'

It's rolled over. The two passengers have actually got out,

but we need to make sure they're safe.

The concern is that they've got no neck or spinal injuries.

We can't rule it out. We've got to make sure that's correct.

They're going to go to hospital and make sure they're clear.

'After getting themselves out,

'the young driver, Jessica, and her passenger, Dane,

'are sitting on the crash barrier.

'Dane celebrated his 18th birthday yesterday.'

The truck was indicating to overtake another truck.

He didn't check his mirror,

as we were in the lane it was trying to get into.

And he swerved out the way at the last minute, trying to avoid it.

The back end of the car kicked out. Obviously trying to regain control of the car.

Crashed into the end of the truck, rolled over and ended up nicely in the central reservation.

'For driver Jess, it was a terrifying experience.'

I remember swerving and then, all of a sudden, hitting something.

And then I remember the noise of being upside down.

It was the scraping and all the glass, like, coming up at you.

That's all I remember, just going along, and the noise was so horrible.

It was so loud and it was just like, "Oh, God."

'The car came to a halt upside down in the outside lane of the A27.

'The two teenagers acted quickly.'

It was just my instinct to get out. I didn't care if I cut myself.

I just undid my seat belt and just tried to get out.

I remember Dane helping me and then I got stuck in my seat belt.

I see Jess trying to climb out of her side, getting stuck.

I managed to squeeze past and we tried to untangle her.

We sort of climbed out

and, er, was escorted across the lanes by passers-by.

'The damage to the lorry is quite extensive.

'Operational supervisor Brian Hardy needs to know the speed they were all travelling

'when the accident happened.

'It will give him an idea of the impact Jessica and Dane's bodies have suffered.'

Have you got a speed estimation? The lorry's quite badly damaged.

Yeah, we don't know. Erm... We're only guessing here.

-If...

-Potentially 60.

If you imagine that, and this is on its roof, sliding,

and it's caught up with the vehicle in front, collided with that, you're probably talking 60-70.

'If the police are right about the speed,

'it makes the escape even more miraculous.

'Rob's investigating all the marks on the road

'to determine exactly what else the car hit.'

-Any more vehicles?

-About three.

'All the indications are that after hitting the kerb and flipping over,

'the youngsters survived another collision with a second lorry.'

The accident appears to be three vehicles involved.

The vehicle behind has been travelling along,

at this moment, probably in lane two, maybe lane three,

and has been struck by this vehicle here.

This vehicle has caused... has caused that vehicle

to start to skid and fishtail

and it's probably struck something that's made it dig down and then go on its roof.

It has then slid into the vehicle in front of this one,

which is another HGV, and caused damage to its wheels.

'Jonathan, a professional driver for more than 20 years,

'was behind the wheel of the second lorry.

'Seeing the car flip has left him very shaken.'

I looked at my mirror and see a blue car flipping over onto its roof.

So I pull over on the hard shoulder to see what's going on.

I looked round the back of my wagon and realised that they hit me.

I feel OK, just a bit nervous.

And a bit shook up, that's all.

'The ambulance crews are taking no chances.

'Jessica and Dane are carefully strapped onto spinal boards to protect their backs.

'At the hospital, they'll be fully checked over.

'They've had a lucky escape. The accident could have been fatal.'

Just on the fact of that scenario developing,

there was no reason to believe that a car won't come behind them

and also collide with them, or even an HGV,

because they would've been centred on looking at the accident, not braking.

So the whole incident was extremely fortunate not to be serious.

I remember looking back at the car and it was so badly smashed up

that I was thinking, "That was so lucky. Anything could've happened."

I could've really, really badly hurt myself.

'Rob's accident investigation is complete.

'The wrecked car can be cleared away and the lane reopened.'

Nick, you're going to be finding out about how people survive those car rollovers.

We have a little scenario set up in our car park as a demonstration.

-Do you play golf?

-Yeah.

-Would you consider it a dangerous sport?

-No, not at all.

I know somebody who knows different.

We're going to go over and see Richard,

as long as he's not on a call.

Come with me. Richard Waldy, who is...

