Episode 11 Real Rescues

Today on Real Rescues, the closest of calls for 30 people,

moments after firefighters evacuate families from a row of houses.

And the horror deepens when they discover the cause.

The rescue dog that needs rescued itself.

It was doing its search then it disappeared.

The fear is it has fallen down into one of the tunnels.

And fighting to save Mike as he struggles with a seizure.

-Relax!

-Aaargh!

Hello and welcome to Real Rescues

from the south-western ambulance control room.

Emergency service call centres like this

deal with every imaginable sort of danger to life and limb.

Becky is on one of those calls right now.

But sometimes a new type of threat emerges,

one we should all take note of.

Yes, we're about to see the explosions

which wreck a terrace of houses, a row of parked cars,

and spray chunks of brickwork like shrapnel all over the street.

Why? The answer is surprising and worrying.

It all began when West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue

were called out to a kitchen fire in a terraced house,

only to discover similar small blazes in another five homes.

What happened next was caught on the fire engine's camera.

A crew of fire fighters are clearing up after being called

to a small kitchen fire at a house on this terrace in Castleford.

They arrived to find a series of fires in ALL six houses.

It is 1:30am and a camera inside one of the fire engines

is recording the clean-up operation.

It is a mystery what has caused the fire

so the entire terrace has been evacuated.

30 residents were rescued, some by ladders put up at the windows.

The film is about to reveal just how timely the evacuation was.

The fire fighters flee for their lives.

Another camera has captured the explosion...

..and what happens 10 seconds later.

Once the flames are put out

and the smoke clears, the full extent of the damage is revealed.

The explosion almost demolished one house and wrecked another.

Four more are damaged by the blast and the fire.

Two firefighters suffered minor injuries.

Without the evacuation

there would almost certainly have been a loss of life.

One man on duty that night - were you the second in command, David?

-I was, yes.

-Frightening stuff.

-Very frightening.

Even a man of your experience, have you ever seen anything like that?

No. I have been doing this 22 years now and never seen that before.

-Just a few scratches and bruises for your men.

-Yeah.

-Unbelievably lucky.

-Very lucky, yes.

I believe there was somebody looking down on us that night.

Were you in that camera shot?

-Just for a small period.

-You were running off!

-Yeah.

When was the last man out before the explosion?

Within a matter of seconds of him getting clear of the door,

it flew past him, probably a second-and-a-half.

You're very lucky, and shocking pictures for anybody watching on.

But equally shocking is the reason why the fire happened.

What was the reason?

It turned out in the end, after investigation,

it all came down to metal theft.

People pinching copper cables from the overhead power lines.

So what happened, people who were cutting lines,

getting out the copper... What happened then?

The copper power line that ran round the back of the houses,

because the cables are under tension,

what had happened, it had flicked up,

gone over a live cable,

and turned everything in those properties live.

-My goodness! So all those houses were live?

-Everything.

And the electricity wants to go down to earth as quickly as possible.

What did it choose?

It were doing this through the gas meters and gas pipes.

-Urgh! A recipe for disaster.

-Yes.

Following investigations by a fire investigation team

it turned out that the way the electric was finding earth

was through the gas meters, and the Anaconda pipes,

which are on the top of the meters, where superheated,

which resulted in failure and then obviously massive gas escapes.

We're talking a few quid for these wires. How many lives put at risk?

It risked our lives, the lives of the residents and, you know,

the financial implications, for insurance companies,

utility companies, it is unbelievable, really.

-And this is happening on railways, everywhere.

-Everywhere. Yes.

You only need to read the news, and trains are delayed all the time.

-Copper theft, and, you know...

-My goodness.

-How do we stop it?

Thank goodness you were safe and of course all the residents

in those houses were safe, thanks to your hard work.

-Stay safe, thank you for joining us.

-Thank you, cheers.

Paramedics and rescue teams take real pride in their work

getting patients to safety and to the right treatment.

But sometimes, to be kind, it means you cannot always be gentle.

