Episode 6 Real Rescues

Today, on Real Rescues: from the battlefield to the British roadside.

A special technique used on wounded soldiers in Afghanistan

is the only way to help a man with multiple injuries,

and he is still fully conscious.

He is clearly quite poorly.

He has both arms fractured, so it is going to be difficult to get pain relief and access to him.

And I am dressed like this for a reason.

Because later in the programme I am going to be given a baptism of fire.

We'll hear about a four-year-old who was so clever, she got emergency help for her mum -

even if she didn't quite understand everything she was asked.

Hello and welcome to Real Rescues, where we go out on the road

in the air and at sea with all of Britain's emergency services.

Today we're based at police headquarters

at Lewes in east Sussex.

Yes, and the staff here help people

going through life changing, life-threatening emergencies

as well as everyday crimes.

We have got some really fascinating stories

from the call takers here today.

This is Linda Hackett.

You were involved in finding a thief in a rather unusual place.

I think you could say we flushed him out.

Flushed him out? There's a clue there.

You're about to see one of the most testing rescues

we've ever witnessed here on Real Rescues.

A man is trapped in his car after a head-on collision.

He has multiple injuries,

but is somehow still conscious.

It will take real teamwork from police, fire and ambulance crews,

and a rare specialist technique to help rescue him.

It is ten o'clock on a Thursday morning.

The air ambulance is on an emergency callout.

On board are paramedics Paul Owen and Nigel Brown.

All they know is a serious car crash

has just happened near Chard, in Somerset.

'Received, many thanks, over.'

A ground crew is already on the scene.

Anyone critically injured will need airlifting to hospital.

It happened on an A-road near a village.

The site will be crowded with emergency vehicles.

The pilot's flying into the unknown.

His priority is finding a makeshift landing site.

They're overhead.

Paul and Nigel can get their first sight of the accident.

It could help prepare them for the work ahead.

They are confronted with a horribly mangled wreck of a car,

surrounded by emergency crews.

Inside is the driver.

He's survived, but his body has suffered a terrible impact.

The front wheel has ended up pushed right back under his seat.

The driver of the second car has escaped with minor injuries.

-Do you want the green board then?

-Yes.

He's got bilateral arm fractures.

And he has got some limited sensation in his legs,

chest and abdos are good.

The reduced feeling in his legs suggest the driver could have broken all his limbs.

It is a critical situation.

Multiple fractures can cause nerve damage and internal bleeding.

However, the driver is conscious,

but he'll need the strongest and fastest-acting pain relief.

Paul will need all his specialist trauma equipment.

You carry on. I'll get the board and stuff.

He is clearly quite poorly.

He's got both arms fractured, so it will be difficult to get pain relief and access.

He's got leg fractures. His chest and abdo seems to be all right.

He is a little bit confused from a bump on the head.

But we'll get him boarded, collared, reassess once he's out the vehicle,

and see what's going on from there.

Meanwhile, air paramedic, Nigel,

continues to assess 25-year-old David's injuries.

He was alone when he collided head-on with another car.

Sore on the front?

The pain comes down, further down more here, does it?

With so many injuries, the first task of giving pain relief is going to be far from straightforward.

-How are we doing, Nige?

-Yep, OK, both arms are not good for IV.

-OK.

-So, I don't know, can we go sternal?

-Not in the position we're in. I would suggest...

-I/O?

We could go ahead with humerus I/O. We're going to have trouble getting pain relief into this chap.

He has multiple injuries. Especially in the lower arms and legs.

So I'm probably going to get the pain relief into the bone, which acts like a blood vessel.

So we can get some pain relief in there.

It's not particularly comfortable, but once the morphine takes effect it will be worthwhile.

As the fire crew start cutting away the car, Paul prepares the drugs.

Using the hydraulic cutters, called the Jaws Of Life,

the firefighters quickly remove the roof, giving the paramedics more room to work.

-Any pain around here?

-Down there?

-It's sore, but...

It's a little bit further down?

-HE WAILS

-Which side is that?

-My right arm. Someone just...

-Your right arm? OK.

Be careful with that right arm. We'll get a splint on that one in a minute.

-Sorry.

-Don't be sorry, mate.

Paul needs to find a suitable and stable area of David's upper body

to minimise the discomfort of the injection

and to maximise the effectiveness.

Paul warns his patient what to expect.