Richard, are you on a call? Can I interrupt you for a second?

-No. Cool.

-Good.

I was just saying to Louise, golf is a dangerous sport.

-Erm, it is, to be perfectly honest. Not for the reasons you'd think, though.

-Being hit by a ball.

-No, we don't get that many people hit by balls.

-Do you not?

-No. It's other things.

-Like what?

We had a rather interesting collision between golf carts.

Two people, little golf carts, crashed into each other.

-They only go about two miles an hour, don't they?

-It sounded humorous, really.

-You'd think, wouldn't you?

-When we got there, though, one of them had a severed ear.

-One of the people in the golf cart?

-Yeah.

Where they'd rolled over, somehow he got caught... Ear off.

On the one side you're thinking it's funny, because, you know, who rolls a golf cart?

On the other, a severed ear. What did they do?

They patched him up, did the best they can, got him into hospital.

If you pick up an ear, can you sew it back on?

Yep. Put it in a plastic bag, keep it clean, take it with you,

that goes for anything that comes off, take it in a plastic bag.

-Really?

-They'll do what they can to get it back on.

That's interesting, although it's made me queasy.

I've got a joke written down here about, er, ear-hole-in-one.

-Do you think it's a good thing to do?

-No.

-Let it go?

All right, thanks. Louise...

Now, a 999 call that might not seem that remarkable at first,

but the story behind it certainly is.

All of that was happening at the family home

of 22-year-old Private Daniel Gamble.

He became the 100th British serviceman to die in Afghanistan

when he was killed by a suicide bomber in Helmand Province in June, 2008.

Thousands of people lined the streets to pay their respects

as his coffin passed through his home village of Uckfield in East Sussex.

Just a month after, a fence fire spread to the family's home.

Daniel's ashes were inside the house in a cask, alongside his medals.

To talk to me about all of that are Jason, his brother, and Georgina, his mother. Hello to you both.

-Jason, take up the story. You were at home when the fire started?

-Yes.

We just smelt something burning outside.

One of my friends, who was with me at the time,

went outside to have a look at the, er...

where the smell was coming from and he saw six-foot flames.

You did a brave thing. You went into the house and managed to rescue...

-The dog.

-Yeah.

-Erm... Well, basically, that was it.

First of all, I tried to put the fire out with...

-As you would.

-..bucket and tap. Erm...

But that wasn't doing anything. So I just got the dog out.

-I even walked out with no shoes on.

-I know you had burns to your feet.

Georgina, he phoned you. What did you say to him?

Well, I was in a petrol garage at the time, on my way home from work

and he just said, "Mum, get home quick, the house is on fire."

And your first thought, obviously his safety, but also Daniel's ashes.

I asked him whether he'd got Daniel out.

First of all, whether he was all right and he'd got the dog out, and then if he'd got Daniel out,

and he'd said he hadn't, so...

-That is incredibly important to you.

-Absolutely.

-Would you have gone in?

-Without a doubt.

-Wow.

I wanted to, but the police wouldn't let me.

-They thought it was too dangerous.

-Which is distressing for you.

Let's bring in Matt, who was there during that fire.

You found out that the ashes, Daniel's ashes,

were in the house and you took the decision to go in.

Was it because they were both so distressed?

Er, it was an unusual event for something like this to happen.

When I first arrived, I asked if everybody was out of the house.

-Yes, as you would.

-My plan was to attack the fire from the outside.

Then I met Jason, who was quite distressed,

er, and he told me about his brother and the ashes,

so I committed a team to go and, initially, to go and get the ashes.

Which you did. They brought out his ashes and also his beret, which you have here.

By the time you got there, Daniel's ashes were out, weren't they?

They were. Jason had given them to a neighbour to look after.

-That must've been an enormous sense of relief for you.

-It was.

-Then they asked you what else was precious.

-Yeah.

What were you concerned about?

I wanted his medals, because they are his, he rightly earned them,

and also the dog tags that he was wearing at the time.

-Which they did get out. Let's have a look. This is his dog tag.

-Yes.

-And this was on your bedside table.

-Yes. That's right.

