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999 calls have been saving lives for 75 years. | 0:00:02 | 0:00:04 | |
Today on Real Rescues we hear the call that saved a three-year-old boy's life. | 0:00:04 | 0:00:08 | |
High up on scaffolding, a roofer suffers a stroke. | 0:00:15 | 0:00:19 | |
Half his body is paralysed and he's stuck on a narrow platform. | 0:00:19 | 0:00:23 | |
Just give my hand a good squeeze for me. Marvellous. | 0:00:23 | 0:00:26 | |
What I'm going to do, chief, I'm going to get you down, OK? | 0:00:26 | 0:00:29 | |
Hello and welcome to Real Rescues. | 0:00:45 | 0:00:47 | |
Today we are marking the 75th anniversary of the first ever 999 call. | 0:00:47 | 0:00:52 | |
This emergency system now operates worldwide | 0:00:52 | 0:00:55 | |
but it all started here in Britain in 1937. | 0:00:55 | 0:00:58 | |
When there is an emergency the rescue work starts at centres like this all over the country,. | 0:00:58 | 0:01:03 | |
Not just police, fire and ambulance, but coastguard and air ambulance. | 0:01:03 | 0:01:06 | |
Then there are all the other specialist rescue teams, | 0:01:06 | 0:01:09 | |
including mountain rescue, emergency doctors, | 0:01:09 | 0:01:11 | |
hazardous response teams and the RNLI. | 0:01:11 | 0:01:14 | |
We're about to see one of those teams in action. | 0:01:14 | 0:01:17 | |
A man has suffered a devastating stroke at work. | 0:01:17 | 0:01:20 | |
But he's not in an office. The sick man is a roofer. | 0:01:20 | 0:01:23 | |
He's fallen ill almost 30 foot up on scaffolding. | 0:01:23 | 0:01:27 | |
Ambulance technician Jamie Stubbington is working alone | 0:01:39 | 0:01:43 | |
in the rapid response vehicle when an emergency call comes in. | 0:01:43 | 0:01:47 | |
A man showing all the symptoms of a stroke has collapsed in a very precarious position. | 0:01:47 | 0:01:53 | |
He's on top of a scaffolding tower about 25 feet up. | 0:01:53 | 0:01:56 | |
Jamie has found his patient. But reaching and treating him is another matter. | 0:02:01 | 0:02:06 | |
-Is this quite stable? -I don't know. | 0:02:06 | 0:02:10 | |
Michael Christopher is a roofer. He had just climbed back up the scaffolding after his tea break | 0:02:12 | 0:02:17 | |
when he suddenly fell ill. | 0:02:17 | 0:02:19 | |
Michael is lying across the hatch that gives access to the top tier of the scaffolding. | 0:02:21 | 0:02:25 | |
Ah... He's not going to roll off, is he? Is he speaking to you? | 0:02:25 | 0:02:29 | |
No, I can't get a word out of him. | 0:02:29 | 0:02:31 | |
He's not saying anything. He's got a stroke, I think. | 0:02:31 | 0:02:34 | |
If Michael just rolls a few inches either way, he'll fall of the platform. | 0:02:34 | 0:02:39 | |
In the front of my car there's a phone, a phone. | 0:02:39 | 0:02:41 | |
Jamie is clearly going to need help. | 0:02:41 | 0:02:43 | |
A specialist ambulance team with expertise in working at heights is en route. | 0:02:43 | 0:02:48 | |
But they'll need help from the fire service. | 0:02:48 | 0:02:51 | |
Hello mate, it's Jamie on the 311. We need the fire brigade as well. | 0:02:51 | 0:02:54 | |
He's about 25 feet up and there's no access to him. | 0:02:54 | 0:02:57 | |
It's clear he's CVA. He's not responding to us at all. | 0:02:57 | 0:02:59 | |
He has a GCS of probably about 10. | 0:02:59 | 0:03:02 | |
But while he waits, Jamie is trying anything to get up to his patient. | 0:03:02 | 0:03:07 | |
Will it reach it? Just try it. | 0:03:07 | 0:03:09 | |
-No, we're getting nowhere near. -Nowhere near. -Got any more ladders? | 0:03:11 | 0:03:17 | |
It's vital that Michael gets treatment for his stroke quickly. | 0:03:17 | 0:03:20 | |
-How are you doing, Mick? -Mate, can you give us a hand with these? | 0:03:23 | 0:03:26 | |
The more time is lost, the less chance he has of a complete recovery. | 0:03:26 | 0:03:31 | |
-Was he talking away to you before? -Yeah, he came back from his break. | 0:03:31 | 0:03:36 | |
He was climbing on the scaffold, that's when it happened. | 0:03:36 | 0:03:39 | |
Now that Jamie is level with Michael, | 0:03:39 | 0:03:41 | |
he can appreciate just how narrow the platform is. | 0:03:41 | 0:03:44 | |
There are just a few spare inches each side of Michael. | 0:03:44 | 0:03:47 | |
Mick, just stay nice and still for me, all right? | 0:03:47 | 0:03:50 | |
Mick, what I'm going to do, mate, I'm going to put a bit of oxygen on you? | 0:03:50 | 0:03:53 | |
OK, just stay there. I'm going to put this on your face, fella. | 0:03:53 | 0:03:57 | |
The fire service arrive. Jamie fills them in. | 0:03:57 | 0:04:01 | |
-It's clear he had a stroke. -Yeah. -If we can get the Bronto in position, | 0:04:01 | 0:04:05 | |
-and get him off... -Yeah. -Fantastic, mate. Good stuff. | 0:04:05 | 0:04:09 | |
The fire service have brought their platform | 0:04:09 | 0:04:11 | |
which can be raised into position level with the scaffolding. | 0:04:11 | 0:04:16 | |
Mick? Give us your finger. | 0:04:16 | 0:04:18 | |
It's clear now that Michael's right side is paralysed. | 0:04:20 | 0:04:23 | |
He can only offer Jamie his left hand. | 0:04:23 | 0:04:26 | |
That's it. You're not going to fall. Just stay there. Just keep breathing that oxygen. | 0:04:26 | 0:04:30 | |
You're doing really well. You're doing really well. All right? Just go with it. | 0:04:30 | 0:04:34 | |
Jamie has now got back-up from the heart paramedics, | 0:04:34 | 0:04:38 | |
who are trained to work in hazardous areas. | 0:04:38 | 0:04:40 | |
He's got no movement in his right side at all and he's getting a bit agitated up there. | 0:04:40 | 0:04:44 | |
I have just done a BM on him and it's 5.2. And I've got some O2 onto him. | 0:04:44 | 0:04:47 | |
But it's... I've got about 15 minutes before it runs out. | 0:04:47 | 0:04:50 | |
That's fine. I can give you some O2. Do you want to use our mid-stretcher, get him in? | 0:04:50 | 0:04:54 | |
-We can put it straight onto that. -Yeah, can do. Yeah. Brilliant, mate. That's fantastic. | 0:04:54 | 0:04:59 | |
We're going to lift him off there, straight into the Bronto | 0:04:59 | 0:05:02 | |
bring him down and then get him the medical treatment that he requires. | 0:05:02 | 0:05:05 | |
It's a bit precarious up there. So going up and down the ladder | 0:05:05 | 0:05:08 | |
we're trying to keep it to a minimum if we possibly can. | 0:05:08 | 0:05:10 | |
The heart paramedics carry special climbing harnesses, | 0:05:12 | 0:05:16 | |
which will enable them to work safely on scaffolding. | 0:05:16 | 0:05:18 | |
The fire platform slowly moves into place. | 0:05:27 | 0:05:30 | |
As all the rescue work goes on around them, | 0:05:32 | 0:05:34 | |
Michael's friend Ted stays on the scaffolding, | 0:05:34 | 0:05:37 | |
comforting him and keeping him calm. | 0:05:37 | 0:05:41 | |
One of the firefighters stays up the ladder to make sure Michael doesn't move. | 0:05:43 | 0:05:47 | |
Paramedic Martin Chester will have to work in the tiny space available. | 0:05:48 | 0:05:54 | |
Because he's 25 feet up, he clips onto the scaffolding bars. | 0:05:54 | 0:05:58 | |
Hello, mate. I'm Martin. What's your name? | 0:06:03 | 0:06:08 | |
What I'm going to do, chief, I'm going to get you down, OK? | 0:06:10 | 0:06:13 | |
Just give my hand a good squeeze for me. Marvellous. | 0:06:14 | 0:06:17 | |
Right, it's definitely a confirmed stroke. | 0:06:18 | 0:06:21 | |
Obviously we've got very little access here. | 0:06:21 | 0:06:23 | |
So I'm wondering if you're best to come around to this side... | 0:06:23 | 0:06:26 | |
..in the cage and help me package him from that side and I'll work from this side. | 0:06:26 | 0:06:31 | |
-It's getting on the front of this? -I think so. | 0:06:31 | 0:06:33 | |
He's definitely got a completely right-sided weakness. | 0:06:38 | 0:06:40 | |
There is a little bit of strength in his legs. | 0:06:40 | 0:06:43 | |
What we're trying to do, chief, is get you on our stretcher | 0:06:43 | 0:06:45 | |
so we can keep you nice and safe, all right? | 0:06:45 | 0:06:47 | |
If you can help in any way at all. | 0:06:47 | 0:06:50 | |
Paramedic Clare McGonigle is now also on the scaffolding. | 0:06:50 | 0:06:53 | |
But there's no room for anyone else. | 0:06:53 | 0:06:56 | |
Martin and Clare have to manoeuvre Michael onto the stretcher, | 0:06:56 | 0:07:01 | |
knowing that there's no margin for error. | 0:07:01 | 0:07:04 | |
A few inches too far in any direction will mean a fall for one or all of them. | 0:07:04 | 0:07:09 | |
Treating a stroke is time critical. | 0:07:12 | 0:07:15 | |
We'll find out later if the medics get Michael to hospital on time | 0:07:15 | 0:07:18 | |
to limit its damaging effects. | 0:07:18 | 0:07:20 | |
Whatever the emergency, the call takers here always stay measured and calm. | 0:07:21 | 0:07:25 | |
It's not just about getting help quickly, it's about getting the right help. | 0:07:25 | 0:07:29 | |
No family is more aware of that than the Downings. | 0:07:29 | 0:07:32 | |
They dialled 999 after their Christmas Day celebrations | 0:07:32 | 0:07:35 | |
were shattered by a terrible accident | 0:07:35 | 0:07:37 | |
involving their three-year-old son Freddie. This is the call. | 0:07:37 | 0:07:41 | |
Well that was Simon Downing making that phone call. | 0:08:52 | 0:08:56 | |
Here is Freddie's mum, Andrea, and Freddie, I am delighted to see as well. | 0:08:56 | 0:09:00 | |
Andrea, you were the person who found him outside. How was he when you went outside to see him? | 0:09:00 | 0:09:04 | |
Well he was crying very loudly, and kind of shouting rather than crying. | 0:09:04 | 0:09:09 | |
But he was also wriggling around. | 0:09:09 | 0:09:12 | |
I kind of felt almost reassured that he was still awake and he wasn't unconscious. | 0:09:12 | 0:09:17 | |
So I kind of scooped him onto my lap and then ran into the house as Simon was calling 999. | 0:09:17 | 0:09:21 | |
And you and I know as a mum that there are some cries | 0:09:21 | 0:09:24 | |
when you know it's serious rather than just a small fall? | 0:09:24 | 0:09:28 | |
Yeah. He didn't look very injured. He really only had some kind of mud on his face and a scrape. | 0:09:28 | 0:09:34 | |
But his crying was so unusual. It was like he was shouting and crying, | 0:09:34 | 0:09:37 | |
and he seemed to struggle to open his eyes, which was very worrying. | 0:09:37 | 0:09:41 | |
We know the air ambulance then arrived and you went with it. | 0:09:41 | 0:09:44 | |
He was seriously injured. Tell me what he'd managed to do? | 0:09:44 | 0:09:47 | |
I think they suspected he had skull fractures because they kept him, | 0:09:47 | 0:09:50 | |
they got him strapped to be very still, very quickly. | 0:09:50 | 0:09:54 | |
And they said he would be taken straight into Derriford Hospital. | 0:09:54 | 0:09:58 | |
-It wasn't just skull fractures though, was it? -No. | 0:09:58 | 0:10:00 | |
And also what they discovered then, that he had some blood clots as well, two blood clots. | 0:10:00 | 0:10:05 | |
Serious stuff. He was in a chemically-induced coma for a while. | 0:10:05 | 0:10:09 | |
-What was it like when he came out? -He was just amazing. | 0:10:09 | 0:10:12 | |
He'd been through operations, they hadn't removed the blood clots | 0:10:12 | 0:10:15 | |
but he'd been intubated for a week. So when he came around it was easy. | 0:10:15 | 0:10:20 | |
He just was puckering up for a kiss, he was looking around and looking like himself, | 0:10:20 | 0:10:25 | |
which is what you're terrified that he would be not ready. | 0:10:25 | 0:10:29 | |
He looked up at pictures his sisters had drawn and he seemed to be, you know, coming back to himself. | 0:10:29 | 0:10:34 | |
He wasn't walking. he was sitting up. | 0:10:34 | 0:10:37 | |
He very quickly got round to sitting up and walking around and playing. | 0:10:37 | 0:10:41 | |
Tell me about him now. Obviously he's back to normal? | 0:10:41 | 0:10:45 | |
He's back to normal. He does get a little bit emotional, but again he's only three, so... | 0:10:45 | 0:10:50 | |
Em, he's just at that kind of age. He still can't ride his bike. | 0:10:50 | 0:10:54 | |
He's got another month before he can do that. But he's been absolutely amazing. | 0:10:54 | 0:10:58 | |
The recovery's been fantastic. | 0:10:58 | 0:11:00 | |
Thank you very much. I'm really glad to see he's OK, thank you. | 0:11:00 | 0:11:03 | |
Now on Real Rescues we've been privileged enough to hear | 0:11:06 | 0:11:09 | |
some of the most dramatic life-saving calls that come in to control rooms around the country. | 0:11:09 | 0:11:13 | |
Some of them stay with you a long time. | 0:11:13 | 0:11:15 | |
Like 11-year-old Hamish, who was on a school trip | 0:11:15 | 0:11:17 | |
when out of the blue he collapsed with a heart attack. | 0:11:17 | 0:11:20 | |
This is part of the call his teacher made. | 0:11:20 | 0:11:23 | |
Well thanks to the 999 system, the call taker, his teacher | 0:11:37 | 0:11:40 | |
and a parent on the trip, Hamish was given his life back. | 0:11:40 | 0:11:44 | |
He had a defibrillator fitted and is now a healthy teenager. | 0:11:44 | 0:11:48 | |
Then there was the memorable John Bird, | 0:11:48 | 0:11:50 | |
who slipped on a cliff edge on a walk and was left hanging onto a bush over a 100 foot drop. | 0:11:50 | 0:11:55 | |
With his free hand, John rang the coastguard and called for help. | 0:11:55 | 0:12:00 | |
Despite his desperate predicament, John retained his sense of humour, | 0:12:25 | 0:12:29 | |
even managing a joke with the coastguards. | 0:12:29 | 0:12:31 | |
Well, as the old saying goes, a phone in the hand | 0:12:43 | 0:12:47 | |
is worth two in the bush when on the edge of a cliff. | 0:12:47 | 0:12:49 | |
No, that's not right. Anyway, John was rescued | 0:12:49 | 0:12:52 | |
and he's still telling that story today. | 0:12:52 | 0:12:54 | |
Every year in Britain a phenomenal 30 million 999 calls are made. | 0:12:58 | 0:13:03 | |
And since the service began in 1937, | 0:13:03 | 0:13:05 | |
it's impossible to measure just how many lives have been saved. | 0:13:05 | 0:13:09 | |
So exactly how and where did it begin? Chris has been finding out. | 0:13:09 | 0:13:14 | |
Remember, to make an emergency call, dial 999. | 0:13:14 | 0:13:19 | |
The story of the 999 call began in the 1930s | 0:13:19 | 0:13:23 | |
when a doctor's surgery caught fire in Wimpole Street in central London. | 0:13:23 | 0:13:28 | |
Neighbours tried to contact the operator, | 0:13:28 | 0:13:30 | |
but all the lines were busy with non-emergency calls. | 0:13:30 | 0:13:33 | |
Five women died. | 0:13:33 | 0:13:36 | |
The police were often delayed because calls were answered as they came in. | 0:13:36 | 0:13:41 | |
Operators had no way of knowing which were important. | 0:13:41 | 0:13:44 | |
One of the neighbours, a dentist, protested to The Times that the system was dangerous. | 0:13:44 | 0:13:49 | |
The issue went to Parliament and the 999 emergency service was born. | 0:13:49 | 0:13:53 | |
In wartime, 999 came into its own | 0:13:56 | 0:13:58 | |
when quick responses from the fire and ambulance services were vital. | 0:13:58 | 0:14:03 | |
Slowly, towns and cities around the country followed London's lead. | 0:14:03 | 0:14:08 | |
When a caller rang in panic, a red light and a klaxon on the switchboard alerted the operators. | 0:14:08 | 0:14:14 | |
The system got more sophisticated, but slowly. | 0:14:14 | 0:14:18 | |
Emergency, which service please? | 0:14:18 | 0:14:21 | |
To get the messages which were written on paper, | 0:14:21 | 0:14:24 | |
down to the controller, | 0:14:24 | 0:14:26 | |
we had a little electric train set along the top of the switchboard, | 0:14:26 | 0:14:31 | |
down to the controller. | 0:14:31 | 0:14:33 | |
He then allocated a vehicle on it, put that back into another train | 0:14:33 | 0:14:38 | |
going the opposite way, and that's how we did it. | 0:14:38 | 0:14:41 | |
No trains for Essex police. They moved blocks of wood around a map. | 0:14:41 | 0:14:46 | |
And Oxford's ambulance control room went one better. | 0:14:46 | 0:14:48 | |
We had a map of the city laid out on a square table. | 0:14:50 | 0:14:53 | |
On that square table we didn't just have blocks of wood representing people, | 0:14:53 | 0:14:56 | |
we had these Dinky cars and the like, | 0:14:56 | 0:14:58 | |
which we could actually push around with a ruler. | 0:14:58 | 0:15:02 | |
We take it for granted, | 0:15:02 | 0:15:04 | |
we dial the number and there is help on hand within minutes. | 0:15:04 | 0:15:08 | |
We dial this number 30 million times per year. | 0:15:08 | 0:15:12 | |
In 1937, it was a bit of a novelty. | 0:15:13 | 0:15:16 | |
The service covered just a 12 mile radius at Oxford Circus, | 0:15:16 | 0:15:20 | |
a humble start. | 0:15:20 | 0:15:21 | |
There were more than 1,000 calls in the first week. | 0:15:21 | 0:15:24 | |
The first from a woman who had seen someone in her garden. | 0:15:24 | 0:15:27 | |
The police today arrested a suspected burglar in Hampstead, north London, | 0:15:27 | 0:15:33 | |
after responding to a 999 call. It was made by a member of the public. | 0:15:33 | 0:15:39 | |
This is the first time that the 999 name service, introduced... | 0:15:39 | 0:15:44 | |
Of those first week's calls, 90 were classified as practical jokes. | 0:15:44 | 0:15:49 | |
In the following years, it was not just jokers. | 0:15:49 | 0:15:52 | |
Ops room staff said that many callers didn't quite understand | 0:15:52 | 0:15:55 | |
what 999 was for. | 0:15:55 | 0:15:56 | |
One I recall was a man who had been to the market | 0:15:56 | 0:16:00 | |
and bought some bananas, he came home and found a slug on the bananas | 0:16:00 | 0:16:04 | |
so he phoned 999 to ask whether he should eat the bananas | 0:16:04 | 0:16:08 | |
and throw the slug or throw the bananas away and the slug. | 0:16:08 | 0:16:12 | |
I'm afraid I said, "Eat the slug and throw the bananas". | 0:16:12 | 0:16:16 | |
It was the day of the UFO, | 0:16:17 | 0:16:19 | |
and if you had a misty night and a full moon, | 0:16:19 | 0:16:21 | |
it was inevitable that someone would see something flying over the house | 0:16:21 | 0:16:24 | |
or something that had a resemblance to a flying saucer. | 0:16:24 | 0:16:27 | |
Another lady phoned, her neighbour had borrowed her hairdryer | 0:16:27 | 0:16:30 | |
and wouldn't give it back. | 0:16:30 | 0:16:31 | |
She had a date that evening, could we get her hairdryer back? | 0:16:31 | 0:16:36 | |
Not really an emergency in our eyes. Maybe in hers, but not ours. | 0:16:36 | 0:16:41 | |
Things have changed, not least computer technology. | 0:16:41 | 0:16:46 | |
But ops room staff quickly found out the biggest problem about computers, they crash. | 0:16:46 | 0:16:51 | |
It couldn't cope with the intricacies of paperwork, | 0:16:52 | 0:16:56 | |
or what was required of the ambulance service - | 0:16:56 | 0:17:00 | |
therefore, it crashed. | 0:17:00 | 0:17:02 | |
And when that happened, | 0:17:02 | 0:17:03 | |
it was one of my jobs to go and restart the system | 0:17:03 | 0:17:05 | |