OK, this is gonna hurt, all right?

Looks painful, doesn't it? We'll find out how David gets on a little bit later on.

Now, a new number to call for help in the UK is 101.

It's the number to dial when your call is not an emergency

but you need assistance from police, fire or ambulance,

and the calls will be taken by these people here.

But they don't just pick up the phone. I'm going to explain a little bit more

-because I want to introduce you to Sarah. Sarah, can I talk to you for a second?

-Yes.

You answered a call from a panicky old-age pensioner. What happened?

Yes, she'd had a vacuum repair man come to her home address.

He knocked on the door and had been very pushy with her.

He wanted to come inside.

She'd managed to get rid of him

but only by agreeing to let him come back for an appointment later that afternoon.

And then what happened?

Meanwhile we had another phone call from a different area of Sussex

with another elderly lady who'd had another vacuum repair man come to her address.

Unfortunately she had let him in. She'd gone to make him a cup of tea.

When she came back out, he'd stolen her purse from her front room and left.

-So you put two and two together.

-Yes, it looked like the same MO, possibly the same person,

so I let the officers know that this man was going to be going to the other address later that afternoon.

They waited there for him.

When he turned up, they arrested him

and he still had the purse from the first lady's house.

So thanks to your detective work, they arrested him

and returned the purse.

-Yes, yes.

-Well done, you! Fantastic work.

You see, the great work they do around here. Louise, back to you.

There aren't many four-year-olds with the presence of mind to know what to do in an emergency.

Next we're going to meet a little girl who showed such quick thinking

and courage when her mummy collapsed that she's been nominated for a lifesaving award.

On that day, her mum Caroline passed out at the top of the stairs.

Jessica found a mobile phone and then managed to press the redial number

and got through to her cousin, who dialled 999.

That call came through to Tony Newsham.

Tony, so you get a call from a lady who's obviously in quite a lot of distress.

What sort of things were you thinking when you heard that call?

My main concern was for Jessica as well as her mum,

to get back in touch with them,

make sure Jessica was all right,

and to find out what was wrong with her mum.

And presumably you knew she was a little girl

so that's quite a big priority for you, isn't it?

Of course, yeah, and you have to get back to them to make sure everybody's safe.

OK, which is exactly what you did.

You re-rang that mobile phone and this is what happened.

PHONE RINGS

What Tony didn't know is that Jessica had never been able to open the front door before.

Although it was a big ask, Jessica was up for that challenge.

Well done, Jessica. Here she is now. Hello, Jessica.

-And Caroline, you're OK, aren't you?

-Yes.

-Jessica, just tell us.

Tony said that he thought you were all on your own,

but you weren't really on your own, were you?

No, I was with the teddies, my teddies, and the dog.

-The dog as well. And this is Rosebud, isn't it?

-Yeah.

Tell me what you thought when mummy was collapsed on the top of the stairs.

-Were you quite worried about her?

-Yes.

-What did you think...

-How did you know to go and get the phone?

-I just knew.

You don't remember much of what was going on, do you Caroline?

Meanwhile, Jessica's gone and got the phone. What was going...

When you came round, what were you thinking?

I was just worried about her

and wanted to make sure everything was OK.

I'm so proud of what she did.

How she opened the door for him, and she'd never done it before.

Even she had the brains to put the dog in the kitchen.

How did you know to put the dog in the kitchen?

I just opened the gate and the dog just came running in the kitchen.

She's done an amazing thing.

You asked her whether she had an address, she obviously didn't, but she knew where she was, didn't she?

She knew where she lived, yes.

How important is that when you're taking that call?

It's very important for children to know where they live,

especially if they can get a postcode and a house number.

That's tantamount to our job and what we do.

And when she opened the door, we could hear it being opened,

it sounded like there was a lot of traffic. That was a problem for you as well, wasn't it?

It was, it put my heart in my mouth.

I actually thought she was right on the road itself.

I was quite frightened for her

and that's why I kept saying to her, "don't go outside".

I know you're a really proud mum.

She hadn't opened that door before, she'd never managed to open it.

No. She can't do it now. If I ask her to do it now, she can't do it.

So it just shows you, when you're in that sort of position,

it's surprising what they can do.

-OK, and do you think you were being brave at the time?

-Yes.

-Yes?

-Would you do it again if you had to?

-Yes.