Alongside the Elizabeth Cross, which I was awarded for Daniel,

and lots of little bits and pieces, but these were the most precious.

-And, obviously, the, er...

-His medals, as well.

-Yeah.

Matt, you asked her what else was precious and you found these,

and it was an extraordinary place that you found them, wasn't it?

Yes. As the job progressed, we'd got the ashes out and got the beret out,

and I was in direct contact at the time,

and the information was coming to me about other items,

and the medals and the dog tag was mentioned being in the bedroom

on this bedside table.

From where I was standing, I didn't hold a lot of hope for...

But when you went in, describe to us what you saw.

I managed to get into the property after the fire was under control,

went up to the first floor,

which was a fair scene of devastation.

The bedside cabinet was completely intact,

with the medals and the dog tag on top.

Which is just quite extraordinary.

For you, all of these items are way more important than your house.

Absolutely. As I said at the time,

I could make more memories with my other two sons,

but I can't make any more memories with Daniel,

so the things that were his, I needed to get them out.

I wouldn't have another chance to get his items out.

-Thank goodness you did.

-Yeah!

-Back in the house again?

-We moved back in last week. We're excited to be home.

I'm so glad that happened. Thank you.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

Now, the story of a little boy who chopped off the top of his finger.

He's only three, but nevertheless he stayed very calm.

In fact, cool heads seem to run in the family,

because his mother also showed some quick thinking.

'Paramedic Stephen and technician Rob

'pull up outside a house in Bournemouth.

'They've been called out by a very distressed mum.

'Her three-year-old boy has trapped his finger in the door.

'It's so bad that part of the finger has been sliced off.

'Steve tries to keep things calm from the outset.'

Hello!

-Right, shall we show the man?

-Who's this little lad?

-Mackenzie.

Hello, Mackenzie! Hello!

-What did Mackenzie do?

-He caught it in the door.

-Which door?

-Upstairs.

-Upstairs.

'Mum Georgina is trying to keep her emotions under control.'

-Was the door shut completely?

-I don't know. I was hoovering the car. They were meant to be watching TV.

-Rightio. And he obviously screamed?

-Yeah. I came in and he had blood coming down.

-How is he now to you?

-All right, actually.

-Quite calm?

-Yeah.

Do you mind if I have a quick look? Let's have a little look there.

We're going to have to take you to see the doctors at the hospital.

'Despite her distress, Georgina's been very quick thinking

'and she saved the severed tip of her son's little finger.'

I nipped outside to hoover the car, the kids were quite happily playing,

I walked back in to get something and I heard him scream.

He got to the bottom of the stairs and I saw his finger was missing

and I just went into meltdown.

Sent one of the kids up to look for the tip,

and I was trying to dial 999, but I had a new phone

so I couldn't figure out how to do it!

So I figured that one out, and they were on the phone to me

and the operator was saying to me, "Just keep him calm. Use a towel."

She was the one who told me to put the finger into the plastic bag.

Shall we put a little dressing on, make that nice and clean?

If we get Mum just to hold onto your hand there.

'Mackenzie is quiet now, but he has been very upset.

'Steve takes a look at the fingertip. The hope is it can be reattached.'

I asked my daughter, "Where did you find the finger?" She went, "In the door!"

Apparently, it was stuck to the door. So rather grim, but at least we retrieved it.

It is just the very tip, which they should hopefully be able to repair.

-They should be able to put it back on?

-Hopefully so, yes.

It's hard for us to say because we're not the doctors, but they can do wonders nowadays.

'Georgina's doing well to keep calm.

'Mackenzie may be only three, but Steve still lets him know what's going on

'and keeps the atmosphere relaxed.'

-There we are, Mackenzie. Well done!

-You're such a brave boy. So brave!

You keep your hand there, like that. All right?

-Good boy.

-I'm going to give you another one to hold on to.

A big one this time.

'The dressing hurts for a short while, but it will prevent any chance of infection.'

This is my special healing bandage, this is.

I only use it on brave little boys.

You are very brave. Mummy's so proud of you.

-I'll make it look like you've got a boxing glove on.