Especially when an adult is in the grip of a violent fit.

Paramedics Sue McSheaffrey and technician Mike Burden

have been called out to a man having seizures

in an outdoor clothes shop in Portsmouth.

-Do we know what he is called?

-Mike.

-Mike? Do you know him?

-Yes.

He is my manager.

As they arrive at the shop it is clear that the manager,

Mike, is in a lot of distress.

Although most seizures last just seconds or minutes

the disorienting after-effects can go on for a while.

-Has he had seizures before?

-Yes. One in December.

And they've been doing tests on him.

It is all right. Mike?

Sue wants to clean the man's finger to take a blood sample.

It is not going to be easy.

Relax. We're trying to help you.

Although Mike is not diabetic,

low blood sugar levels can sometimes cause erratic behaviour.

Relax.

It is now taking two members of shopping centre staff,

as well as the crew, to hold the patient down.

Calm down, Mike.

Seizures can take all sorts of forms.

Some sufferers pass out, some go into spasm,

others can become very frightened and aggressive.

7.7.

Mike's blood sugar levels indicate this is not a diabetic attack.

Mike's behaviour is distressing

but not uncharacteristic in some forms of epileptic seizures

when electrical activity in the brain suddenly goes haywire.

-Cam down, we're here to help you.

-Relax.

What was he doing when he started?

He was just out the back having a break.

And you said you had seen him like this before?

I haven't, but a couple of months ago

he was playing football and he had a seizure.

It turns out Mike has had one other fit a couple of months before

but specialists have not been able to find the cause.

-Mike, Mike.

-Relax. Calm down, mate.

Around one in every ten people experience one fit in their lifetime

brought on by anything from fever, infection, or even alcohol.

But a follow up seizure like this is even more cause for concern.

Mike, do you want to give me the keys?

Whilst police and crew try to calm Mike down,

Sue wants to bring the ambulance closer.

They clearly cannot take him through the shopping centre

in this condition.

It is now a waiting game

until Sue can get the ambulance

close enough to transfer Mike to hospital.

Relax. Relax.

Gradually, Mike becomes calmer.

The concern of the crew is that he may have injured himself

but it is proving difficult to assess the damage.

We are going to run a few checks on you, your temperature and all that.

They are still struggling to get any coherent answers.

I am just going to put this in your ear.

Sue is back, the ambulance is waiting outside.

Who am I speaking to?

They have managed to contact Mike's son on the phone.

My name is Sue, a paramedic in Hampshire.

Can you tell me anything about Dad? Has he had fits before?

All right, OK. Did they do any kind of CT scan or anything?

Is he allergic to anything?

It turns out that Mike's son is a student paramedic

so he is after a full briefing.

We have not managed to do an awful lot of obs as it stands

because Dad was obviously postictal and very agitated and aggressive.

Mike is now completely exhausted.

Do you want a sip of water?

How old are you?

Sue is trying to get some details.

It is not just administration but a useful chance

to see how coherent Mike is feeling.

What is your address?

Mike's aggression has turned into complete confusion.

Don't worry. It will all come back. Eventually.

All right, Mike. Feeling a bit better?

It has been a challenging call-out,

not least because the causes of seizures are very complex

and their symptoms even more difficult to treat.

Mike will need more tests to monitor the electrical activity in his brain

to work out whether his latest fit could be related to epilepsy.

Here is Mike. Making a bit more sense today, I am delighted to say.

-I don't know about that!

-I think you are! Sue is here. And Lloyd.

Mike, interesting watching that with you,

because you do not remember any of that at all.

-No.

-Were you surprised by how strong you were?

I am not surprised by that

but I was surprised at not being able to remember anything.

I look as if I am, you know, sort of coherent, but, I don't know...

It is just the shock of seeing it. Quite amazing really.

Lloyd, you know him very well. Is he normally that strong, does he fight?

Sometimes, yes!

That's not fair!

I have never seen anyone fight that much after a seizure.

It was quite shocking to see that actually.