-You would, wouldn't you?

Brilliant, well best of luck with Rosebud, and take care.

Thank you very much.

Still to come on Real Rescues, a lucky escape for the scooter rider

who ends up under a truck and lives to tell the tale.

-I remember going under his vehicle. It's slowly coming back to me.

-Right.

And there's nowhere to run to, and you can't dial 999 -

I experience the nightmare of being trapped in a burning ship.

OK, it's burning in the space above your head.

-That energy is coming down on top of you now.

-Wow! Look at that!

Today, we're following the story of a man who is trapped in his car after a high-speed head-on crash.

He's so badly injured,

air ambulance paramedic Paul Owen is about to start the rarely-used procedure

of injecting morphine directly into the injured man's bone.

Which side? Lower down.

Yeah.

Paramedics and fire crew are fighting to get the driver, David,

out of his car following an horrific accident.

He's suffered multiple fractures to his arms and legs.

The priority is pain relief. Only then can he be moved.

But his limbs are too unstable for the medics to inject intravenously.

Air ambulance paramedic Paul is going to use a technique commonly used on the battlefield.

It involves drilling straight into the bone.

The drill allows a needle to be put into the bone marrow.

That's enough. Keep it down, all right?

It's 30 minutes since the accident.

Somehow David has remained conscious throughout.

Now the needle's in place, the morphine can be injected.

The bone marrow will move it quickly around the body.

But even giving the drug is a painful process.

Paul keeps him informed at every stage.

It does hurt a little bit. I'm going to give it really slowly.

David's levels of endurance are impressive.

He manages to spare a thought for the other driver.

-Yeah, they're fine.

-They're fine. As far as we know, David, they're fine.

I know they listened to your chest. I'm just going to have another listen, all right?

Two deep breaths.

All the time, Paul monitors David's heart and breathing.

He may have suffered serious internal injuries

and his condition could deteriorate at any time.

Can I have a little feel of your hip? Is that all right?

-That side is a little sore.

-OK, what does that feel like?

-Does that feel normal?

-My leg's normal, yes.

-My right one feels a little numb.

-Does that feel OK, though?

-You can feel me touching you?

-I can feel you touching me, but it feels like it's going to sleep.

-OK.

-Well done.

-Well done, David. That's fantastic.

Paul is concerned that David has fractured his pelvis,

an injury that can cause massive blood loss.

They need to get him out as quickly and as carefully as possible,

but first his arms must be stabilised in vacuum splints.

Well done. Well done. Where is it? Are you all right there?

It's a good sign David is conscious,

but it means he's feeling every part of his rescue.

-HE WAILS

-All right, David. OK, mate.

That's it. Well done.

The medics are certain three of David's four limbs are broken,

but they can't rule out a pelvis fracture or spinal injury.

They will have to slide him out on a board to keep him as stable as possible.

If I lift that up... No, you support that.

DAVID CRIES OUT

The fire crews are given the go-ahead to cut away the car door.

He said his feet feel numb.

Paul and Nigel can now get a closer look at David's legs.

-They are stuck, right down there.

-OK.

-Are you happy for me to try a bit more?

-You can try.

We're just trying to sort his legs out, see if we can get him out with his legs,

but we'll get him connected up. He's got bilateral arm fractures.

Can you dig us out another blanket?

Thanks, Mark. Or another couple.

As the fire crew carefully cut away the dashboard to free David's legs,

Paul monitors the line injected into David's shoulder bone.

This is the fluid, as you're aware. Let us know when that runs through,

so we won't give him more fluid than we have to.

Let's just to check that it will run.

The fluid is helping push the morphine around the body.

-That's running.

-HE WAILS

OK, mate, bear with us.

David's pain relief must be maintained.

His rescuers are about to reach the critical stage - lifting him out of the car.

Ooh, that looked painful, didn't it? We've got Paul Owen, the paramedic, here, and the dreaded drill.

Let's see it. Please tell me that's not a bit of David you've got there!

-It's not a bit of David, no!

-Thank goodness for that.

Paul, I have to say, it did look really very painful.

I mean you only sort of perform that procedure in emergencies, right?

Yes. When there's no other options.

We couldn't get a vein in the traditional method

so we had to find a different way and this was the most appropriate.

It is a little bit gruesome, it is painful, but it needed to be done.

I like how you said, "This could be a little bit painful."