-Good boy.

'Rob goes upstairs to take a look at where the accident happened.'

I'm just looking out for,

sort of, what blood loss that the little boy's had.

I can't see anything in here.

Oh, I see. So it's only very, very minor.

It's nothing to worry about. It wouldn't concern his treatment, so that's OK.

Hello!

'Mackenzie needs to get to hospital. But he's one of five children. They can't be left.

'Steve keeps them entertained whilst they wait for Nanny to arrive.'

-You've got your hands full!

-Yeah! We're meant to be going to Moors Valley this afternoon.

-I was cleaning the car to put his new seat in.

-Oh, dear.

-Blood everywhere.

-It's only a little injury, though, thankfully.

'Mum cleans away the blood.'

You've always got to keep your fingers clear of the doors. I trapped my finger once.

-Can you see on my hand?

-Yes.

-That white line?

-Yes.

That's where I trapped my finger in a big metal door. Now it's healed.

'The children become more fascinated with Steve and his job.'

What inspired you to be an ambulance person?

I don't know, really. Er...

-What a question!

-Yeah.

I always wanted to be a doctor, but I quite like working outdoors.

This was a happy medium between the two.

'At last, they can head for hospital as Dad and Nanny have arrived.'

Where are we? Hey?

Can I borrow a toe, Mackenzie?

This is what we call a pulse oximeter.

We can see what his heart rate is. That comes up here. And his oxygen level's here.

Both of which are fine and as we'd expect

in a healthy, young lad.

-Are you happy carrying him in?

-Yeah, that's fine.

-We'll walk in.

'They arrive in minutes. Snuggled in Mum's arms,

'Mackenzie is taking it all in his stride.

'Steve has to leave his young patient and get back on the road.

'Despite his traumatic day, Mackenzie manages a brave wave to his rescuer.'

-Bye-bye.

-Say thank you.

'Although they aren't able to reattach the end of the finger,

'the doctors are optimistic that all will be well.'

It's about half a centimetre to a centimetre shorter than the other side.

It's his war wound. He'll be able to show girls when he's older!

It'll be his party trick! "Look at my finger!"

Now, as we said earlier,

a car rollover sounds and looks horrendous,

but some people manage to make it out safely.

We've already seen one car on its roof today.

Here's another. A woman in her 80s clipped the back of a parked car

and flipped over.

And this one, where a people carrier has been involved in a collision

and rolled 100 metres down the road.

And, finally, this car has rolled over,

leaving its driver hanging upside down by her seat belt.

Now, we promised you a little demonstration. Off you go, chaps.

What we have is a car upside down. A crash has happened.

Hanging in the driver's seat is a driver who appears to be in...

This is the dummy playing the part of a person in the driver's seat.

Phil and Steve are going to carry out this rescue, whilst we have a chat to Rob.

Now, Rob, when you come to a crash and the car's rolled upside down,

are the injuries likely to be more serious or less serious than in a front-on crash?

They're going to be more serious

because the mechanism of the car rolling around,

end on end, side on side, it's like being in a washer or a tumble dryer.

The risks are, you're going to get trauma to your head, chest, abdomen, pelvis.

The likelihood is, yes, you're going to get more serious injuries.

As you can see there, there's bits of metal in the car which can fly around, as well, so...

It's interesting that you mention that,

because anything that's loose is potentially a lethal weapon.

It's a projectile, yeah. And we do it all the time.

We put mobile phones on the seat, we put shopping on the back seat.

They've actually managed to get him out. Let's go round the other side.

Here is the patient. They went very quickly here with this patient,

almost dramatically dragging him out.

Why were they going so fast?

They recognised that the patient has a serious, life-threatening injury.

Keeping him in the car is going to cause him... He won't get better.

We need to get him out as quick as we can and get him away.

How long will they decide to take over getting a patient out?

If they're time critical...

-They're saying that he's not breathing.

-He's got to come out, quick as you can.

But safety is an issue for both the rescuer and any other people around, so they need to get him out.

Looking at a couple of things, there's a padlock that was down the footwell.

-Something like that?

-It can be that, it can be mobile phones.