People can behave differently when they're having a fit

or coming out of a fit, was that quite unusual behaviour?

Yes, it was the first time I have seen it.

Usually when people come out of fits they are quiet, subdued,

confused, very, very tired.

This was the first time I had seen somebody

that was quite aggressive and agitated.

-My little man syndrome coming out!

-I am sure it wasn't!

You said it was a bit like being in a dream,

you couldn't get out of it, people were holding you down.

Yes. It felt like a nightmare.

There seemed to be everybody around me

and I was sort of trying to get up

and just trying to do my own thing, but it just seemed very difficult.

I think that is why I got very agitated.

Because of that. It is just quite surreal, sort of seeing it.

-I bet it is. It hasn't happened since, has it?

-No, thank God.

-Good news.

-But the downside is that I cannot drive for a year.

When you say to people you cannot drive

they automatically think you have been drinking.

Of course, I suppose they do, you then have to explain, which is...

Lloyd, you are training to be a paramedic.

When you first got that call did you panic like anybody else would?

Yeah. First of all, it is shock, because it is a family member.

Luckily I got to speak to Sue when she was in the shop

so I managed to get some information about my dad,

I was frightened a bit,

but after that I knew it wasn't anything too serious,

immediately, and obviously we knew we had the scans and that before.

And your real priority, Sue, was to try to protect Mike, wasn't it?

-Because he could have hurt himself and other people.

-It was.

Although it looks quite brutal what we were trying to do,

you were not aware of what you were doing and you were potentially

a danger to yourself because you were staggering all over the place.

Is that the best thing? To try to restrain...

Not restrain people, but stop them hurting themselves?

We just wanted to keep him safe, more than anything.

I am glad you're better. Good luck with all of that.

-Thank you very much for coming to see us.

-OK. Thank you.

Still to come on Real Rescues: missing in action.

Zack the rescue dog has disappeared and now the search is on to find him.

And, that's my boy. It is 5am and dad Daniel gets to play midwife.

Simple questions and answers are often all that is needed

to find out if a patient is seriously hurt

but when the patient is under two and has fallen onto a concrete floor

the paramedics have to be a little bit more inventive.

Time for a balloon trick.

An ambulance crew has just pulled up outside a house

after a worried mum called 999.

Hi, there.

Her little boy has banged his head after a fall.

Danny Milham and Jonathan Nicholas are relieved to hear and see a crying boy.

-FINLAY CRIES

-What happened, then?

-So, basically,

just stood up here next to him like this

-and I just literally saw him like this headfirst...

-Oh, right.

-And then what happened? Did he cry straight away?

-No, he didn't.

-OK.

He was quiet for about a minute.

There's still cause for concern as Finlay didn't cry out immediately after he hit the ground.

There's a chance he has concussion.

His head and neck took the hit.

-It's OK, darling.

-Right,

he's obviously got a bit of an egg on his head there

so what we'll do is we'll go out to the ambulance, sit down there.

Finlay will need to go to hospital.

They can't rule out more serious internal injuries

such as a bleed on the brain.

He's fallen a metre from the worktop onto a concrete floor.

He's more comfortable with you. There you go.

Mum Eve is doing her best to comfort Finlay.

He's still upset and it's not surprising judging by the huge lump

that is beginning to develop on his forehead.

FINLAY CRIES

Danny carries out his basic checks as quickly

and as quietly as possible.

He needs to get all the information he can

without upsetting Finlay any more.

I'm going to take a tiny bit of blood.

Danny need the sample to check Finlay's blood sugar levels.

-Excellent. Well done, Finlay.

-Mummy's here.

-All done.

It's the nasty green man, isn't it?

He's the most placid kid around.

-He doesn't do crying.

-Look, how many toes have you got?

One, two, three, four, five. That's right.

Is there five on the other side?

And it's not just Finlay who needs reassurance -

Mum is feeling very guilty.

-He needs someone to keep an eye on him for a good few hours.

-Really?

-FINLAY CONTINUES TO CRY

-OK.

