Emergency Helicopter Medics: Help a man who is fighting for his life following a cardiac arrest.
In Hertfordshire, the heli-medics help a man who is fighting for his life following a cardiac arrest. A tumble on an obstacle course leaves Vijitha with a painful open fracture.
Britain’s busiest air ambulance teams race to bring the hospital emergency department to where it’s urgently needed
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here. Hello anglier one. Highly skilled doctors, paramedics and pilots. Child of the car child race against the clock to save lives. We are now mobile incident. Unique teams difficult access will be inventive. Delivering specialist care. Probably going to be quite uploaded as well. From the roadside to the hospital. Are we going to be landing on the beach? These are their stories. You’ve been hit by a train. I’m here to look after you. So, this is the most alert he’s been by far. For me to be having that day where I’m doing everything that I’m trained to do means it’s someone’s darkest day. So, both lungs are off on ultrasound. You are not going to die. We’re obviously in the middle of nowhere out here. We get to make a difference in their lives. So, how many shots have been now? I’ve lost the pulse. Every patient’s different. Every injury is different. And it’s constantly a challenge. Our patient’s still on the side of the ridge. You don’t dangle me off the helicopter. It’s a bit windy for dangling. Are you looking after our doctor in the back? Good. It’s hugely rewarding to be able to provide support and care to patients at the time that they need it the most. Sorry about the inconvenience. You’re not an inconvenience. This is what we do. [Music] Cambridge International Airport, one of East Anglian Air Ambulances two operational bases. The crew of Helmed 88 are ready to respond to emergencies for nearly 3 million people living in East Anglia. The pilots on shift today are Paul Smith and Martin Ping. In the summer, we do tend to squash a lot of bugs when we’re flying around. Got to be able to see out the front of the aircraft. At over 4 meters high and nearly 12 m long, cleaning the helicopter takes time. But paramedic Paige Chamberlain is on hand to help. I’ll give you a hand. Thank you. Show me how it’s done. Paul Paige is saying you missed a bit, mate. Oh, Paige’s got a cloth. It’s not just the aesthetics that matter. If you see us back in the distance, it could be an aeroplane. So, it is important that we keep these try and keep bug splats to a minimum. There we go. What do you reckon, Paul? It’s clean. Everyone who works in this environment is a team player. It’s really important on scene because a lot of the patients we go to are super sick and we want to get them the right treatment as quickly as possible. It needs to work like clockwork. Hello, Cambridge. Oh, okay. Yeah, go ahead. Excuse me. We’re off to a 44 year old cardiac arrest in Bishop Stoford. The crew of being called to a cardiac arrest 23 mi away in Hertfordshire. The chance of surviving a cardiac arrest that happens outside of hospital is less than 1 in 10. And survival is time critical. The crew should be on scene in just over 10 minutes. Today’s duty doctor is Nathan House. He’s been flying with the charity for 4 years. At the point of cardiac arrest, the heart isn’t beating and there’s no blood flow to the body, and that’s technically death. Time is of the essence, and every minute that passes, you’re less and less likely to be able to restart the heart. Can we send 44y old 44y old cardiac has COPD. That’s the only history that we know. COPD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, is a progressive lung disease which can make it very difficult to breathe. Knowing that he has COPD helps us to build a picture of what we could be dealing with. So would you be happy to do interventions like intubation? Yes, definitely. Okay, sounds good. Working as part of the doctor paramedic team is incredibly rewarding. They bring years of experience from the prehosp arena with them. Together we form a very strong team. That’s the rail track. Yep. Um so I suspect it’s probably going to be here that sort of farmers field and then across the road. Yeah. Bishop Stford is a busy market town next to the M11. Martin and Paul will try to get as close to the patient as possible, but in a builtup area like this, finding a safe landing site can be difficult. You got the junction there, Paige? Yes. Yeah. Thinking of that field there. You guys happy with that? I think so. That looks fine. Uh there’s a little fence, but we can hop over that and then cross the road. It’s 250 ft. 25 knot ground speed. Check. Okay, good job, Paul. Okay, cracking the door. Roger. Hi mate. We just need to go over