Anything in the car becomes a projectile.

My friend had a Tupperware dish on the back shelf in a crash and it went through the windscreen.

You think of the power involved, it's extraordinary.

When you come across somebody in an upturned vehicle,

should you get them out or not?

You've got to take the risk assessment yourself.

If the patient is conscious and looks safe, leave them.

-A lot of them might self-extricate.

-Yeah.

You'll see them standing by the car, making a phone call. They're the luckier ones.

But if there is a risk, petrol, then, you may need to get them out.

Unless it's on fire or stinks of petrol,

-try and calm them and leave them until the professionals get there.

-Yes.

And manage an extrication, like the guys have done. Steve, Phil, thank you for demonstrating that.

It just goes to show how difficult it is to get somebody out, although they've done it quickly.

Still to come on Real Rescues, a man is found collapsed in the street.

He doesn't know where he is or how he got there.

Do you know what day it is today?

-No?

-No.

-Fine. Not to worry.

And the ghostly sight of an empty speedboat

left spinning out of control.

We talk about accidents in all sorts of strange places, but imagine this...

An accident in a bank, on a Sunday, when it's actually closed.

-It did actually happen. Caroline, you went to the scene of that accident.

-I did.

How did this lady get there?

She actually lived in the flat above the bank

and she had fallen on the roof terrace

and gone through the skylight into the bank.

-And landed in the bank on a Sunday, nobody in there.

-Nobody.

-She was badly injured, as well.

-She had fractured her pelvis,

so she couldn't, well, she was finding it very hard to move around,

but she managed to pull herself to the phone and make the 999 call.

And was it lucky the way she had landed?

-Yeah. She'd actually gone sort of bottom-through the skylight and landed like that.

-Right.

But it was lucky that she hadn't fallen and landed on her head.

OK, so she's now in the bank, she's made a call.

What did you see and how did you get to see her?

I just went onto the roof terrace and heard her calling,

looked through the hole and saw her legs and that's how I found her.

We then got the fire crew involved and they got a ladder down and I got down to treat her.

-Quite an unusual sight, even for you?

-Yeah, definitely.

And if she hadn't fallen that particular way,

-and she'd been there another day, it could've been disastrous for her.

-It could've.

She had internal injuries and was bleeding internally,

so there was a possibility that she could've died.

-So you went down the ladder. Do you like ladders?

-No!

-But you'll do anything to look after somebody.

-Yes.

How did you eventually get her out?

The police managed to contact the relevant people from the bank

to open the front doors so that we could get her out.

Otherwise, we would've had to go back up.

They must've been surprised - lots of people in the bank on a Sunday!

I think everybody was quite surprised.

-I'm really glad you got to her! Thank you.

-OK.

Now a man who woke up lying on the pavement,

with people staring at him and no idea how he got there.

He didn't even know what day it was.

'There's a panic in the street.

'A group of worried passers-by are standing round a man

'who has suddenly collapsed and appears to have had some kind of violent fit.

'Having just arrived, paramedic Jason needs to try to piece together what's gone on.'

-Who saw him?

-Me. He was on his back and he was shaking

and he had stuff coming out of his mouth.

-He was down for a couple of minutes.

-Couple of minutes?

'Andy's come out of his fit, but he's far from OK.

'He's confused and doesn't seem to know what's happened.

'He's also had a nasty bang to the head.'

-Do you suffer from any medical conditions? Epilepsy?

-No.

Do you take any medication?

-Diabetic.

-You're diabetic, are you?

-Just have a... Just relax here, yeah?

-Yeah.

We'll check you over and get you an ambulance, all right?

OK, mate?

There we go. A little scratch, all right?

I'm sure you've had this done a few times, haven't you?

'First, having said he's a diabetic,

'Andy needs to have his blood-sugar levels checked to see if they're normal.'

Your sugar level's fine. You OK? 4.4.

-Sorry?

-Your sugar level's 4.4.

'His blood-sugar levels would have to be lower than four to cause concern.

'It looks like something else, other than diabetes, may have led to his collapse.'

Any pains anywhere, Andy?