The journey to hospital gives Danny a chance

to update Finlay's medical history, ready to hand over to the doctors.

No medication.

Any allergies to medication?

Eve can't stop blaming herself for the fall.

-Well, I'll never be doing that again.

-No.

Easily done, though, isn't it?

Danny's a dad himself so he's using all his parental

as well as paramedic skills to calm and comfort Finlay.

What's happening?

FINLAY CRIES

-Is that like a balloon?

-Can I have it? This is for me, I think.

Is it like a balloon?

-FINLAY CRIES

-No?

Can you hold it for me? Good boy.

The balloon seems to have done the trick - the crying has stopped.

What shall we call this?

Shall we call him Dave?

Dave the balloon.

Yeah?

It's very difficult to assess a two-year-old,

to ask him where it hurts, if it hurts or what day of the week it is.

We're going to take him to Poole

and get him observed for a few hours by the nurses there.

A good sign is he hasn't vomited and he's been smiling with me

and hugging his balloon and everything seems to be working fine.

It's nice to get a long cuddle, he doesn't stay put normally.

Danny's balloon trick isn't just for Finlay's entertainment.

It also helps the medics assess the little lad's injuries.

If Finlay is alert and responsive,

it's unlikely he's come to any serious harm.

Now he is even starting to smile.

You make me feel like a comedian.

Do it again.

Go like, mmm-hmm. Mmm-hmm.

FINLAY GIGGLES

I bet that's what Mum normally does, isn't it? "Mmm-hmm, Finlay."

Like that.

I've got an hour to go, Finlay, and seven days off.

-Oh! Happy days.

-Yeah.

High-five?

Yeah!

By the time they get to the hospital,

Finlay is looking more like his old self.

But a child of this age with a huge bump on his head

MUST be thoroughly checked.

Mum's taken her eye off him momentarily, unfortunately,

and he's ended up on his head on the concrete floor.

-Aww.

-Mum feels terrible, as you can imagine.

-Yeah.

-Shall we get someone in just to check you over?

-Say, "Yes, please."

Yeah? See the nice doctors?

Bye-bye!

And it looks like Danny's made a friend for life.

Little high-five?

Yeah. See you on the ice.

Come on. Yeah.

Finlay developed a very big bruise to go with that bump

but has since made a full recovery.

Everybody in here, as you can see, is quite busy,

and they're so used to taking different types of calls

but sometimes a particular issue can develop into something else.

-I'm just going to have a chat with Mark. Are you OK to talk?

-I'm fine.

Mark, you had a call - on New Year's Eve of all days -

about a family having dinner, and they were in a bit of a panic. What was going on?

We received a call from the daughter at her property there.

They were enjoying their roast dinner on New Year's Eve, as you do.

The father actually got a bit of chicken lodged in his throat

and started to choke.

The daughter was doing the Heimlich Manoeuvre repeatedly

but that wasn't having any effect.

Eventually, he went into cardiac arrest. Because of the choking,

-he wasn't getting any oxygen.

-Basically, the Heimlich Manoeuvre -

-you're trying to force the air through the stomach...

-Push the air up to push the object out.

That wasn't happening and he was getting into serious trouble now, cardiac arrest.

Yeah, he was. So he's now not breathing for himself. His heart is not beating.

We had to instruct the daughter to do CPR over the phone,

which was being done until we arrived on scene.

We then got there on scene,

and were able to carry on the resuscitation efforts

and we were able to take the chicken out of the mouth

and that eventually got his airway back.

After a few more minutes of CPR, he came round.

He started breathing for himself, his heart started beating again

and after a short period recovering in hospital, he was fine.

-Brilliant.

-She sent in a letter to say thank you. Quite nice.

-It was quite a good job.

-He had to go to hospital?

-Yeah.

-He wasn't well enough for the trifle?

-No. Unfortunately not!

-Next time.

-Mark, thank you very much.

-No problem.

The people around me in this room get to hear a new born baby's first cry countless times

and they consider it a privilege.