there. Not far, but thank you so much. Right. In the overhead, it looked like a really obvious way through. Is there a road that goes that way down here somewhere? That way. That way. Thank you. Thank you. Hello. Straight through. Thank you. Thank you. Hello there. Hello. My name’s Paige. This is Nathan. Right. How can we help? 44y old gentleman. Witness arrest. Went out of the room to go to the toilet. Came back. So, he didn’t feel right. Collapsed to the floor. Bystander CPR. When I’ve arrived, dropped him. One round of CPR. Shopped again. Got a Ross. Thank you. Rossk stands for return of spontaneous circulation. The land paramedics have managed to get the patient’s heart started. He’s had aortic bowel replacement. Yeah, he’s got COPD. Thanks. Do you mind just assisting his ventilations cuz he’s not shifting much air there at the moment? Can we get the sance probe on him, please? Uh, yes. And I didn’t catch his name. I thought Darren Darren. Spider. Spider. Okay. Spider. Spider. And you’re making him GCS 3 at the moment? Yeah. GCS. The Glazgacoma scale is scored from 15, which is talking and conscious, and GCS3 is the lowest you can get. He was completely unconscious. If you’re happy to manage and drive the extrication, I can set up for an anesthetic in the back of the ambulance. Is that reasonable? Yeah, good. Good plan. Okay, cool. Nathan and Paige are going to perform an RSI, rapid sequence induction, so they can take control of Spider’s breathing. Right. Let’s make some room, then we’ll get him out. First, Nathan speaks to Spider’s wife, Sam, who had started CPR before the land crew arrived. Hi, my name is Nathan. I’m one of the consultants with the air ambulance. Our colleagues with the ambulance service have done a great job of restarting his heart, but he’s very unconscious at the moment. And I understand that he wasn’t unwell before he collapsed. He’s always unwell. He’s very tell nothing new that we know of now. Spider has a complex medical history. He’s got half a lung on one side and he had an aortic aneurysm repaired or not yet. Replaced or replaced. What I’m going to do is uh I’m just going to get set up to give him the anesthetic and I’ll see you in a sec. He’s starting to wake up. Hello, spider. You all right? We’re looking after you. Try and relax. [Music] Spider. One, two, three. Let’s get him up. Okay. Okay. Starting to um wake up a bit. Spider, can you talk to us? Can you hear me, Spider? He’s starting to come around. His brain is essentially rebooting after his cardiac arrest. He’s agitated and so he’s burning more oxygen. you able to keep that BBM near his mouth just so we’ve got some oxygen going in because that’ll help reoxulate it before we give the anesthetic. Once Spider has been anesthetized, he’ll stop breathing. He needs a reservoir of oxygen in his lungs to last until the crew have taken control of his airway. Hang in there, Spider. Sam’s here, Spider. All right, relax. Just relax, Spider. Spider, you’re doing a fine job. We’re just going to get you off to sleep. Because of his COPD, his capacity to retain oxygen is less than somebody who doesn’t have COPD. If you see anything sort of safety critical, do speak up. Otherwise, we’ll try and keep it nice, quiet, and calm. Saturations, we’re improving. BP will say, make sure it’s up. Failed airway plan. So, plan A is oral endotrical intubation. Plan BL. Before the RSI, we run through a checklist. You happy? Happy. Okay. It’s one of the highest risk things that we do in air ambulance medicine. If something goes wrong, we need to act very quickly. One and a half mills of We’re just getting you off to sleep, Spider. Try and think of something nice to dream about. Now that he’s fully anestheistized, Paige has only a few minutes to complete the procedure before Spider runs out of oxygen. So, that is 30 seconds. Still should win a bit there. All right, 873. Let’s bag him up. But there’s a problem. 47 with the gel. Spider sats or oxygen saturation has dropped sharply. Nathan and Paige turned to plan B, an EL and bag valve mask. Can I have the BVM, please? Thanks. So s 91. Thanks. Everyone’s being so calm and quiet. That’s helpful. Plan B has worked. And with Spider’s increased oxygen levels, Paige can attempt the intubation. What do you reckon? Okay, I’ll keep an eye on the sacks. Yes, please. Okay, come out when you’re ready. Check that is 98. Okay. So, let me know if you need suction. Got one wrong view to you through the cords. Bougie through the cold. Loading the tube. Suction 99. We’re in 24. Keep it in. Keep your eyes on. Bougie’s coming out. We got good misting in the tube and good chest rise. At the point of passing the tube into the trachea, we’ve already paralyzed the patient. So when we know that that’s in