-Apart from your finger?!

-LAUGHING

-No? Do you know where you are?

-Yeah, yeah.

-Where's that?

Where are you, Andy?

Do you know what day it is today?

-No?

-No.

-Fine. Not to worry. Don't worry.

We'll get you out the cold in a sec. Can someone grab a blanket and pop it on Andy for me?

'With so many unanswered questions about his condition

'and the fact he has no idea where he is,

'Andy definitely needs to go to hospital.'

I'm just going to put this mask on you. It's just oxygen.

-Hopefully clear your head a bit. All right?

-Yeah.

-OK, mate?

We're just going to sit up. That's it.

All right? Get your bearings. All right.

-You haven't got a clue what's happened, have you?

-No.

-No.

OK, one, two, three. Push.

'It may be only a short distance to the ambulance,

'but Andy's too unsteady on his feet to walk.'

'And his memory is still a complete blank.'

Where do you work, Andy?

That's all right. If you can't remember, that's fine.

Do you know what day it is today?

-What year?

-I think that... I don't know.

I don't know what's happened to me.

-Am I still in Newbury?

-You're still in Newbury.

It's quite common when someone has a seizure

to be, what we call, postictal.

It's a period where they're confused about day, time, place.

Eventually, they come round.

-I take it you went out for a walk at lunchtime?

-I can't remember.

-Can't remember.

-I can't remember.

-All right.

I can't remember anything about how I got here.

-No? Don't worry, it'll come back slowly, all right?

-Yeah.

-OK.

'With the cause of Andy's condition remaining a mystery,

'Jason needs to keep a close eye on his vital signs until they get to hospital.'

I'm going to check pupil reflex. He's had a head injury,

so I want to make sure pupils are equal and react to light.

Andy, just look nice and straight ahead.

-I'm going to shine a little torch into your eyes, OK?

-Yeah.

Good. OK?

They were fine. Normal, reacting to light.

'The good news is that Andy is becoming more lucid by the minute.'

-Have you got next-of-kin details?

-Yeah.

-Is it your wife?

-My wife.

-Right. And she's, er...?

-Sandra.

-Sandra.

As I was expecting,

with the oxygen, Andy's slowly coming round.

His memory and recollection of things is starting to come back,

which is very common for someone who's had a seizure.

'Also, the wound to his head looks less serious than first feared.'

We're not too worried about the cut on the back of his head.

It's quite superficial, it's stopped bleeding.

My main concern for Andy is having the seizure.

He's not a known epileptic.

So what's caused the seizure, I don't know.

The hospital will have to look into that.

'Andy's mental state has improved,

'but his suspected seizure has left him very tired.'

You weren't expecting this today, eh?

-It was a bit of a surprise.

-All these people staring at you.

'It's been a frightening experience for Andy,

'and he'll now have some more people staring at him

'as doctors try to find out exactly what caused him to collapse so dramatically.'

Jason and Andy have come to join us to have a chat about that.

Fascinating, this. You actually lost how long in your life?

-I think it could be anywhere up to two hours.

-Yeah?

Definitely there's an hour missing.

But from what people are telling me, it's a bit longer than that.

This is a detective story. They're trying to find out what's going on.

-You're going through different scans.

-Yeah.

I had a CT while I was in the hospital. I've had an MRI since.

I'm also booked in to have an EEG, as well.

So, really, they've come to a little conclusion,

but not the final conclusion as to what happened.

-And what is the little conclusion?

-The little conclusion is, possibly,

that I had a hypoglycaemic, er, with being diabetic,

fell and banged my head

and the bang on the head caused the seizure.

But they're still unsure.

They're not sure whether or not the seizure came first.

Right. So, when you got to him, was he fighting against it?

It must be frightening to not know what's going on.

Andy was disorientated, confused, slightly combatative,

which is quite common in someone who's had a seizure.

It's a postictal phase.

It's where the brain's had a bit of a shock,

so all the electrical activity is all over the place.

This is one of the confusions that you find, isn't it?

You're out on a Saturday night, people are combative and you don't know if they're aggressive or...