It is really painful. I mean, how painful is it?

-The needle going in itself isn't too bad.

-Right. Just show us.

-If that was my leg or shoulder.

-If this was your leg, we'd drill in,

we'd push down, that would then stop there.

-Disconnect, and that one comes out, leaving the tube in place.

-Yes.

-That does hurt...

-Yes!

-it hurts more when you push...

You've got to push a bolus of fluid in to clear the space

-and create some sort of route and that's what really hurts.

-Right.

But, it needed to be done.

For the short-term pain, we needed to get some sort of access

so we could get pain relief in and treat other conditions, should they arise.

Now, as I understand it, this is the result of work with Southwest Ambulance and the Army, right?

It's been developed... I think it's been around for a long time

but it's been reintroduced by the Army and the military medics

and the Southwest Ambulance Service have introduced this.

We've carried it a little while and now they've decided to carry it on all their vehicles,

which is brilliant because it does give you that access when you have no other options.

OK, so on a rating of 1-10, how painful would that be?

I don't know.

-11? 12?

-It would...

I don't know, seven or eight, it's going to be painful

but it's something that's only painful for a short time

and you can then get pain relief in and treat other conditions.

OK. Thank you very much for your hard work.

We'll find out how painful it was,

because we speak to David a little bit later on in the programme.

Ouch!

Being trapped in any fire is a terrifying prospect,

but a fire at sea adds a new dimension.

There is nowhere to run from the flames

and the elements can play a huge factor.

We've seen before on Real Rescues how an electrical fault in the galley caused a spectacular fire

on a fishing boat called Be Ready,

stranded in the North Atlantic in snow and a force-nine gale.

The captain of the ship, Ellis Fullerton, described the power of the fire.

It was just basically like a blowtorch.

It was moving and going through the ship faster than you could imagine a fire could ever move.

And I remember the heat of the fire so much that my socks were sticking to the deck at that point.

On that occasion, Ellis and his crew were saved by the combined efforts

of the coastguard helicopter and the crew of another fishing boat.

Anyone employed to work at sea, and I really mean anyone -

from a hairdresser on a cruise ship to a hardened merchant seaman -

must complete a course on how to cope with a fire on board.

So, with some trepidation,

I was volunteered to see what they have to do.

I'm at Warsash Maritime Academy.

This is the fire school and Martin is in charge,

and I'm standing next to this extraordinary building, Mark.

Explain to us what it is.

Well what we've replicated here, Louise,

-is the workings of a ship, compartments within a ship.

-Yep.

Inside we have different types of classes of fire for our students to practice on.

-So anybody who goes on a ship should do this course?

-Absolutely, yes.

Any seafarers will have to do this under government fire regulations.

-I can feel the heat from this little fire here.

-Little, yes!

-It's a little one for you, isn't it?

-Just a bit(!)

So we're going to go in there and it's a real situation, isn't it?

Because this is a live fire. It's not a gas fire.

No, the gas training units are good for procedural training

but what you don't get is the heat and the steam, and they are strength sappers.

-And it's the smoke, isn't it?

-And the smoke.

-So we put this kit on.

-We do, to protect ourselves.

-Do we need some help?

-Yes, we do.

-I think young Tony is going to help us. Tony?

OK, Louise, what we've got...

Oh, my goodness! I don't think I've ever seen you move so quickly.

-How hot was it?

-Do you know, it's made me nervous even watching that again.

You can't really understand how hot it is until you've been in it.

It's 600 degrees at the top.

When that fire was rolling over my head, that's how hot it is.

600 degrees Celsius, and basically if I'd taken one breath without the breathing apparatus

I would have burnt the inside of my lungs.

As Martin told me, that would've literally been my last breath.

Until you've been in a fire like that,

you have no idea how terrifying it is.

I mean, we were steaming. You saw steam coming off our jackets. That means it's...

OK, I want to show everybody at home

a nice bright, shiny yellow fireman's helmet.

Now, that's how they start off.

And this is what they've given me to show you what happens if you stay in there too long basically.

-You know, 10 minutes or so in there.

-Only 10 minutes?

10, 15 minutes in that sort of heat and look - it completely melts.

And that's the inside as well, it starts getting buckling and all the rest of it.

-So this was all part of the course?

-This is part of the course,

basically teaching people on board ships how to deal with, how to cope in a fire situation

and all it taught me was just...

You know, you have no idea of the power of fire

and the most useful thing I did was get on the ground,

get out of the heat, crawl away, get away as fast as you can -

if you can on a ship, which could be difficult.

-Well done, Louise. I'm so glad I was busy that day.

-Thanks!

A bad Monday morning now, for a man on his way to work.

Fuel prices meant Paul Brooker's daily commute

was getting so expensive, he decided to switch from a car

to a scooter.

It all seemed like a good idea.

At the time.

8.00am - it's rush hour in East Sussex.

Traffic cops Philip Edwards and Andy Smith

are making their way at speed to Heathfield,

a market town in the countryside.

SIRENS BLARE

Andy takes evasive action,

via the roadworks, to cut past some of the traffic.

Might drop down a big hole in a minute.

There has been a collision between a man on a scooter

and a truck.

These type of accidents usually happen

close to the rider's home.

Traditionally, a lot of accidents happen on roads

where people are familiar with that road,

cos they drive that road day in, day out.

They come round that bend 300 times every year,

but one particular morning, there's a tractor there.

That's where accidents happen,

as they're not consciously thinking where they're going.

An ambulance is already on the scene,

and the police want to get there as fast as they can.

But on country roads,

there can be frustrating delays.

He's slowed down - we've had to slow down, as well.

If he's kept the same speed,

we could have drifted past him at an appropriate point.

-Another one.

-Stopping on a left-hand bend, a blind bend,

on solid white lines.

If they had carried on driving as normal,

we'd have come round the bend,

and when the view had opened up....

The police action depends on the seriousness

of the scooter rider's injuries.

At the scene, they are brought up to date

by paramedic Dave Keeley.

At the moment, the only injuries we can find

is possibly one fractured leg

and some cuts and bruises.

-So hopefully, nothing too serious.

-Right, OK.

It's good news. The rider, Paul,

has not suffered life-threatening injuries.

However, he was unconscious for a few minutes after the impact,

and is complaining of a lot of pain in his legs.

-Do you remember what happened?

-The cars. Three cars stopped.

-Right.

-Stopped their motors and I stopped and I just slid.

-Right.

All the drivers involved in the shunt are still at the scene.

Andy's gathered witness statements.

A van has been travelling along,

has slowed down to turn right into a junction.

The vehicle behind hasn't quite noticed

he's been turning in time.

Has left it a bit too late to brake.

He's braked suddenly, thankfully for him

he hasn't gone into the back of the van.

But behind him is a chap on a moped.

Again hasn't given himself enough gap to stop in time.

He's tried to brake, being a slippery road, the bike's gone down,

it's slid under the pickup truck

here and, as a result, you've got some quite nasty leg injuries.

All right, what I need to do, Paul, if you're happy,

if you feel OK at the moment, is do a quick

sample of breath from you to make sure you're not over the limit.

It turns out Paul slid along the tarmac for seven metres

before abruptly coming to a halt under the truck.

He's not feeling very lucky at the moment,

but Andy's seen motorcyclists in similar accidents

come off far worse.

His head was in the middle of the carriageway,

quite a narrow lane here, traffic coming the other way.

I dread to think, if a bigger vehicle had come the other way what would have happened.

So he's got a broken leg, he's come out of it reasonably well, really.

Zero, just what we wanted.

Paul's taken to hospital.

Philip and Andy wait for his scooter to be recovered.

This type of accident is a familiar callout.

Out of all our accidents, vehicle shunts -

where one car or vehicle drives into the back of another -

is probably the most common type of accident.

A third of our accidents are from that type of accident. It only takes a lead car

to brake a bit sharply because people don't leave enough of a gap between themselves

and the vehicle in front, the vehicle behind that will brake even sharper again and so on.

By the time you get to the last vehicles,

they're anchoring up doing emergency braking.

And sooner or later, someone's not going to stop in time.

We've got a slippery, damp country road here

and they will just slide into the back of the car in front.

Once the recovery truck's collected the bike,

Philip checks up on Paul's progress at the hospital.

There was no damage to his truck, so...

-I remember going under his vehicle.

-Yeah.

-It's slowly coming back to me.

-So the front locked up underneath you?

-Kind of.

-Yeah. It kind of went. It happened so quick.

-You don't want to know.

-No. I'm not doing it any more.

-No?

-I bought it for 2½ grand to save money.

-Yeah.

-I've got a car, but I think I've lost my confidence.

-Yeah.

Yeah. It's not nice when you do slide off.

-No, I'd just rather be in a car.

-Yeah.

-I've got a car, but I done it to save money.

-Yeah.

Because I'd been using too much fuel.

OK. I'll leave you alone now, all right?

I'll try and get an update from hospital staff as to the extent of your injuries.

And Paul has been a lucky man -

he didn't break his legs, but he was badly bruised.

-I want to talk to a call-taker, Linda. You're OK to talk just now, are you?

-Yes.

-You took a call from a man who said his car had been damaged.

-That's right.

-The person who had allegedly damaged it had done something odd, hadn't they?

-Yes.

In his attempt to get away, he'd jumped into the marina.

OK, and then what happened?

He swam across to the other side of the marina and got on a boat

and was hiding in the toilet.

-OK. How on earth was he found? It's a dangerous situation.

-Absolutely.

It turns from an attempted robbery to something quite different.

That's right. It was quite cold.

So using the police dogs, and the Coastguard,

and with the thermal imaging camera of the police,

they found him on the boat via his footsteps.

-Literally from the wet footsteps on the boat?

-On the boat, yes.

-And he was in a strange place.

-He was hiding in the toilet.

So using all your expertise, the Coastguard and police,

you flushed him out.

-Absolutely.

-Quite extraordinary, some of the calls you take.

-Absolutely.

-Thanks, Linda.

All through this programme, we've followed the rescue of David Langdon from his smashed car.

Despite his many injuries, David's managed to stay conscious

but he's got two broken arms.

So, how will the firefighters lift him out?

It's 40 minutes since a head-on collision left David trapped in his car

with horrific injuries - multiple fractures

and possible internal injuries.

A team of highly-skilled paramedics have kept him stable. Along with the fire crews,

they're now ready to move David out of the wreckage.

Shall we just sort of ease forward?

Feed that in, put the board in and if we can use enough hands...

We've got the hands to lift him.

Just want to be really careful with that line. Yeah.

OK, we need to support both arms. We'll have a look at the legs

-and perhaps splint them if we need to. Yeah?

-Yeah.

The team will have to move David

without putting any pressure on his arms.

Somehow, they'll have to slide him onto a long board

without touching his limbs

and at the same time keeping his spine as straight as possible.

I'll take the head from here.

You're going to look after the legs and can you do the pelvis as well?

They can't pull on his arms or shoulders.

They'll have to improvise.

We're going to have to lift quite a lot from the belt

because the arms are both gone.

All right? So if we bring forward on the teardrop.

We're just going to try and bring it forward a little bit.

We're going to support this arm.

-HE GROANS

-Sorry.

What we're initially going to do is just go 18 inches,

get the leg straight. OK?

So we'll come up the board when everyone's ready.

Be really careful with that arm. We've got a fracture at the top of the humerus.

Can you reach down to his belt on his trousers?

So we'll go 18 inches to start with.

Ready, set, slide.

-HE WHIMPERS

-OK.

HE GROANS

How are those feet looking?

'But David's feet are jammed under the pedals.'

We've got two jammed together. We've got to free them.

-Right. That's it. Are we free now?

-Yes.

OK. Ready, set, slide.

HE GROANS

OK.

As he's pulled free, it's clear that David's right leg is broken

and twisted out of line.

If we can just take the board out, lay over there, reassess over there.

After 50 minutes of being trapped in his car, David is finally free.

Right. If we come back here.

We can see that possibly

the big bone called the femur might be fractured,

so we're going to apply some traction shortly.

The gentleman's had some more pain relief

and we're going to put a special splint on to immobilise it

and prevent the pain.

But they can't rule out his pelvis is broken as well.

Any tenderness around here?

Top of the left hip.

Don't worry.

Right. Can we also have that SAM splint?

Paul's using another splint to immobilise David's pelvis.

There are major blood vessels in the pelvis.

A fractured bone could result in internal bleeding.

If you can just lift that pelvis a fraction, I will feed this...

DAVID MOANS

Strapped to the stretcher and completely immobile,

David can be safely carried to the waiting helicopter.

There you go, buddy. Sorry, Davey.

Good luck, David.

No problem, mate.

It's been one of the most difficult rescues,

but David has remained calm and conscious throughout.