the correct place and secured, it’s definitely a relief. We can then start breathing for him again. With Spider’s medical history and previous heart surgery, Nathan wants to take him to a specialist heart center. At the moment, there’s no evidence of a heart attack on his ECG, but we have to be suspicious of that. So, I’m going to talk to the heart hospital. I’ll let you know once I’m off the phone with them. Hello. Is that Dr. West. This is Dr. House. I’m one of the emergency and air ambulance consultants. I’m just in Bishop Storeford with a postcard cardiac arrest patient. The heart clinic at the Royal Papworth Hospital, the UK’s largest specialist heart and lung hospital has agreed to admit spider straight away. Yeah, you nice and steady. Thank you. Yeah, thanks. The team are traveling 35 minutes by road. It’s quicker than transferring Spider to the helicopter. And if his condition changes, they can stop and intervene. Can I give you a hand? Are you okay? I just want to get this secure. Now we’re moving. Although we’ve now our side spider, the reason why Spider collapsed in the first place is still there. He’s still not out of the woods. Blood thinning drugs can reduce the risk of clots in the coronary artery and can be given through a nasogastric tube directly into the stomach. So, we’re getting a lot of blood. But Paige isn’t happy with the tube. Okay, let’s have a look. We don’t know where the blood’s coming from. It may be due to the insertion of that tube. They can cause a little bit of trauma, but at this point is definitely worth the risk of some bleeding if we can get additional drugs into Spider’s stomach. Went in his nose. Easy. I don’t think it’s in his stomach, though. What’s that alarm? That alarm is leakage. Is leakage. We got good sat. The crew of Helimemed 88 are on their way to hospital with Spider following a cardiac arrest. But the ventilator, which is controlling his breathing, has started to alarm. Any alarm you want to fix it, so you need to troubleshoot. He’s not able to breathe for himself, is completely reliant on us breathing for him. So, we’re going to have to rescope it. Can you pull over when safe? To find out what the problem is, they need to check Spider’s windpipe. Okay. Right. So, if you pop the scope in, try and go behind. S are still 100. Yeah. Uh, so the NG tube has gone down with the uh tube. Okay. I’m going to take the NG tube back. Keep an eye. Yeah, I can see. Tell me when it’s out. Keep coming. Keep coming. Keep coming. Keep coming. Uh, yeah, it’s out. Beautiful stuff. Instead of going into his stomach, the NG tube had slipped into Spider’s windpipe, threatening his ventilation. Ready when you are. Thanks, guys. Thanks, Mike. As soon as we removed the NG tube from Spider’s windpipe, we were ventilating normally again and we can get back on the road and start heading off to hospital. Go ahead. Thanks, Martin. Just let you know we’ve landed. Lovely. Thank you, Martin. We’re literally just pulling up now at uh the PCI suite. Is it Dr. West? Thanks for having us. This is Darren who’s 44 years old. He’s got a background of COPD and we tried uh an NG tube uh but unfortunately it went into the trachea. So we’ve removed that at the moment. I might leave my mobile number if you don’t mind just letting me know the outcome if we if Thank you. Thank you very much. Spider will be taken for an angiogram and a CT scan to determine the cause of his cardiac arrest. Thanks so much for your help. You guys were really great chilled. So really great teamwork. Great working with you. Any feedback for us? Anything we can do differently next time? No. All good from once we’ve got an update. I’ll let you know. Yeah, no worries. Cheers, guys. Take care of yourselves. All the best. Bye. We’re all in this role because we want to provide excellent care. We want to see the best outcomes for every single patient that we go to. I would definitely describe it as a difficult job. It’s the best job I’ve ever done. It’s extremely rewarding. Thanks for waiting around. Thanks for picking us up and thanks for the uh Oh my god. And the next round’s on me. Is that mine? I love you. Martin got them. Martin, you’re a legend. Thank you. [Music] Take off. RAF Benson in Oxfordshire, home to the Tempame’s Valley Air Ambulance. Covering more than 2,000 square miles over three counties, the service operates 365 days a year. If we look at southwest on shift are pilot Al Gasparrow, paramedic Joe Jeff, and Dr. James Dear. I’ve been flying with Temps Valley Ambulance now for 2 years. I really love it. There’s a real family spirit. We work so closely with one another in such high pressure scenarios and environments that you build exceptionally strong bonds. So it is one big family. That looks