For example, things like blood poisoning can make you aggressive.

There's all kinds of medical reasons.

The common one we go to is people who have low blood-sugar levels and they can appear quite drunk.

But we checked Andy's and his levels were fine, so I could rule that one out.

I have a particular interest,

because when I was 23, 24, I fell down a flight of stairs, banged my head and had a seizure.

Only seizure I've ever had. Never had one since or before.

Somebody explained that it's like shaking a computer and your brain resets.

So, they think that impact might've caused that seizure?

Yeah, it could well have done.

Er, the neurologist says

-there's a fairly good chance that I won't have another one.

-Yeah.

And with me not having any sort of history,

it could be one of those things that happened.

I'm slightly fascinated by this.

You wake up in the road going, "How did I get here?"

-Yes. Quite scary, really.

-Yeah!

And I think what's probably most scary

is the fact that you're really confused by it.

Because the last memory that I have is of walking down the street normally.

Then when you wake up and find that there are people stood over you

and the next thing, you're in the back of an ambulance, it's really not normal!

You haven't been up to something you shouldn't have and you're saying...!

-Not on this occasion!

-THEY LAUGH

Lovely talking to you. Thank you very much. Louise.

Now, do you know what this is?

It's from a speedboat and they call it a kill switch.

It attaches to your leg at one end and then to the boat's controls at the other.

So if the person at the wheel gets thrown out in an accident,

it cuts off the engine and it stops the boat.

Without it, the speedboat will just keep going and going and going.

Like this...

'Coastguard Rescue helicopter 106

'has been scrambled from its base on Portland.

'They head east to Studland Bay

'after reports of a waterskiing accident.'

'They arrive to find an almost ghostly sight.

'An abandoned speedboat is out of control, turning circles in the sea.

'There's no sign of any crew.'

When you see a boat speeding around in a circle, that tight a circle,

it's pretty obvious something's not quite right!

The so-called kill cord that you should have in these things wasn't being used.

So with the three occupants out of the boat,

the boat is now turning till it runs out of fuel.

-RADIO:

-'Yacht Ruthless, Coastguard, Helicopter Rescue 106.'

'The skipper of the white yacht, Ruthless, saw two men go overboard.

'He's already rescued the third,

'who'd been waterskiing behind the boat.'

'His medical condition's stable. He's perfectly fit and healthy.

-'Roger that.

-There is a casualty on the cliffside.

-'There's one ashore, did you say?

-There's one on the beach.

'There should be two on the beach. We can't get to them, obviously.'

'He also has news of the other two. They were seen swimming the 300 metres to shore.'

We've got two more to look for. From the vantage point that we have,

you can generally see someone who's in the water, especially on smooth, calm conditions.

So it was go to the coastline and see if they'd actually made it.

'OK, I've got one on the beach. Just have a quick look.

'I can see someone there, yeah.

-'Can you see anyone down your side?

-I can only see that guy there.'

'They've spotted one casualty, but there's no sign of the other.'

'We'll put Buck out down low and just put him on the beach there.'

'Winchman "Buck" Rogers is going down to investigate.'

RADIO COMMUNICATION

'Winch Op Spike Hughes takes charge.

'He directs pilot Kevin Balls to land Buck safely on the beach.'

'Forward 30 and right.

-'It's good there, if you're all right.

-Thank you, Kevin.

'Forward four. Forward three.

'Forward two. One. Steady contact. Steady.

'Steady. Winch again.'

'They fly away so Buck can talk to the water-skier

'away from the din of the helicopter.'

'It'll do that until it runs out of fuel.

'I don't think it'll come to any harm.'

'The speedboat is still turning its never-ending circle,

'but it's not posing any threat to other boats.

'Buck's got information about the third man and signals the helicopter.'

'He's asking us to go and get the casualty.'

It was clear that he was very, very cold.

And that's... Hypothermia, cause for concern straight away.

We needed to get him up into the aircraft and covered up.

'Kevin flies straight in to pick them both up.'

'Four forward and right. Forward three and right.

'Forward two.

'Forward one. And steady. Contact steady. Right one.'