in the server room adjoining the control room. | 0:17:05 | 0:17:08 | |
Inside the door there was a big stick which was marked, | 0:17:08 | 0:17:12 | |
"starting handle". | 0:17:12 | 0:17:13 | |
And sometimes, | 0:17:13 | 0:17:15 | |
when the system had crashed several times during a shift, | 0:17:15 | 0:17:19 | |
it was very, very tempting to get hold of that starting handle | 0:17:19 | 0:17:22 | |
and whack the server one! | 0:17:22 | 0:17:24 | |
In the world of today, the technology used by British Telecom | 0:17:24 | 0:17:28 | |
to handle emergency calls is way more sophisticated and reliable. | 0:17:28 | 0:17:33 | |
And it needs to be. | 0:17:33 | 0:17:35 | |
The set of a large-scale disaster | 0:17:35 | 0:17:37 | |
puts real pressure on the emergency services - 21st-century challenges | 0:17:37 | 0:17:42 | |
like terrorist attacks or the London riots. | 0:17:42 | 0:17:44 | |
To give the men and women who look after us a fighting chance, | 0:17:44 | 0:17:48 | |
those precious few seconds you spend on a 999 call could make the difference. | 0:17:48 | 0:17:54 | |
A little later on, we'll be talking to the BT operators on the frontline, | 0:17:54 | 0:17:58 | |
the people who answer the phone first when you dial 999. | 0:17:58 | 0:18:01 | |
And who are responsible for putting you through the emergency services. | 0:18:01 | 0:18:05 | |
Still to come on Real Rescues, | 0:18:11 | 0:18:12 | |
the hoax callers who continue to waste police time. | 0:18:12 | 0:18:16 | |
Just six weeks on a new motorbike, now Tim is lying injured in the road. | 0:18:27 | 0:18:32 | |
Police and medics fear he's broken his leg and possibly his pelvis. | 0:18:32 | 0:18:36 | |
And if you're in trouble in France, Spain, the States or Australia, | 0:18:39 | 0:18:43 | |
what emergency number do you call? | 0:18:43 | 0:18:45 | |
We will have the answers later. | 0:18:45 | 0:18:47 | |
On Real Rescues we love our animal stories | 0:18:47 | 0:18:50 | |
and I've got another one for you. Let's speak to Laura if we can. | 0:18:50 | 0:18:53 | |
-Is that all right? -Yes, of course. -Now, you got a call about two dogs? | 0:18:53 | 0:18:56 | |
-It was two dogs, yes. -What happened? | 0:18:56 | 0:18:59 | |
It was a lady who called up, obviously very upset. | 0:18:59 | 0:19:01 | |
Her two dogs had gone AWOL, rather large dogs | 0:19:01 | 0:19:03 | |
so you would have thought they would've been seen. | 0:19:03 | 0:19:06 | |
-And you went on the system. -I did, I went and had a look on the system. | 0:19:06 | 0:19:10 | |
-And? -And found out that we actually had a call from a local hospital | 0:19:10 | 0:19:14 | |
with two dogs that seemed to match the same description. | 0:19:14 | 0:19:16 | |
-At a hospital? -It was a hospital, yes. -So they got inside? | 0:19:16 | 0:19:20 | |
They got into the hospital and were wreaking havoc on one of the wards. | 0:19:20 | 0:19:24 | |
Right, and they managed to catch them, did they? | 0:19:24 | 0:19:27 | |
When you say havoc, they were running around...? | 0:19:27 | 0:19:29 | |
Yes, being friendly to patients, entertaining people, | 0:19:29 | 0:19:32 | |
it was all quite funny. | 0:19:32 | 0:19:33 | |
So they managed to get hold of them, what did they do? | 0:19:33 | 0:19:36 | |
They got hold of them, found two spare bedsheets which they put around the dogs' collars | 0:19:36 | 0:19:41 | |
and tied them to an empty bed and then I told the owner that. | 0:19:41 | 0:19:44 | |
And the owner, obviously, was really pleased about the dog | 0:19:44 | 0:19:47 | |
-but was she embarrassed? -She was very embarrassed, yes. | 0:19:47 | 0:19:50 | |
She could not understand how they had managed it. | 0:19:50 | 0:19:52 | |
-Very badly behaved dogs in a hospital. -Apparently so, yes. | 0:19:52 | 0:19:55 | |
-Only on Real Rescues. -Of course. -Thank you very much. | 0:19:55 | 0:19:59 | |
Earlier, we saw the specialist hazardous area response paramedics | 0:19:59 | 0:20:03 | |
arrive to rescue Michael, a roofer, who had fallen | 0:20:03 | 0:20:06 | |
seriously ill with a stroke on a narrow scaffolding platform. | 0:20:06 | 0:20:09 | |
Every minute saved getting him | 0:20:09 | 0:20:11 | |
to hospital will have a big impact on the quality of his recovery. | 0:20:11 | 0:20:16 | |
Hazardous Area Response Paramedics Martin Chester | 0:20:18 | 0:20:21 | |
and Claire McGonigle are working 25 feet up on a narrow scaffolding. | 0:20:21 | 0:20:25 | |
Roofer Michael Christopher has been partially paralysed by a stroke | 0:20:25 | 0:20:29 | |
and the only way of getting him down is by transferring him | 0:20:29 | 0:20:33 | |
to the platform of a fire service crane. | 0:20:33 | 0:20:36 | |
That's it, mate. Grab hold of that bar there. Give yourself a pull. Well done. | 0:20:37 | 0:20:43 | |
Well done, mate. Are you all right? that will be enough to secure him. | 0:20:56 | 0:21:03 | |
Put your hands on your lap. Marvellous. | 0:21:04 | 0:21:07 | |
Straps in place, they can start to move him into the cage on the crane | 0:21:07 | 0:21:12 | |
Turn his legs around here, bring his upper body over here. | 0:21:12 | 0:21:17 | |
Getting Michael down safely is their first priority, | 0:21:17 | 0:21:20 | |
but the paramedics are aware that speed is important | 0:21:20 | 0:21:23 | |
if Michael is to have a chance of recovering from this stroke. | 0:21:23 | 0:21:27 | |
Well done. We'll get you down in a minute, OK? | 0:21:27 | 0:21:30 | |
What we are doing is making sure you are safe. | 0:21:30 | 0:21:32 | |
It's impossible to lift Michael without taking some bars down, | 0:21:32 | 0:21:36 | |
but if they dismantle too many, | 0:21:36 | 0:21:39 | |
the entire structure could become unstable. | 0:21:39 | 0:21:41 | |
Just say when. OK. 1, 2, 3. | 0:21:42 | 0:21:45 | |
-You're clicked on, Claire, aren't you? -I'm on the lift. | 0:21:54 | 0:21:59 | |
You'll not go anywhere. | 0:21:59 | 0:22:01 | |
With his feet still protruding, Michael is finally lowered down. | 0:22:01 | 0:22:06 | |
Claire stays by his side for the journey. | 0:22:06 | 0:22:08 | |
With plenty of hands to help, he's quickly wheeled off to the ambulance. | 0:22:15 | 0:22:19 | |
The hazardous area paramedics have played their part, | 0:22:22 | 0:22:25 | |
now it is down to the ambulance crew to get him to the hospital | 0:22:25 | 0:22:30 | |
where a dedicated stroke team is ready and waiting. | 0:22:30 | 0:22:32 | |
His anxious daughter, Tracey, will travel with him. | 0:22:32 | 0:22:35 | |
And you are not sure what year he was born, are you? | 0:22:40 | 0:22:43 | |
The stroke has left Michael unable to speak, but he seems aware of everything happening around him. | 0:22:44 | 0:22:50 | |
Yes. | 0:22:53 | 0:22:54 | |
We've sent a message to the hospital | 0:23:03 | 0:23:04 | |
so all the doctors and staff will be waiting for us to see him straight away, no queueing. | 0:23:04 | 0:23:08 | |
Time is a crucial factor in Michael's treatment. | 0:23:08 | 0:23:12 | |
Hayley Rudge in the ambulance is monitoring him continuously, and putting together his case history. | 0:23:12 | 0:23:19 | |
Does he have any medical history at all that you know of? | 0:23:19 | 0:23:21 | |
-Any high blood pressure? -High blood pressure. | 0:23:21 | 0:23:24 | |
-He has had a heart murmur. -OK. | 0:23:27 | 0:23:29 | |
At the hospital, Michael is met by a specialist stroke team. | 0:23:33 | 0:23:37 | |
-Is it Michael? -Michael. -Hello, Michael. | 0:23:40 | 0:23:43 | |
Hayley hands over to registrar Lauren Webb. | 0:23:44 | 0:23:48 | |
Once she's established that Michael is within the time limits, | 0:23:48 | 0:23:51 | |
Lauren books him in for thrombolysis, which will treat him | 0:23:51 | 0:23:55 | |
with drugs to disperse the blood clots which have caused the stroke. | 0:23:55 | 0:23:59 | |
We have a 65-year-old chap who was up on some scaffolding about 10 o'clock this morning. | 0:24:02 | 0:24:07 | |
We're going to get some blood tests and an ECG | 0:24:07 | 0:24:10 | |
and then we will get you around for a brain scan, if that's OK. | 0:24:10 | 0:24:13 | |
Thanks to the speed of Michael's rescue from the scaffolding, | 0:24:13 | 0:24:17 | |
he's within the three-hour limit necessary for the clotbusting drugs to work effectively. | 0:24:17 | 0:24:22 | |
The tests all show | 0:24:23 | 0:24:24 | |
that he is a suitable candidate for the treatment. | 0:24:24 | 0:24:27 | |
I'm delighted to say that Michael is here right now, | 0:24:29 | 0:24:32 | |
looking fantastic and surrounded by his family. | 0:24:32 | 0:24:35 | |
His wife, Jenny, Tracey, who you saw in the film, | 0:24:35 | 0:24:38 | |
and your sister, Karen, who was there at the time. | 0:24:38 | 0:24:41 | |
-I'll come to you. You look great, how do you feel? -All right, yes. | 0:24:41 | 0:24:45 | |
All right? Do you remember anything? | 0:24:45 | 0:24:47 | |
I remember on top of the scaffolding and some chap was holding me down. | 0:24:47 | 0:24:53 | |
-Do you remember going on to the stretcher? -No. | 0:24:53 | 0:24:56 | |
I remember coming down, | 0:24:56 | 0:24:59 | |
I remember they all rushed me into the ambulance. | 0:24:59 | 0:25:05 | |
So you have flashes of memory. | 0:25:05 | 0:25:07 | |
I'll come to the daughters now, because it is horrible | 0:25:07 | 0:25:10 | |
when you see your dad, who's invincible, looking so fragile. | 0:25:10 | 0:25:14 | |
What was it like for you? | 0:25:14 | 0:25:15 | |
Everyone waits for that phone call, don't they? | 0:25:15 | 0:25:18 | |
Something is going to happen to your father or your mother. It is devastating. | 0:25:18 | 0:25:22 | |
Shocking, it was horrible. | 0:25:22 | 0:25:25 | |
You turned up and you see him up there, | 0:25:25 | 0:25:27 | |
so perilously balanced, what was it like? | 0:25:27 | 0:25:30 | |
what was going through your mind? | 0:25:30 | 0:25:32 | |
My legs were shaking, I collapsed on the floor when I found out. | 0:25:32 | 0:25:35 | |
I was trying to ring everyone, trying get hold of everyone | 0:25:35 | 0:25:38 | |
and I ended up screaming down the phone to my sister, | 0:25:38 | 0:25:42 | |
she ended up shouting at me. | 0:25:42 | 0:25:43 | |
-You ended up on your knees, didn't you? -Yes. | 0:25:43 | 0:25:47 | |
It was all a bit of a mess from there. | 0:25:47 | 0:25:48 | |
I was just glad to be there with him. | 0:25:48 | 0:25:50 | |
It is important, isn't it? When you see him coming down, to support. | 0:25:50 | 0:25:54 | |
Even worse for you, Jenny, you were shopping at the time. | 0:25:54 | 0:25:58 | |
So the first time you saw him was when you got to hospital. | 0:25:58 | 0:26:01 | |
At the hospital, yes. A few hours afterwards. | 0:26:01 | 0:26:04 | |
And he was in a pretty bad way? | 0:26:04 | 0:26:06 | |
Yes, he couldn't communicate or do anything, really. | 0:26:06 | 0:26:10 | |
You had lost sight in one eye. | 0:26:11 | 0:26:13 | |
Paralysed down one side, is that right? | 0:26:13 | 0:26:16 | |
Yeah. They said I had to wait three hours to live. | 0:26:16 | 0:26:19 | |
-Three hours to live? -Yes. | 0:26:19 | 0:26:21 | |
-So every second really counted to get you to hospital? -Yes. | 0:26:21 | 0:26:25 | |
-Just a few months later, how are you feeling now? -I'm feeling good. -Yeah? -I am. | 0:26:25 | 0:26:31 | |
I'm looking at you saying, "I'm feeling good" and I'm seeing | 0:26:31 | 0:26:34 | |
the three girls behind you, going, "Yes, he's feeling good." | 0:26:34 | 0:26:37 | |
-Has it been hard work? -It has been hard work, yes. | 0:26:37 | 0:26:41 | |
I'm not used to having him around me | 0:26:41 | 0:26:43 | |
and being around all this time, but he is worth it. | 0:26:43 | 0:26:47 | |
That's what I wanted to hear. I thought suddenly you were going to get thrown out of the house! | 0:26:47 | 0:26:52 | |
But you're worth it. Thank you very much for coming in, really great to see you. Look after yourself. | 0:26:52 | 0:26:58 | |
When the emergency system began back in 1937, | 0:27:01 | 0:27:04 | |
in the first week they logged a total of 1,336 emergency calls, | 0:27:04 | 0:27:10 | |
More than 90 of those were hoax calls or wrong numbers. | 0:27:10 | 0:27:13 | |
Today they are called inappropriate calls | 0:27:13 | 0:27:15 | |
and they waste a huge amount of time and money. | 0:27:15 | 0:27:18 | |
Some are from people being stupid, others are more malicious, like this one. | 0:27:18 | 0:27:22 | |
That malicious hoax call was made to Hertfordshire police. | 0:27:44 | 0:27:48 | |
I'll speak to Mike here, the deputy manager of the centre. Hi, Mike. | 0:27:48 | 0:27:52 | |
Hoax calls, inappropriate calls, how common are they? | 0:27:52 | 0:27:56 | |
Quite common, we can get up to 8,700 year, approximately. | 0:27:56 | 0:28:01 | |
So over 8,000. | 0:28:01 | 0:28:04 | |
If I'm thinking about that, | 0:28:04 | 0:28:05 | |
that puts a huge strain on your services, | 0:28:05 | 0:28:08 | |
how does it affect the services you provide? | 0:28:08 | 0:28:12 | |
It affects us from the point of view that, while we're trying to deal with some of these calls | 0:28:12 | 0:28:16 | |
we have people trying to report genuine incidents that are waiting longer, | 0:28:16 | 0:28:19 | |
that's more important on the lines. | 0:28:19 | 0:28:20 | |
The quicker we answer those calls, the quicker we can get a response to people. | 0:28:20 | 0:28:25 | |
It also means that we put in a lot of work in trying to investigate | 0:28:25 | 0:28:28 | |
things which turn out to be a hoax, and also we have resources | 0:28:28 | 0:28:31 | |
tied up on the ground dealing with things that we shouldn't be dealing with, | 0:28:31 | 0:28:35 | |
which actually should be made available for emergency situations. | 0:28:35 | 0:28:39 | |
We're all told, don't call 999 or emergency services unless it's necessary. | 0:28:39 | 0:28:44 | |
Why are you getting these calls, | 0:28:44 | 0:28:45 | |
why do people call you about inappropriate requests? | 0:28:45 | 0:28:50 | |
There are a few different reasons, but one of the main ones is | 0:28:50 | 0:28:53 | |
that people tend to get confused between what is a personal emergency | 0:28:53 | 0:28:57 | |
for them, it may not be an emergency for the police to deal with. | 0:28:57 | 0:29:01 | |
Thank you very much. We will hear a few more stories about inappropriate calls from Louise over there. | 0:29:01 | 0:29:06 | |
8,000 inappropriate calls into this room alone, | 0:29:06 | 0:29:09 | |
let's speak to some of the call-takers who have to take them. | 0:29:09 | 0:29:13 | |
Annabel. You had a call from a man from a train station. | 0:29:13 | 0:29:17 | |
Yes, I did. He wanted directions to a golf club function he was attending. | 0:29:17 | 0:29:22 | |
-Which is not your job. -Not really, no. | 0:29:22 | 0:29:25 | |
He said he did not know where the golf club was | 0:29:25 | 0:29:27 | |
and he had to get there and asked if I could tell him how to get there. | 0:29:27 | 0:29:30 | |
Was he agitated? | 0:29:30 | 0:29:31 | |
He was very agitated, he really did think | 0:29:31 | 0:29:33 | |
this was something I should be able to help with. | 0:29:33 | 0:29:35 | |
Thank you. Now the police are sometimes forced to spell it out to people | 0:29:35 | 0:29:39 | |
very clearly that their call does not warrant a 999 response. | 0:29:39 | 0:29:42 | |
-Shall I tell you another? -Go on. -Someone called because neighbours were chasing each other | 0:30:23 | 0:30:27 | |
having a very serious fight, with garden hoses. | 0:30:27 | 0:30:31 | |
-So they were having a water fight? -Yes, and they called about that. | 0:30:31 | 0:30:35 | |
Unbelievable. | 0:30:35 | 0:30:37 | |
Knowing a road well doesn't necessarily mean an accident | 0:30:41 | 0:30:44 | |
is less likely to happen, | 0:30:44 | 0:30:45 | |
but when one motorcyclist comes off his bike close to home, | 0:30:45 | 0:30:49 | |
there are plenty of familiar faces on hand to help with the rescue. | 0:30:49 | 0:30:53 | |
It's a rainy May day in Hastings, there has been a crash | 0:30:53 | 0:30:57 | |
involving a motorcyclist and a car in a busy residential area. | 0:30:57 | 0:31:00 | |
Traffic cops Gary Douglas and Jamie Armstrong are en route. | 0:31:02 | 0:31:07 | |
We don't know the full circumstances of the accident | 0:31:07 | 0:31:10 | |
at this time, but initial reports are saying that the motorcyclist | 0:31:10 | 0:31:13 | |
may have a leg and hip injury, but he's conscious and breathing.. | 0:31:13 | 0:31:17 | |
Tango 208 just for your info, we have traffic backing up all the way down Mount Pleasant. | 0:31:17 | 0:31:23 | |
They find the road full of emergency vehicles | 0:31:23 | 0:31:26 | |
and bystanders trying to help. | 0:31:26 | 0:31:28 | |
The biker, 31-year-old Tim Farrant, | 0:31:31 | 0:31:33 | |
is flat on his back in the road, surrounded by an ambulance crew. | 0:31:33 | 0:31:38 | |
He's complaining of agonising pain in his right leg. | 0:31:38 | 0:31:41 | |
Initial update, are we looking at life-threatening, life-changing, anything like that? | 0:31:41 | 0:31:46 | |
-We don't know at the moment. It's not looking life-threatening. -It's not looking life-threatening. | 0:31:46 | 0:31:50 | |
Paramedic Dan Jefferies already put a collar on Tim | 0:31:50 | 0:31:54 | |
to mobilise his neck and prevent possible spinal injuries. | 0:31:54 | 0:31:59 | |
But there are concerns that he could have a broken pelvis as well as a possible broken leg. | 0:31:59 | 0:32:04 | |
They are still working on the man in the road | 0:32:06 | 0:32:09 | |
but initial updates is that it's not life-threatening. | 0:32:09 | 0:32:11 | |
Tim isn't able to tell them exactly what happened, | 0:32:15 | 0:32:18 | |
but they need to find out how he was hit, it's the only clue as to what injuries he may have suffered. | 0:32:18 | 0:32:24 | |
Barry Richards was behind in his car and saw it all. | 0:32:25 | 0:32:28 | |
I saw it, absolutely spot on. | 0:32:28 | 0:32:31 | |
I'm a biker, I live with bikes, you know, I think bikes. | 0:32:31 | 0:32:36 | |
He's going to roll over... | 0:32:36 | 0:32:38 | |
To avoid unnecessary movement of Tim's spine, | 0:32:38 | 0:32:42 | |
a two-part stretcher is assembled beneath him. | 0:32:42 | 0:32:45 | |
Tim, now with the extra support of a splint on his pelvis | 0:32:49 | 0:32:53 | |
and another on the lower part of his right leg, is moved carefully to the trolley. | 0:32:53 | 0:32:58 | |
Here, a vacuum mattress will immobilise his whole body, | 0:33:01 | 0:33:04 | |
ready for transport. | 0:33:04 | 0:33:05 | |
One of the witnesses has offered to help out with Tim's battered motorbike. | 0:33:14 | 0:33:20 | |
Before you drive off, I want confirmation from him | 0:33:20 | 0:33:22 | |
that he is happy for these witnesses to wheel his bike down the road. | 0:33:22 | 0:33:26 | |
just verbal confirmation. | 0:33:26 | 0:33:28 | |
Is it OK to do it now? | 0:33:28 | 0:33:29 | |
There are some witnesses who have seen the accident | 0:33:31 | 0:33:34 | |
and they have spoken to Tim, the casualty. | 0:33:34 | 0:33:36 | |
They are going to wheel his bike to a local bike shop | 0:33:36 | 0:33:39 | |
which is literally a couple of hundred metres away. | 0:33:39 | 0:33:42 | |
We'll let them do that as they have been so helpful and obviously | 0:33:42 | 0:33:46 | |
they're not going to do that until we've assessed the scene properly. | 0:33:46 | 0:33:49 | |
Everyone at the scene of the accident seems to already know each other. | 0:33:51 | 0:33:54 | |
The other car driver involved in the collision used to work with | 0:33:54 | 0:33:57 | |
Tim's wife, so they're able to comfort each other. | 0:33:57 | 0:34:01 | |
And all of the witnesses are from the neighbourhood, and very keen to help. | 0:34:03 | 0:34:07 | |
Tim's wife has been dreading this day | 0:34:08 | 0:34:11 | |
since he first started riding motorbikes three years ago. | 0:34:11 | 0:34:14 | |
I ride bikes, it's not nice to see a bike lying on its side. | 0:34:14 | 0:34:18 | |
I knew this day, you know, I dread to think it happening, | 0:34:18 | 0:34:21 | |
but I maybe one day knew that it was going to happen. | 0:34:21 | 0:34:26 | |
I hate bikes so much! | 0:34:26 | 0:34:27 | |
My wife is in the same boat, she said the same thing when I got knocked off. | 0:34:27 | 0:34:30 | |
After talking to all of the witnesses, | 0:34:30 | 0:34:33 | |
Jamie has pieced together a picture of what has happened. | 0:34:33 | 0:34:36 | |
It looks like the car driver has been waiting at this stop line | 0:34:38 | 0:34:40 | |
just behind us here. | 0:34:40 | 0:34:42 | |
The motorcyclist pulled out from the junction down there, being followed by another car. | 0:34:42 | 0:34:47 | |
It would appear that the left-hand indicator of the motorbike has been left on, | 0:34:47 | 0:34:50 | |
so the car driver has made the assumption that | 0:34:50 | 0:34:52 | |
the motorcycle was going to turn left into the junction | 0:34:52 | 0:34:56 | |
she was about to turn out of, hence the car driver has then | 0:34:56 | 0:34:58 | |
pulled out, but the motorcyclist continued straight ahead. | 0:34:58 | 0:35:02 | |
Tim's on his way to hospital, but the police will be at the accident scene a while longer | 0:35:02 | 0:35:08 | |
gathering photographic evidence. | 0:35:08 | 0:35:10 | |
There's no brake marks or anything on the road. | 0:35:10 | 0:35:12 | |
Can you grab one from her view as well? Thanks, mate. | 0:35:12 | 0:35:16 | |
Tim is being taken to A&E | 0:35:23 | 0:35:25 | |
when he can have x-rays done to assess the damage. | 0:35:25 | 0:35:28 | |
I can't remember, my indicator may have been on, I can't remember. | 0:35:30 | 0:35:34 | |
One thing he does remember is that his wife doesn't like him riding a motorbike. | 0:35:34 | 0:35:39 | |
My wife will now tell me to sell my motorbike. Having only just got it. | 0:35:39 | 0:35:45 | |
I've been riding for three years, this is my first accident. | 0:35:45 | 0:35:48 | |
Probably my last accident, if my wife gets the better of me. | 0:35:49 | 0:35:53 | |
With injury to Tim's head, spine or pelvis ruled out, | 0:35:53 | 0:35:57 | |
he's wheeled away to X-ray to check out that painful right leg. | 0:35:57 | 0:36:02 | |
The driver was given a warning, but there were no charges. | 0:36:04 | 0:36:08 | |
Tim escaped with no fractures. | 0:36:08 | 0:36:10 | |
He suffered internal bruising and pulled ligaments in his knee. | 0:36:10 | 0:36:13 | |
Today, we've been looking back at the history of 999 calls | 0:36:18 | 0:36:21 | |
and one of the things I wanted to know was why those numbers were chosen. | 0:36:21 | 0:36:25 | |
I know that answer. | 0:36:25 | 0:36:26 | |
It has to do with the old mechanical telephone exchanges. | 0:36:26 | 0:36:29 | |
The 999 numbers were the only ones they could actually handle, | 0:36:29 | 0:36:32 | |
because 111 and all that was far too complicated. | 0:36:32 | 0:36:35 | |
The other thing I did today - very good! - was look at what you should | 0:36:35 | 0:36:38 | |
dial in an emergency in other countries. | 0:36:38 | 0:36:40 | |
-I will do a test. In France, what is it? -I have no idea. | 0:36:40 | 0:36:45 | |
-112. -Is it? | 0:36:45 | 0:36:46 | |
-Yes. -112. -In Spain, what is it? -Uno, Uno Dos? | 0:36:46 | 0:36:51 | |
Very good! 112, it is. Across Europe, it makes it nice and simple. | 0:36:51 | 0:36:56 | |
-The United States. -911, I've seen all the programmes on telly. | 0:36:56 | 0:37:00 | |
-We know that from the emergency programmes. Australia? -Don't know. | 0:37:00 | 0:37:05 | |
-000. -000. I've learned something today. -Glad to hear it! | 0:37:05 | 0:37:11 | |
More 999 calls are made to the police than to any other service. | 0:37:11 | 0:37:14 | |
The task of patching through those calls to the right service | 0:37:14 | 0:37:17 | |
lies with the BT telephone operators who are the first to take the call. | 0:37:17 | 0:37:21 | |
That all happens in five major centres, as I have been finding out. | 0:37:21 | 0:37:26 | |
Emergency. Which service, please? | 0:37:29 | 0:37:31 | |
When my block caught on fire, I just didn't believe it at first. | 0:37:31 | 0:37:38 | |
But I can tell you, I've never been so grateful for being close to a phone. | 0:37:38 | 0:37:41 | |
Nowadays, with the use of mobiles, | 0:37:41 | 0:37:43 | |
we are always close to a phone all day, every day. | 0:37:43 | 0:37:47 | |
And to deal with emergency calls, 500 specially trained BT operators | 0:37:47 | 0:37:51 | |
are on hand working at major centres in Nottingham, Newport, Glasgow, Bangor and Blackburn. | 0:37:51 | 0:37:59 | |
They are busiest at weekends. | 0:37:59 | 0:38:01 | |
This is the BT call centre in Nottingham, one of the main centres | 0:38:03 | 0:38:06 | |
that takes the 999 calls across the country. | 0:38:06 | 0:38:09 | |
Geoff's in charge here, just to interrupt you momentarily. | 0:38:09 | 0:38:12 | |
It looks quite busy, how many calls do you take a day? | 0:38:12 | 0:38:15 | |
Up to about 30,000 here. | 0:38:15 | 0:38:17 | |
That sounds like quite a lot, they all emergency calls? | 0:38:17 | 0:38:20 | |
No, in fact, about half of them are not genuine emergency calls. | 0:38:20 | 0:38:24 | |
Mainly calls made accidentally, | 0:38:24 | 0:38:25 | |
mobile phones in pockets are a big one, that kind of thing. | 0:38:25 | 0:38:28 | |
So, I suppose one of your main jobs is to filter them through, right? | 0:38:28 | 0:38:32 | |
Absolutely, one of our main jobs is to prevent those calls going through | 0:38:32 | 0:38:35 | |
to the emergency authorities, to free them up to handle the genuine, emergency calls. | 0:38:35 | 0:38:39 | |
-Brilliant, I'll go and see the boys and girls in action, thanks a lot. -OK. | 0:38:39 | 0:38:43 | |
Emergency, which service do you require? | 0:38:45 | 0:38:48 | |
The fashions have changed since that public information film in the 1980s, | 0:38:50 | 0:38:55 | |
and so has the technology. | 0:38:55 | 0:38:57 | |
Today, every call is answered within five seconds, | 0:38:57 | 0:38:59 | |
and a specialist computer can trace a mobile, as well as landlines, | 0:38:59 | 0:39:03 | |
to an 80% accurate location. | 0:39:03 | 0:39:07 | |
Darren is here, hopefully, to explain all. | 0:39:07 | 0:39:09 | |
Mobiles, as the name suggests, can be absolutely anywhere. | 0:39:09 | 0:39:14 | |
You've got a mobile number there, tell me how you locate it. | 0:39:14 | 0:39:16 | |
We take the number that's been calling, put a search in, | 0:39:16 | 0:39:19 | |
that will then give it a general idea, | 0:39:19 | 0:39:21 | |
the general area that it's situated, so it could be a number of streets. | 0:39:21 | 0:39:26 | |
Depending on the confidence of the caller, how much reception they have, | 0:39:26 | 0:39:30 | |
also, like, a grid reference, so it can give a more general area. | 0:39:30 | 0:39:33 | |
And again, it will give them vital information | 0:39:33 | 0:39:35 | |
if they couldn't get that from the content of the call itself. | 0:39:35 | 0:39:38 | |
It says 80% confidence that you are in the right place. | 0:39:38 | 0:39:41 | |
You sound all that information off to the police, fire brigade, ambulance. | 0:39:41 | 0:39:44 | |
Yes, and they work from the details we give them to look on their grid and their maps, | 0:39:44 | 0:39:48 | |
they have more details on their side of the call. | 0:39:48 | 0:39:50 | |
No matter how many 999 calls you've taken, | 0:39:50 | 0:39:53 | |
your heart still jumps about when the alarm goes. | 0:39:53 | 0:39:56 | |
Throughout the decades, | 0:39:56 | 0:39:57 | |
the operators have always relied on their instincts | 0:39:57 | 0:40:00 | |
to determine what's really going on, | 0:40:00 | 0:40:02 | |
especially at the other end of silent calls. | 0:40:02 | 0:40:05 | |
Just because there's not a voice at the other end, | 0:40:05 | 0:40:07 | |
it doesn't mean it's not an emergency. | 0:40:07 | 0:40:09 | |
I'll just interrupt Linda, if I can, | 0:40:09 | 0:40:11 | |
-Linda, is it all right to chat? -Yeah. | 0:40:11 | 0:40:13 | |
Now, you had what's known as a silent call come through to you. | 0:40:13 | 0:40:16 | |
What could you hear? | 0:40:16 | 0:40:18 | |
On the call that came through, | 0:40:18 | 0:40:19 | |
all that you could hear was a little grunt at the other end of the phone. | 0:40:19 | 0:40:23 | |
Which could mean it's going off in a pocket, or something? | 0:40:23 | 0:40:26 | |
It could do, it could be genuinely mis-dial in someone's pocket, | 0:40:26 | 0:40:28 | |
you know, somebody at work, it could be anything. | 0:40:28 | 0:40:31 | |
But you sensed something was different? | 0:40:31 | 0:40:33 | |
Sometimes you do, sometimes your sixth sense kicks in, | 0:40:33 | 0:40:36 | |
and it does make you think that something, possibly, | 0:40:36 | 0:40:38 | |
is different with that call, that somebody does need some help. | 0:40:38 | 0:40:41 | |
So, what you do is, what I did that day, | 0:40:41 | 0:40:44 | |
you put it through to the police who challenge the call. | 0:40:44 | 0:40:46 | |
The little grunt was actually an elderly gentleman on the other end, | 0:40:46 | 0:40:50 | |
he was in distress, he did need an emergency service, | 0:40:50 | 0:40:53 | |
he was having a heart attack. | 0:40:53 | 0:40:55 | |
It's not only life-saving, personal emergencies like that, | 0:40:55 | 0:40:59 | |
the operators are the first to hear of major incidents | 0:40:59 | 0:41:02 | |
involving hundreds, or even thousands of people, such as a severe storm. | 0:41:02 | 0:41:07 | |
Here is Sarah, now, you had a phone call from a woman in Scotland, | 0:41:07 | 0:41:11 | |
and what did she say to you? | 0:41:11 | 0:41:13 | |
She had physically been blown out of her bed by the wind. | 0:41:13 | 0:41:17 | |
So, it had been really windy in the middle of the night? | 0:41:17 | 0:41:20 | |
Yeah, basically, up in Scotland in January, | 0:41:20 | 0:41:22 | |
they got the really bad weather going on, | 0:41:22 | 0:41:25 | |
and I started my shift at the beginning of the day, | 0:41:25 | 0:41:28 | |
not really knowing how bad the weather was, | 0:41:28 | 0:41:30 | |
till we received a phone call from an elderly lady, | 0:41:30 | 0:41:33 | |
she was very frail, and I asked if she needed fire, police or ambulance. | 0:41:33 | 0:41:36 | |
To which she replied, "my window's been blown in, | 0:41:36 | 0:41:39 | |
"and I've been blown out of my bed, and I'm on the floor." | 0:41:39 | 0:41:41 | |
With your colleagues around here, you're all saying, oh, yeah, the same thing happened to me. | 0:41:41 | 0:41:46 | |
Then you think there is something serious going on. | 0:41:46 | 0:41:48 | |
Yeah, everyone realises around you at that point that something's happening, | 0:41:48 | 0:41:51 | |
and you're all passing your stories on to each other, | 0:41:51 | 0:41:54 | |
this has happened, that happened, | 0:41:54 | 0:41:55 | |
people are, you know, are being blown out of bed, or whatever. | 0:41:55 | 0:41:59 | |
But she was all right then? | 0:41:59 | 0:42:00 | |
Yeah, I believe she was all right in the end, yeah, bless her. | 0:42:00 | 0:42:03 | |
From treacherous weather to terrorist incidents, | 0:42:05 | 0:42:08 | |
to mishaps on the roads or in the home, | 0:42:08 | 0:42:11 | |
it's all in a day's work for the 999 service. | 0:42:11 | 0:42:13 | |
So, three cheers for a fantastic British idea, | 0:42:17 | 0:42:19 | |
that has been copied by the rest of the world. | 0:42:19 | 0:42:21 | |
It has stood the test of time, | 0:42:21 | 0:42:23 | |
and has proved to be the best way to help millions of people | 0:42:23 | 0:42:27 | |
at a terrible and terrifying time in their lives. | 0:42:27 | 0:42:30 | |
That's it for Real Rescues, we will see you next time. | 0:42:35 | 0:42:38 | |
Bye bye. | 0:42:38 | 0:42:39 | |
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd | 0:42:49 | 0:42:55 |