wrong. Legs do. Oh, that goes around there. In case you There’s been a big change in my life with my new daughter at the age 5 months already has me wrapped around a little finger. Doing nights regularly does not prepare you for the challenges that come with a new baby, but she’s amazing and yeah, absolutely loving being a dad. And then she faces out. Awesome. But it’s all to do the hips when you’ve upgraded. Dad life. #dad life. Look. Doesn’t it suit him? [Music] [Applause] It’s the first call out of the day. Good. The crew have been tasked to an elderly man who has fallen and badly broken his leg. Okay, I’m lifting for North Beach. Here we go. [Music] He’s from 24. Thank you. We have an ETA of 2 minutes to the overhead event. Okay, thank you. The crew are heading northeast to the Oxford village of Lucnner. So, we’re going to an 83y old male with a fractured midshaft of femur. The crew are on scene and are requesting our assistance. Okay. The feur is the longest bone in your body. It’s incredibly strong and it usually takes a lot of force to break. You can bleed significantly from it. It’s extremely painful. Fracturing your feur for an 83y old can have absolutely devastating consequences. This side of the motorway. If we get to the motorway, we’ve gone too far. Okay. Nice short hop. [Applause] Somewhere in a field plotted there is a ambulance. You’re probably 4:00. Oh yeah, I see it. Okay, you get in the rear. Yeah. Okay. And you’re good to go. Thanks, El. Brilliant. [Music] Hi, Morris. Hello. Hey, mate. How are you? Good. I’ve worked in Oxfordshire for 18 years. When we arrive, it’s great to recognize a face and to know a colleague. First to arrive on scene were land paramedics Morris and Sharon. This is Ceil. Hello, Ceil. He was just about to go to the loft. He hasn’t fallen, but he’d lost his balance and toppled over this way. Ceil had been looking for a suitcase to take on holiday with Sylvia, his wife of 60 years. Ceil, my name’s James. I’m one of the doctors and I got Jay, one of the paramedics with us. Right. Hello. Sorry you can’t see us around there. We’re going to get you sorted. He’s on war. He’s had heart surgery. He had valve replacement. Yeah. Um and he’s had um knee surgery. Both knees. Both knees done. Warin is a drug that works by thinning the blood. It protects you from strokes. The downside to that is when you have something like a big fracture, the fracture is going to bleed more. So it can really make it a much more severe injury. So shall we try and get IV access? I’ve got the awkward job of squeezing around this, but we’ll get there. All right. So, what I’m going to do, little tight to around your arm just so we can get a little drip in. Okay. And then we can give you some proper pain relief and we’ll get you out of this pickle. Never done a canula at quite this angle around a door post before. Little scratch. Sorry. That’s all right. Awesome. Good. All done. Nasty bit over. Okay. Morphine. Fantasmo. Morphine takes time to work. So Ceile needs some additional faster acting pain relief. Bad thing is whether we use a bit of Penthrox actually. Oh, that’s thought. Why don’t we set it up? What do you reckon? It’s easily administered in that position as well. Penthrox is an inhaled drug that works incredibly quickly. Space was tight. So it was something that he could be in control of and that we could provide immediately in that difficult environment. This is a little whistle. You pop the little green bit in your mouth between your teeth. Hold it. That’s perfect. Big breath in. Good. That’s perfect. And I want you to think about filling these lungs all the way down to here with our medicine. Keep going with that. Every time you take Yeah, absolutely. Sharon, are you happy to stay out there and coaching with the Penthrox providing instant pain relief, James can start to straighten and splint Ceil’s leg. How tall are you, Ceil? Oh, well, I think I’m getting shorter, but I I used to be 6’2, but I think Did you snap? Good, man. About 6T. So, you’re going to feel a poking and potting. All we’re doing is arranging this. It’s very clever, but it’s essentially some tent poles that pull your leg out in a second. It makes life a lot more comfortable for you. Um, in position, Joe, and foot straps are on, which is perfect. So, what we want you to do is roll backwards onto your back. Okay. Just roll over to your right side. Nice and slowly. Well done. Well done. Keep going. Keep going. Well done. Perfect. Keep breathing. Keep your body still. There we are. Still the Kendrick traction device provides constant traction on the leg which is going to help to hold those bony fragments together as we trying to extricate him down the stairs. How much more he wow brilliantly hasn’t it? Okay. Keep