'They've placed the winch hook perfectly into Buck's hand.'

'Winch again.

'All clear. Back and right slowly while we recover Buck and the casualty to the aircraft.'

'The casualty, a teenager, looks frozen after a swim in the sea.'

'Five foot. At the doorway.

'Nothing coming. Bringing Buck and the casualty in the cabin.'

'The warmth in the helicopter will be very welcome.

'There's also news of the third member of the crew.'

-Did you definitely see this guy on the shore?

-Yeah.

-On the beach, is it?

-Yeah, he's on the beach. He's walked out.

'The man walked up the coastal path and is now with Swanage Coastguard Volunteers.'

'Coastguard Rescue 106. All three casualties have been accounted for.'

'Now the search is over, they can concentrate on their casualty.'

'Does this guy need ambulance treatment?

-'He's 35 degrees, so it's borderline hypothermia.

-OK.

'Rescue 106, intentions are to take the casualty to Poole landing site.

'We'll be landing in just over one minute's time.'

'All three water-skiers are safe. The speedboat, however, is still in a spin.

'The lifeboat crew volunteers are there to recover it.

'They may have to wait until it runs out of fuel.'

Nick's here to tell us a salutary lesson about not drinking too much when you go to the beach.

Tell us what happened.

I was responding with one of the officers from the trust,

who's obviously got a car with blue lights,

on a Friday night in Bournemouth town, helping out.

We got a pager to make our way to Hengistbury Head,

which is one of Dorset's beauty spots down at Christchurch.

It's on the map here.

On the way, we got updated that it was four teenagers,

-very drunk and collapsed on the beach right down by the water.

-Right.

So quite a serious incident, potentially.

-We got as far as the end of the Broadway.

-Which is this bit here.

-This road here.

The gates were shut and we didn't have keys on that particular vehicle.

We managed to get up into the edge of the golf course and make our way off-road down there.

Got as far as we could in the car and had to hike the rest on foot.

-We got some basic kit out the car.

-And the worry was, they were down on the cliff.

They were actually right down under the cliffs, er...

-And where the high-water line is.

-Yeah, the tide's coming in.

Both of the two that were collapsed, when we got on the scene finally, were wet.

They'd been pulled out the water by one of their sensible friends.

You've got to be sensible. If you have a drink on the beach,

make sure it's somewhere accessible and don't drink too much.

Louise has got an altogether different story going on.

Yes. I was going to talk to Ben, but Ben is so busy.

In the last five minutes I've been watching, he's taken two calls.

He had one about somebody having a fit a moment ago

and in the last couple of seconds, he's taken another call.

But you were chatting to him before about what it was that he was...

-Yes. He's only been here since August.

-Has he?

On his first call, he'd been here two weeks

when he had a call from a lady

who said that her mum was choking on her roast dinner.

Really choking, as it were.

So explained all the way through to stay very calm,

he explained carefully what she should do - the abdominal press.

We'll try and get him to explain to us exactly what he did.

Abdominal thrust. He did that. The lady did it.

The ambulance crew arrived.

And they phoned back later and said had he not explained on the phone successfully,

that lady would have died.

-So within a few weeks of arriving, he saved someone's life.

-Two weeks.

-Makes you think about the job we do!

-Has he finished?

-Have you come off the phone?

-No, sorry!

But the thing about being in a place like this is, he's genuinely helping.

The other thing is that, because of that, because he's saving lives, he's going to become a medic.

He's starting med school in Birmingham.

It makes you wonder about what you do for a living.

We make TV programmes and these people save lives.

Do you know the questions they have to ask, for example...

"Are there dogs?" Which I thought was a bit odd.

-You can't have paramedics arriving, and them being attacked by dogs.

-Exactly.

He said he's been to a call when that happened, somebody with diabetes,

trying to give him an injection and the dogs were jumping on because they thought it was fun.

As you can see, lots to learn and lots going on.

We can't interrupt people just because we've got a programme. It's more important what they're doing.

-That's all we've got time for. Join us next time for more Real Rescues.

-Cheerio.

-Bye-bye.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

E-mail [email protected]