Each one is a cause for celebration, as we are about to hear.

WOMAN WHIMPERS IN BACKGROUND

WOMAN CRIES OUT IN BACKGROUND

WOMAN CONTINUES TO CRY OUT

It's clear to everyone now that Dan is going to be in sole charge of the birth

and Charlotte allows herself enjoy the moment as well.

WOMAN CRIES OUT

WOMAN CONTINUES TO CRY OUT

Shall we meet everyone who was on that tape?

-Here we have Dawn, Max, hello, Max, Dan...

-Hi.

..Charlotte, who was taking the call, and Isabella, who,

I think you were in the room next door, weren't you?

Lots of things about that.

-Dan first of all. Is he normally that well-behaved?

-No.

Everything that Charlotte said, you were like, "OK."

Yeah, shock took over, I think,

and just the control, I suppose. It's that fight or flight isn't it?

-Thankfully, Charlotte was there to talk me down.

-You did really well.

When she said, "Go and wash your hands," you were like, "OK."

-Yeah, I just...

-You didn't realise what you were actually going to have to do?

Exactly, not questioning it, just, "Really, wash my hands?

"My wife's next door giving birth and you want me to wash my hands?"

Charlotte, what was it like for you?

Because I know you've got six babies you've talked through?

Six under my belt, yeah. Max was my fifth,

but, I've got to say,

it was the best one because it was completely from start to finish.

Quite a lot of the time, the crew do come in halfway through your instructions

so it was nice to claim him as my own, if you like.

ALL CHUCKLE Dawn, how were you feeling, listening to that tape?

-It's not embarrassing, is it?

-No.

Obviously, it was inevitable. When the contractions started,

I knew it wasn't going to be long - Isabella came very quickly.

-She was only three hours.

-Right.

So I was just more concerned about Dan

because I knew the first time round he was there in the hospital...

-And he hadn't liked it much?

-He hadn't liked it much.

-You wanted to hold my hand this time, didn't you?

-It was OK.

It was fine but at the point where she was crowning, they said,

"Would you like to have a look?"

And not knowing what that meant, I went, "Oh, yeah," had a look,

-wishing I hadn't.

-So to have to do the whole thing again...

-Exactly.

My bold statement was - cos Dawn's sister was going to come with us -

my bold statement was, "I'm not going down the business end this time,

"I'm going to stay at the head and that's fine."

-That didn't come to pass.

-No.

Isabella, was it nice to have your baby brother born actually at home?

That's brilliant.

After Mummy and Daddy, were you the next person to see him?

Aw, that's fantastic. Charlotte,

you are going to go on to become a midwife, you're hoping?

Hoping to.

It will be a bit of a long road, university,

but obviously this is a really good stepping stone

and having had six now,

I'm hoping I've found my calling.

-Do you recommend her?

-Definitely.

-Thank you.

-Definitely kept you calm.

-Yes.

-Brilliant. Thank you very much. I'm glad Max is well as well.

-Thanks.

Thanks.

When anyone hears the phrase "missing in the line of duty"

it's easy to immediately fear the worst.

Search and rescue dog Zac has worked tirelessly for years trying to find others.

But now everyone's looking for him.

Animal rescue specialist Buster Brown has been called out to help

find search dog Zac.

He's disappeared searching for a missing person.

His owner and handler Kevin Saunders

is part of the lowland search and rescue team.

He and Zac have saved many lives together

but tonight things have taken an unexpected turn.

A boy dog. How old did you say he was?

-Three and a half.

-Three and a half.

And you've worked him for?

So he is well used to this sort of environment and trained

so it's totally unusual and out of character?

Kevin is bereft.

Zac is a much-loved family dog

as well as a highly-trained member of the search team.

He's been missing now for nearly four hours.

We were initially searching up here but there is a drop.

There's quite a drop there and then the tunnels...

The only drop is the tunnels. You drop down.

They are in an area known as the Ramparts near Portsmouth.

Basically, a very high mud mound, about 30 to 40 feet high,

into which there's been built old military defences.