breathing. Okay. Keep breathing. Put that in your mouth. Pop it back in your mouth. Wow. Good. Good math. Yeah. I think we’re pretty much on full there. James says that’s it. How are we doing? You all right? The head. Out of it. Yeah. Get out of it. Okay. We’ve managed to pull his leg out to length, so the bone ends are touching now and hopefully reducing the amount of bleeding. Ceil’s a really tall gentleman. We got to get him out of the room and onto the landing. We got the stairs to think about. This is a really challenging extrication. So, the plan is scoop onto the landing into the Southampton slinger and onwards. Sounds good. We really need to angle Ceil to get him around these tight corners and the long handles that the Southampton sling provides are going to really help us achieve that. You are brilliant. I think you really are. I think you’re doing pretty brilliantly. You’re the hero. Star patient award. Yeah. So, you’re going to turn here, turn there, turn there, and then we can put him down on an angle. But until then, we’re pretty stuck. Your left leg says in your left leg is strapped in. Yeah, everything is strapped in. We won’t drop you. All right. Perfect. Ready. Steady. Lift. Gentle. This is going to be harder now. Mhm. Okay. All right, Sharon. I think you’re going to be stuck. I’m okay. Go on. You okay? Yep. Okay. Right. I’ve got it, Sharon. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. Okay, I just mind your left elbow. Well done. Okay. And down and rest. Take your second. We’re almost there. Big feet. I’ve got I’ve got another one. Good. You all right? Yes. I’m just going to come back onto my side. Everyone okay? Y. Well done, everybody. There’s two steps. And into the ambulance. Sorry, that bright sunlight’s in your eyes. Big bump coming up. James is happy for Ceil to travel with Morris and Sharon by road to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford where he’ll go straight to theater. Breaking a femur is an exceptionally painful injury to to have and Ceil was amazingly stoic and brave and this could be a life-changing injury for him. But he’s had a really positive way of dealing with it throughout. Really lovely patient to work with. Starting back on board. The team are online and ready for the next job. Okay, we’re bearing 358° 9.8 nautical miles. Yep. Just show me on the aeronautical chart then. On the way back to base, Alf tests Joe on her navigational skills. So, what’s this road that we’re about to cross now then? Uh, good question, Al. Okay, so power lines cross it. It’s my role as a paramedic to assist the pilot to navigate. So whenever we have downtime, the pilots put us through our paces. I thoroughly enjoy the navigation side of flying. [Music] A call comes in from central control. Clara Papa 4 2 91 Chipping Norton female such a dislocated ankle. Rays of hope flicker in the void. Love’s program hanging half destroyed. Emotions spinning in pixel parade. Love’s display in vibrant cascade. Echoes of feelings flash and fall in gun sight on the DMA on route over. The crew of Helmed 24 have been tasked to an incident at an obstacle race in Chipping Norton. The patient has suffered a suspected fractured dislocated ankle. The problem with an ankle fracture dislocation is that the blood supply is compromised which means the foot can essentially start to die off and ultimately the patient could lose their foot. Okay, a visual the ambulance. It is moving its way to the field. Right. So, let’s look for a place to land. There’s a gentle slope down where they’re going now. The top looks flatter, doesn’t it? That’s where the patient is. Okay. Do we have people in the undershoot here? There’s lots of running. Okay, we’re going to abort that. We’re going to I think the race is still very much on. After a quick circle round, the runners have been cleared from the area and Alf finds a safe landing spot. Hi. Hi guys. I’m James. This is Joe paramedic. So this is Vea. Vita. Perfect. I’m coming. It’s given her some morphine in total 9.5 mig,000 paracetamoth didn’t appear to be any digital circulation. Vegeta’s foot has come away from her ankle joint. She may also have broken bones. The ankle is horribly deformed and really not in the right place. Vegeta really does look like she’s in a huge amount of pain. This could be a limbthreatening injury if we don’t act promptly. What time did we do the injury? About um 12:05. 