How does that leg feel now, David?

Left leg's not too bad. Right leg feels very,

sort of...pins and needles.

HE GROANS

The hospital emergency department is on standby.

The half-hour journey by road will take minutes by air.

Pilot speaking. Just to let you know, we are airborne,

on the way to Taunton. ETA, three minutes.

Only now can Paul think about how this driver

may have sustained such dreadful injuries.

I think he's braced himself against the steering wheel,

so the forces have gone back up and fractured both humeruses.

He's also got a fracture to the femur, the big bone in the leg.

But he's nice and stable now. I wouldn't say he's comfortable

but he's certainly looking around him, interested in what's going on.

The journey has taken seven minutes.

David has had the best and fastest care he could have received,

but his injuries are so serious, he's not yet out of danger.

It's now down to the hospital medical team to do all they can

to stabilise him and treat his injuries.

After that remarkable rescue, I'm delighted to say David is here now.

-Hello.

-That was only a month ago

and you're looking in remarkably good shape.

How are you feeling?

Yeah, good. On the road to recovery.

That's good to hear.

I'm going to go through the list, because it's remarkable.

Both arms broken, left humerus shattered,

right leg femur bone broken, torn bowel and two broken ribs.

-Yeah.

-That takes a long time to recover from.

How far are you in your recovery? Are you walking?

A little bit, with the help of a little crutch.

Very short distances, but helping to strengthen.

-It's just physio.

-Can you remember anything about it?

No. Nothing at all. The day before was pancake day.

I can only remember that because it was pancake day.

But nothing of the accident until I saw the video tapes.

So how about the recovery?

Throughout that, you look as if you are in dreadful pain.

The next couple of days, a lot of painkillers, can't remember much.

It wasn't until I got out of the operation on the Friday night really

that I can start to remember little flashes and that

but everything was quite blurry. A lot of painkillers.

I bet you don't really want to remember much of it.

No, it wasn't the nicest time. But I had a lot of support from friends

and family which is always a good thing.

I'm just going to show you some of the pictures

because what a remarkable team, what a remarkable effort they put in.

-Do you remember any of the conversations?

-No.

'Even though in the video I'm completely conversing with them,

'but I cannot remember anything.'

Very politely as well.

Yeah, which is hopefully not an odd thing.

My friends might say different.

But they were just a great team. You saw how many people were there.

'They all knew what they were doing, knew their jobs and the roles

'and got on with it, spot-on.'

Have you met any of the team that helped you out?

-I've met the air ambulance...

-Paul?

-Paul - and he likes the scars.

Quite impressive. Really thankful for him and what he did.

You've got quite a few scars.

Show the camera this one, which is the longest one.

This is the good one.

-Yeah, the longest one on the arm.

-That's a belter!

-It's a good one.

-I've got over a metre's worth now.

-You've measured them all?

-Yeah, something to do.

-So let's look forward.

-Girlfriend's looking after you, mum's looking after you.

-Yeah.

-You're on the road to recovery?

-Yeah. It's going well

so fingers crossed, hopefully everything goes well with the x-rays

and I'll be back to it.

A lot of people wouldn't have known when we were watching that,

you said, "I had brand-new trousers and T-shirt on there."

-And they cut them off him.

-Yeah.

And they shaved my stomach as well when I got into hospital.

I wasn't impressed when I woke up with that.

-But they've got to do it.

-Most mums watching would be very pleased

because you had clean underpants on.

-We saw a good view of that.

-Yeah.

-What did your mum say?

Er...

Nothing much really. As a mother, she was more shocked about the whole situation.

But at least I had clean underwear on, bright white ones as well.

Bright white ones!

David, we are so pleased you got through that awful experience

and we wish you the very best of luck in your recovery.

Thank you very much.

It's lovely to see him with a smile on his face.

Paul, you met David for the first time since you were looking after him in that accident.

-How was it to see him today?

-It's awesome.

It's what makes the job worthwhile, to see somebody so well

when it could have gone so differently.

Really down to teamwork as well.

All of you working together.

Absolutely. It's the hospital, the fire, the police, us.

It is everyone, as you say, working together.

-He looks brilliant. Great job. Well done, Paul.

-Thank you.

Thank you very much. That is it for Real Rescues today.

-Yes and we will see you next time. Bye bye.

-Bye.

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