The dog was at the top of these when it was doing its search

and it then disappeared.

The fear is it's fallen down into one of the tunnels.

Zac could be lying injured in one of these tunnels,

unable even to bark to get attention.

The team that earlier was searching for a missing girl

is now trying to find Zac.

But even the police helicopter with its infrared camera

has failed to detect anything.

It looks like it's going to be a very long night.

But suddenly he's appeared and is reunited with an overjoyed Kevin.

He is carefully checked over

but Zac seems none the worse for his experience.

Kevin calls the rest of the team with the good news.

He's fine, he's not scared, he's chilled, he's nice and relaxed.

It's the best possible ending.

Well, I'm happy to say Zac and Kev are with us now.

-What happened, do you think?

-I don't think we'll ever know.

-He hasn't told you?

-No, he hasn't told us!

Zac obviously went off somewhere.

We believe he got caught

because of the branch that came through his collar when we found him.

-But we'll never know for sure.

-It's good that he's back.

-You've had him, what, since he was a little pup?

-Yeah.

-You do this voluntarily, right?

-Indeed.

All the fuel costs and training costs are our own.

We do it completely voluntarily.

We fund raise for team bits.

But, yeah, everything else is down to handlers.

-So this is your little doggie, really?

-Yeah.

OK, so how do you train a dog to do the things he does?

It's just a big game of hide and seek, really.

It takes about a year to get up to a standard

where they can go for assessment.

It starts with me running away

and then we change me to someone else

and then we just slowly put in the various stages needed for him to find someone,

tell us he's found someone and then take us back to him.

-And he gets rewarded for this, does he?

-Yet, he does.

-What does he get?

He gets this purple toy.

His favourite toy in the whole world is his little purple toy.

You're easily pleased, aren't you, doggie? I've seen it on the telly -

you give him a cloth of someone, he gets the scent there.

-Is that how you do it?

-That's mainly TV.

-Right, OK.

In real life, he just looks for any human scent in an area,

it's called air scenting.

Right. And he goes off and then you walk towards him and then what happens?

Once he's found someone,

he'll come back and alert me to the fact he's found someone.

Zac, his alert is he'll come back and sit in front of me.

I'll then give him the show me command and he'll take me to that missing person.

Brilliant. OK, we're going to have a real rescue on telly now.

We've sent someone out into the woods, a mate of yours.

Zac, I promise you, has not seen where he is.

-And we'll do it for real, shall we?

-Yeah.

-OK, send him off, then.

Ready... ready... ready... Find!

-So how many rescues has he been involved in?

-Good boy, find!

-Last year alone, we responded to 29...

-29?

-Yeah.

Throughout the south coast.

He's running around. He's saying, "Dad, I'm not sure that I've found anything yet."

-I think he's just picked up on something.

-Has he?

-Show me.

-OK.

-Show me. What you got?

-Oh, I can see somebody.

-Show me, then.

-And there he is.

-Oh, he's a good boy!

-There's a good lad. What have you got there?

Danny, you all right there?

I am now. Thank you very much for finding me.

-That's all right, mate. Well done. Well done, Zac.

-Who's a good boy?

Who's a good boy, eh?

I want to have a chat with Lee who I know is a very busy man -

you're on the phone all the time - but you've got a couple of minutes to spare.

-You're a clinical supervisor now but before you were a paramedic, weren't you?

-Yes.

And you saw somebody have a heart attack, a cardiac arrest,

in an extremely useful place, actually.

Yes, quite a bizarre set of circumstances

but it worked out for this guy in the end.

I was called to a public place where the guy had collapsed. He was in cardiac arrest.

-Was it actually a pub?

-It was a pub.

-It was a pub?

-Yeah.

And fortunately for him,

he collapsed next to a consultant anaesthetist and a cardiologist.

So what happens in that sort of situation?

When you arrived, they were helping him already?

They were doing very good CPR, they were doing everything they could.

A crew got there before me

so the anaesthetist was using some of the equipment.