12:05. Vegeta had been running the race with her brother and his girlfriend Dar when she tripped during a tire run. Hello, my name’s James. Have you seen your foot? I saw it when it happened. So, very likely to be a fracture, but it’s dislocated. Okay. So, the the foot itself has come away from where it locks into the leg. Okay. Put it back to get you out of here. James plans to realign Va’s foot. We need to restore the blood flow and we need to take the pressure off the tissues around the ankles to make sure that the skin has the best chance of recovery as well as the bones. To do that, we’re going to have to give Vija really strong pain relief. The reason we’re called is cuz we’ve got cool drugs. We elected to give Va a combination of medication of mazzylam and ketamine. The medicine we use doesn’t stop breathing at all, but there’s a theoretical risk that it So if that was to happen, that’s why we get all this stuff laid out and we’d breathe for you until you breathe yourself. It’s never happened to me. All right. I don’t intend to do it fast. The ketamine acts as a very powerful pain relief for a procedure that we know to be very painful. Other options would be that we do it without the the strong drugs, but it’s No, no, no, no. Hell no. We do. Joe’s going to be in charge of sedation. So the drugs we’re going to give you are just like you’ve had a couple of gin and tonics. It’s just enough to numb the pain so that we can make your ankle nice and straight. It’s very difficult to explain to a patient what a procedure is going to feel like. It’s really important to comfort Ja that she will feel slightly unusual because of the drugs that we’re going to give her. But that is completely normal. Sympathy and empathy, I think, go a long way. Joe, I’m happy when you are. Okay. Fabulous. Think good thoughts. Well done. Your friend’s got your hand on the left hand side and James is down the bottom. Okay. So, and ketamine are in. Let me just mark the ketamine. The drugs have an amnesic effect so that Vita doesn’t suffer any memory of the painful procedure. So, we’ve got some water in there. Jiggle it around. It’s all coated. Amazing. Okay. James, you happy? Yeah. Very. We’re using a specialist splint that when it’s soaked in water will start to set and hold Vegeta’s ankle in the right position. I’m gonna reduce the fracture dislocation, but I just need someone on this end. So, I’m going to bend the knee up. Good. Happy for me to continue. I’m going to bend the leg up. So, we’re going to bend the knee. And then you’re going to pull against me a little bit. All right, Jay. Yes. Wow. Well, well done. Well done. Looks better already. Thank you. That’s it. Keep going. Bending, bending, bending. Without the support, it’s just going to move again. So, the splints are key to holding Vegeta’s ankle in place. Not really loving this splint. Vegeta’s ankle is so unstable, the crew are struggling to splint it adequately. It’s not supporting where I need it to. So, we’ll just get a second one over the top. James decides to use a box splint for extra support. So, your ankle looks really good. Okay. All right. I’m not going to die. You are not going to die. That’s absolutely true. Well done. Don’t worry. It’s all done. The worst has happened. What happened? Yes. You had a little cheeky. Well done. How did that happen? Thank you so much. Oh my god. You had a super snooze through that one. This is an injury that’s going to need orthopedic surgery. So, we’re going to fly Vegeta to the John Radcliffe Hospital so that she can get the orthopedic care that she needs. But first, there’s a reward for Vegeta. It gives me great pleasure by the power vested in me. The best selfie ever this medal. Thank you so much. 100% brilliant. Thank you. That’s so you know. Can we put it over there? Okay, thank you my lord. Faith was an incredible patient. She was heroic. She certainly in my eyes deserved every bit of that medal. One, two, three. All together, we’re going to go up. Okay. And then one more up. Oh, okay. Perfect. Thank you so much. Awesome. You’ve done so, so well. two JR. Here we go. [Applause] Just climbing through 200 ft. Radio watch. Oh, I think it’s really important to keep fit, have fun, and embrace events like this. And it’s just really unfortunate for Vegeta that today we’ve had to be called and she’s had this horrible injury. Can’t believe we didn’t get a medal. I know. I’m an elite muddy runner. Are you? It’s only a short flight to Oxford. In under 10 minutes, Alf has them touching down on the hospital helipad. We’re here. How you doing? I’m good, thank you. How are you? Oh gosh, how sweet of you. You’re like the best patient ever. I’m so sorry guys. Honestly, please don’t worry. This is why we do our job. I love my job and I think it’s a real honor to work with patients such as Vegeta who had a really positive attitude throughout the whole of this event. Like the best day of my life. Slide a tiny bit more. Ready, steady, slide. Yeah, it was amazing looking after her. T-side International Airport, operational headquarters of the Great North Air Ambulance. On shift are Dr. Mike Davidson, paramedic Jamie Walsh, pilot Jay Stewart, and running the comm’s desk, paramedic Ian Gray. Highly trained and experienced, the crew are ready to be called to emergencies at any moment. A. Oh, they’re good biscuits. Oh my god, we’ve had an out of the biscuit tin experience. Jay’s on brew duty the rest of the day. There’s a couple of things we take quite seriously and that’s bruise, biscuits, and patient care. You go to some pretty horrendous cases at times, and it’s important to have a good camaraderie as a team, but also to have a bit of banter as a team. That’s cold, man. You see that? Right. Okay. Cheers. Bye. Somebody come off the bike and attic, but the crew have asked us to contact them. Oh, hi M. This is You’re not the air desk. We’ve got 7-year-old female who’s come off a bike on track. She’s impaled by on the brake in half to 2 in. It has impaled. Is it still in situ? Cuz this is an isolated limb injury that’s not bleeding. Still impaled on the lever. That’s for the fire just to off. Yeah, that’s all received, mate. No problem at all. Um, we’re going to mobilize to uh to your location. When a call comes in, we have to make a decision as quick as possible with quite limited information. Knowing that the the brake lever was still impaled, not only will she need pain relief, but she may need blood. [Music] Seven, didn’t you say, Mike? Yeah. 07 7y old. Okay. The crew of Helmad 63 are on route to a young child who has been impaled in the thigh by her bike. Whenever we attend an incident, we’re always trying to mentally prepare for what we may find on scene. With an impalment, we’re really concerned about potential damage to major blood vessels. That patient could suffer major blood loss, and that’s something that we need to be prepared for. I mean, the kid’s going to be terrified anyway, so it’s going to be a lot of management of the kid and the pain. So, we’ll see. On route to the job, Mike’s preparing the calculations of the potential drugs. So, for a seven-year-old, we’d work out the average body weight and then the dosage for each drug that we may need to give this child. All right, J. All the subs are complete. Cool. So, I’ve done everything up to RSI. I’ve got the ambulance. Oh, yes. See, you’ve got there, man. And left’s clear. Perfect. 69. Hello there. Yeah. So, young Imagigen. Yeah. The fire brigade have managed to detach the bike, leaving the brake lever lodged in Imagigen’s leg. Imagin’s mom, Cla, is with her. really bizarre. She was going so slowly and just up one of these bumps just twisted. So she never actually fell off if that makes sense. The land crew have already given I imagining intravenous morphine. My name’s Jamie and this is our doctor, Michael. Cuz it’s really stiff. You don’t you don’t worry about that. I’m just going to give you a check over first. All right. And how old are you? Are you what? 10. Seven. Seven. Really? No. You must be older than seven. Were you doing Wheelies imaging? No, she’s being so sentimental. She’s so unlike her. Mommy told me to be careful about my first. I know. I know, darling. Cuz you’re not normally. You’re a bit wild. There we go. See, mommy’s mommy’s always right. It’s important to build a rapport with kids and to build that trust with them. I can’t even comprehend what it must have been like for Imaging having the fire crews, the ambulance, and then a helicopter to land there. She must have been incredibly anxious, but she was really brave. I don’t think a 7-year-old me would have been that brave. We can just cut around the rest of these uh trousers here. And now what we’ll do, we’ll get a small we’ll get like a donut type dressing around that will just kind of secure that in place. With an injury like imagins, it’s difficult to understand what’s going on beneath the skin. That break lever, it could have damaged any of the major blood vessels, including the femoral artery. The femoral artery is one of the major arteries in the human body, supplying blood to the legs. Removing the brake lever could risk further damage and bleeding. If I take the end there, you move your hand. Yeah. Do you fancy a flight in the helicopter? Exciting. No, you’re never going to ride that bike telling you right cuz we’re going to have to get a new one anyway. Sweet. I crash my bike all the time. It’s one of my favorite hobbies. Mountain biking is a big hobby of mine. I’ve had a few ups and downs and a lot of crashes. So, I can I can really sympathize with Imagin. Unfortunately, that’s part of riding bikes. I know sweetie, you’re doing so so well. You’re super brave. Do you have a like an Israeli field an emergency care bandage, do you? So, like the got the pack. Uh, could we have one of them? And what we’ll do is we’ll cut we’ll uh we’ll cut a hole in the middle of that as well and put that on. When securing an object that has been impaled, you want to be able to secure it but not move it. And Israeli dressing is an elasticated pressure dressing. Allows us to put a bit more pressure on to keep it in position. There we go. Are you cold, I imagin? Should we get you onto this board and wrap you up and get you nice and cozy? All right, my darling. Right. Then you’ve done very very well. Super duper brave. Brilliant. Great work. [Music] Right then. Are you all right? On one of the corners. You got it. Yeah, man. Right. We’ll go around the front of the aircraft. Keep it lifted. Keep it lifted and down there. Hello. You all right? The crew will fly Imagigen to the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle. I’m going to follow right behind in the car. Okay. And they’re going to look after you. And when the helicopter lands, I will be there so soon after. Shall I look after you? Yeah. Yeah. Me and Michael. And I’ll drive really, really carefully. Love you lots. Be brave. I’ll see you soon. Okay. We’ll see you at the hospital. Thank you. [Music] I’m going to put some earphones on you. All right. Them snug. And I’ll put that there. And that’s what you’re talking to. You can hear the pilot talk. Okay. Right. Good to go. Start to go off and you see it. [Music] Just give a little wave to your mommy. As an uncle with nephews and a niece and I know the kind of things that they get up to. They are going to hurt themselves every now and again, but that’s all part of growing up. And and I’m sure in this case, imagining won’t stop riding a push bike. Right in the back. Yeah. All good. She’s nice. She was nice and happy. She was nice and relaxed. Hello, Imagin from the front. How you doing? Hello. Are you okay? Yeah. Did you get away from the front? Are you looking after our doctor in the back? Good. [Music] Down. That’s it. We’ve landed. How was that? Did you like it? Yeah. Out of 10, how many would you give it out of 10? Awesome. Imagin is just one of more than 23,000 children and young people who are treated at the hospital’s specialist pediatric facilities each year. Hello then. Um this is young Imagigen. She’s um 7-year-old. Um she came off her bicycle and the brake um handle penetrated about maybe an inch and she’s nice and stable. All right. She’s had a good time today, haven’t you? No other injuries. I’m happy with her. Surgeons will now remove the brake lever and assess any damage to the surrounding tissues and the femoral artery. Oh yes, the birds. Look at these. Today the helipad has been hosting some other frequent flyers. These are birds of prey, pagan falcons. We see them here once every couple of months. It’s important to keep the helipad free of pigeons. They’re a serious threat to helicopter safety. The falcons are here with handler Ben. We combine it with egg nest removals on the roof nearby. And long as it’s clear when this is coming in and out, it’s the main thing really. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, they’re fantastic, aren’t they? Right. Take it easy. Yeah. Nice to see you all again. Yeah, good to see you next time. and the visor. Roger. Dodger. [Music] Oh, I’m looking into James’ part with his rugby going up. Oh, man. I love this thing. [Music] What a beautiful evening. [Music] When you live with someone that has such a severe medical condition as my husband does, you don’t really think of the future. One day something is going to go wrong and we won’t be as lucky as we were this time. The syndrome I have is called Maran syndrome. Uh it’s a connective tissue disorder. When you’re growing, you end up quite tall and thin. It can also affect your heart, your eyes, your lungs. He’s got a metal heart valve where he had an aortic root and valve replacement when he was 18. And that ticks like a clock. And all of a sudden, I realized that I couldn’t actually hear it ticking anymore. So that’s when I knew that his heart had actually stopped. Since I’ve been with Sam, she literally saved my life on more than one occasion. I think if I’d been with anyone else, I wouldn’t be here now. No one wants to think about someone that they love being at the point where they’re not going to be here anymore. So you got to make the most of every day that you have. So the medics are treating me on the day. Words can’t express. I just can’t thank them enough. They’re just an incredible bunch of people. Well, thank you for a good day. Cheers, Julie. Me and you, we all have good days. Yeah, I’m very privileged to do this job. All we can ask for at the end of the day really is to make sure that we’ve given the best care that we can to the patients who need it the most. [Music]