Everything was going really, really well.

It took us a long time, but after 29 minutes we got him back.

-29 minutes of CPR?

-Yes.

29 minutes of CPR and several shocks and lots of drugs,

but, yeah, we got him back.

You say you got him back. What, he came round or...? What happened?

It took a few minutes but after a few minutes of getting an output...

-An output? What, on his heart?

-Yes. He got a heartbeat.

-Yes.

He actually started to respond to us,

which was amazing after 29 minutes.

By the time we got to the hospital,

he was understanding simple instructions so we decided to take the tube out

and he literally sat up and said, "What happened?"

The lesson in that is, if you are going to have a heart attack,

try and do it when there's that kind of medical team around you.

-I'd say so, yeah.

-And he's absolutely fine?

-Yeah.

I saw him a few days after the incident occurred,

he didn't have much of a recollection of what happened

but he made a full recovery.

Brilliant. Thank you.

Fireworks are now a year-round feature

and so are the dangers they can present.

A firework going astray can threaten an entire neighbourhood.

Southampton's green watch fire crew are on a call-out

after flames are spotted leaping high into the sky

in the student area of the city.

It's the midnight meal break

when a shout comes into St Mary's fire station.

Green Watch are on duty.

A large blaze has been reported in a back garden.

The crew arrive to find flames crackling 40 feet up into the night sky.

Right, whose house is it?

It looks like two large conifers have caught fire,

spraying sparks and burning debris over the neighbouring rooftops.

Is everyone out the property, yeah?

Give us some more pressure.

Green Watch need to act quickly before the fire spreads.

It's a coordinated effort.

While one crew member goes straight in over the back wall,

another has broken through the side gate.

Considering the height of the flames,

the fire is quickly and safely put out.

We're just going to ascertain now how the fire started.

We must have about 20 students at the front.

-Who's in number 23, then?

-We are.

-How did it start?

-It was a firework.

The students explain they were watching TV

when they couldn't help but notice that their back garden had gone up in flames.

-The whole tree just went whoompf!

-Yeah, the whole tree, up in flames.

The other tree went up in flames as well.

It's only a few weeks after Guy Fawkes Night

and the crew manager Martin Ventham

suspects a rogue firework from a neighbour's garden may have been to blame.

What they're suggesting is from inside the property

they saw, or rather they heard, a loud bang.

Potentially a firework from next door which ignited the tree.

It's our house but it was someone else who set off fireworks.

So they've gone up, got caught in our tree,

and set the whole thing alight.

Garden fireworks should have around 20 feet of clear space around them

and display fireworks around 150 feet.

I've spoken to both sets of students,

given them some fire safety advice on using fireworks,

if that is what happened.

Pull back the barrier tapes, go and get some more water

and head back to the station.

The students return to the TV.

The incident will go down as an unexplained accident.

When you call 999 for assistance

and an ambulance is sent on its way to you,

don't expect every time to end up in A&E in a hospital.

And that's a good thing, as Mark's just about to explain to me.

-I want to be in A&E, don't I?

-Not necessarily, Chris.

South Western Ambulance,

the patient is at the centre of absolutely everything we do,

and sometimes, A&E might be appropriate, but other times -

and statistics show that 90% of patients we deal with

don't actually have life-threatening emergencies to deal with -

as a paramedic I'm trained to assess,

treat and refer and perhaps send you down an alternative pathway.

Have you had a case yourself where you've turned up and thought,

"She or he doesn't need to go to A&E?"

Well, yeah, a good example would be a few months ago.

I was treating a lady in Sidmouth, near where I live,

an elderly lady, who had a cut to her arm.

That cut required stitching

but the nearest hospital is almost an hour away in Exeter.

Now, I don't want to drag her out of bed in the middle of the night

when all I need to do, really, is dress that wound,

call in a specialist paramedic, an emergency care practitioner

or a community district nurse, get it sutured

and that wound can then be taken of locally in a minor injury unit.

Right, OK. So basically it's about getting the right cure, I suppose, at the right time.

It's using appropriate conveyance to the right receiving clinical care.

Is it just in your area or is it national?

No, it is a national thing, but in the south-west,

we are actually driving it.

-Brilliant, thanks very much.

-You're welcome.

When pensioner Sidney collapsed out of the blue on the street,

help really was round the corner as well as up the road

and in a neighbour's house.

Paramedic Steve is working alone in the rapid response vehicle.

An emergency call has come in for a man who has collapsed in the street.

It's an 80-old-male who's fallen with a head injury.

-What's your first name, sir? Hello, luvvie, you all right?

-Yes.

-What's been going on? What's your first name?

-Sidney.

-I'm Steve.

-What's been going on today, then?

-I don't know.

-You don't know.

Sidney was walking down the street where he lives with his wife Alice.

The next thing he knew he was on the floor.

He just went flat on his back.

-OK, did he complain of anything, any pains, dizziness?

-No.

-How was he when he got up this morning?

-As usual.

-OK.

-Yes.

Can you move your legs for me?

Lovely stuff. So where do you hurt?

Um... If anything, the back of my head, there. That's all.

Although he's not complaining of any other pain,

Steve must check Sidney over before he tries to move him.

-That's all OK, is it?

-Yeah.

-OK.

-Do you remember falling over?

-No.

-You don't remember falling over at all?

-No.

-OK.

Do you know what day it is today?

Oh.

Sidney's loss of memory is a cause for concern.

It could mean there was a more serious reason for his sudden fall.

Just bend in the middle for me.

It's handy that blanket was on the floor there, isn't it?

Sidney's head clearly hit the ground pretty hard when he fell

but Steve wants to get him inside out of the cold before he attends to it.

Luckily, there's a Good Samaritan passing by.

-Do you want a hand there, mate?

-Yes, please, buddy, if you wouldn't mind. That would be great.

-If you push down and we'll pull you up, Sidney, all right?

-Yeah.

On three, push down. There we go. How's that feel?

It's a very friendly neighbourhood.

Sidney's soon offered refuge in a nearby house.

Sidney, walk towards me, fella. Let's get you out the cold.

Steve does his standard checks while trying to get more information.

-How do you feel now that you're up?

-Oh, not so bad.

-Not so bad.

Steve can now get a good look at the head wound.

Just tell me if I'm hurting you, Sidney, all right?

You've got a little graze there.

Although there's a lot of blood, it's not looking too serious.

Steve is more concerned about what caused Sidney to fall.

-Has anything ever happened like this to Sidney before?

-No.

No? OK.

Low blood sugar levels could have caused him to black out.

While Steve is doing the test,

Sidney's ambulance arrives with crew Steve and Paul on board.

-How are you feeling at the moment?

-All right.

-Yeah?

We're going to do an ECG on him but because we don't know why he fell

and he's not complaining of anything like shortness of breath

or any chest pain and we can't at the moment really find anything wrong,

we will probably take him up to the hospital for a check-up, anyway.

-Can I go up the hospital with him?

-Of course you can. Course you can.

Sidney did have a heart attack some years ago.

The ECG will show up anything untoward now.

-You don't feel dizzy, confused?

-No, no.

-Any nausea, vomiting?

-No.

I'm just going to take your temperature.

If you look to the little screen, I'll just pop something in your ear.

Paul checks out his temperature.

The ECG has picked up an anomaly but he is careful not to alarm Sidney.

It may just be a normal condition

but because you don't really remember what happened

we have to treat it as a collapse with an unknown cause

so that means a trip to hospital, OK?

They're not taking any chances.

Sidney will get a thorough check over in hospital

and Alice will be with him all the way.

-All the best, my darling. You take care.

-Thank you for your help.

No problem at all.

Sidney is fine now.

He was in hospital for a few hours and then sent home.

-His GP says it was actually a change in his medication.

-Simple as that?

Good news he's OK. That's it for Real Rescues.

Aw. See you next time.

Bye-bye.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd