[Music] one ambulance rigged with cameras for the first time ever to show you what goes on behind closed doors body mounted cameras record everything oh it's gonna be another two-hour session of wearing the man bra hello are you okay i'm not turned up oh no i'm not no i'm not apparently it's going to be a fish oily lens on us i'm going to make your face look even fatter than it is where's the button jamie it gets there we'll reveal what it's really like so where are you hurting to be a paramedic hello there lawrence we're with the west midlands ambulance service we get life to get death we have a bit of everything as they deal with three 000 emergency calls each day [Music] taking you right to the heart of the action you can't all right that's the worst [Music] smells like a hamster's cage in here a hamster's cage [Music] i'm just going to speak properly today queen's english i'll go scottish that'll do i can do well if she's on time i wonder if we could go into a patient's house and be welsh and scottish the whole job that'd be hilarious actually [Music] anything's going to be better than our broomy accent that's true that is very it's almost two o'clock and gas clerk and mike arrowsmith are more than halfway through their 12-hour shift [Music] six two thank you gotta get you in uh quick for your break please most definitely yeah no problem mate we're cleared and uh heading back in cheers student paramedic mike is on a bit of a health kick today fully enough i'm just starting to say started my diet today because i had granola this morning like for the first time ever i've never i've never really i've always turned my nose up to it but i thought all right i'll buy this i'll try out if i like it i like it if not it's like this berry one like forest fruit one but the berries are really strong so that's like pushed them to the side but the granola bit was actually quite nice so the bit you paid extra for which was a bit yeah yeah you didn't like no no so i'll get the airplane one i think in future but lunch will have to wait [Music] emergency red call for a six-month-old [Music] baby [Music] with a baby the conditions can change instantly one minute they're absolutely fine then they go quiet the next thing that you know they are critically ill and there's no there's no given signs in between them one nine one two three just eight minutes after receiving the call gaz and mike are on [Music] right no worries can we get everyone else in the room there 19 year old christina called 999 for her five and a half month old daughter marissa what's happened [Music] is she being seen by a doctor at all um i'm going to make an appointment today i can make it on friday because like they have no questions right 39 right oh this has got to come off [Music] [Music] yeah we need to call her down have you got a newspaper magazine just a fan just something we need to fanna call her down has she been drinking okay yeah feed okay yeah no no that's lovely that's fine marissa is christina's second baby she's never been ill like this before i think what we'll do is just go straight in the back of the ambulance he's cooler if we can bring her temperature down she'll be a lot better should i just take her like this yeah we'll just take her like that after just three minutes in marissa's home gaz has assessed her and wants to get her to hospital as quickly as possible when the baby's screaming mom can get quite distressed we're looking at the signs that there's an airway there's breathing there's going to be circulation you can't have on one of the at the other it's almost to say almost decided [Music] we'll just uh trundle off normal road speed but yeah a bit of draft going yeah we'll start driving so it's a bit bumpy normally it rocks him a bit and sleeps a bit [Music] it always works start driving the rocking yeah is your teething at all oh no no just crying i can't sleep been given a paracetamol yes still warm phone the doctor can't get in no i know hence we're here but you'll see a doctor in a moment marissa has gone completely silent but she's not asleep and gaz is suddenly concerned by her quietness [Music] standing up in the back gaz wants to see how marissa responds to light a dislike of bright lights is called photophobia and along with a temperature it can be one of the warning signs of meningitis what are you looking at then suddenly marissa stops reacting to anything mike yeah get us in all right marissa was producing several signs that are a great concern to us with a small baby you've got to make a quick decision either way whether it's a convulsion whether it's hypoxic lack of oxygen or whether it's meningitis that baby's poorly and that baby's going downhill quickly we need to get into hospital quick [Music] hi it's gus clark on um 43-62 i've got a paid alert for you please i've got a six-month-old temperature of 40.5 right upward stair no rash no blanching pulse rate of 194 rests of about 60 to 70. photophobic but not responding to looking around as normal for say upward right stair no actual convulsions eta is only about two minutes i want a doctor waiting for me so we can make sure everything's absolutely fine yeah normally i'd expect her to look at me and she's looking up there it was just over half an hour ago that marissa's mum called an ambulance now they're at a and e are we going into the pd one no it's an alert so the other one isn't it we'll go for the other yeah there's no time to be wasted inside a pediatric doctor will be waiting in recess to find out what's causing marissa's worrying symptoms it's 45 minutes before gas and mine are back in the cab and finally heading to their break when she went quiet it's like what's happening staring up to the right and normally you'll click your fingers and you know babies look around like a dog in that but then no response shine a torch no response but with a kid you can't ask the questions no i wasn't smooth driving yeah yeah i was just trying to have together because fast this week blue lights plenty of diesel get them in quick get in two resource doctors standing there waiting for us two nurses standing there waiting that's what you need you can knock the nhs but it works it really does hannah and michelle are on their first emergency call of the day hello what are you doing your day's off shelves i've got ascot on thursday ladies dead i'm not lazy i look like i've been abroad for a week i mean look at my nose it's like peeling and stuff you've got the same tan in two days that it took me 18 days in canada and four days in france together absolutely fuming mad and i'm a ginge how's that happen there's no justice in the world today they've been called to a heroin user but they don't have any other details when the only information we've got is heroin user you know what we're thinking is what's what's going to be there how many people you know what drugs are in the room are there any needles are the police required you know so it's quite daunting going in especially as a double female crew as well oh thank you very much yes very kind of you [Music] hello their body cameras capture everything firsthand inside is 25 year old simon who's bed bound due to a swollen and inflamed leg his mum called the ambulance for him simon what's been happening there simon yeah it's just been getting bigger and bigger okay and it's uh and now i can't even pop through okay yeah and i mean larger plane tell them what's happening um i've had a blood plot before at the bottom leg okay and i think that's what it is is it the same leg yeah yeah okay how long ago was that um a few months ago okay so quite recently then yeah yeah yeah yeah 10 minutes ago okay a blood clot is a medical emergency for any patient but for drug users they're more common simon was treated with blood thinners for his previous clot um and they give me these injections how long did you have your injections almost give me two oh okay simon was supposed to go for more injections but went to the wrong hospital by accident so you had two injections as you were supposed to and then you didn't go to the like follow-up appointment so nobody's seen you since in regards to like you had a scan or anything since okay when simon said that he'd already had a clot and he hadn't finished his um treatment you sort of start to think is it the same cloth that's still a problem is it a new cloth that he's then got on top of that which obviously makes the problem literally twice as worse simon's injected heroin into his groin so many times over the years that it's left a hole at the top of his leg how long has that been there for years when was the last time you injected in that sword yeah four or five days ago okay does the whole got any bigger any more painful inflamed or anything like that or is it just your actual leg that's painful not there it's just like not the way it's all painful yeah okay growing pain okay yeah i'm just going to see if it's hot it's all right let's not go out because my hands are boiling what's the ad you know okay is that you know what you normally have um well no more now okay i could speak for myself yeah no you lied ever lloyd you met something i've just told them that someone earlier swimming was it then when was the last time you had something nice it was about 12 o'clock which was this morning just after 12. it was now later than that mom daniel what time did i have that stuff come on come on two o'clock it's already here almost one simon started taking drugs when he was just 13. he's my youngest and yeah have you had any rehab or anything simon from a mother's point of view it's quite frustrating to watch your own child you know battle an addiction to drugs she certainly didn't want him on drugs anymore she wanted him to get help and to have rehab okay if you had any crack today or you just had the heroine okay i think so i'm giving you history because you've had obviously the blood clot in the same leg before and now you've got pain further off be a good idea if we pop you up to the manor so they can just have a look at you all right and they might want to do a scan of your leg just make sure that everything's all right there you can't say he needs to scan to be able to tell scanner blood tests obviously if you've got a blood clot in your leg it is quite serious because it can move to other if it dislodges it can move to other parts of your body like your lungs like your heart like your brain which is obviously quite a serious thing all we can do is give you our advice my advice would be that you come with us no but it's up [Music] we care about our patients or else we wouldn't do it so when you've got someone that you know there's something wrong and they need to have treatment for it but they won't come with you it's it's frustrating and it's you know it's it's hard to sort of sit there and go okay well we're going to leave you here because it goes against everything that we've sort of been taught you could be going back in your shift and then it could be severe and then you are taking them to hospital because they've got no choice to say no you stopping in tonight then yeah you better keep an eye on you yeah are you still injecting the heroin sermon yeah yeah if anything changes in between now and then call us back all right if not then get yourself up there tomorrow and get it sorted all right right there all the best notes okay no problem that's all us no worries take care [Music] after just over half an hour with simon they leave him where they found him i'd like to think that he just um gets himself there in the morning i mean his mom did seem pretty sensible so i feel as though she'll kind of kick you and she'll encourage you yeah i would have been a lot more comfortable if you'd come with us but um you can kind of you can see his point to a degree yeah if he can't get himself back he's going to have been stranded in war so he ain't walking anywhere on that leg [Music] it's sunday lunchtime and paramedics jamie cashmore and carly manning are not long into their 12-hour shift the problem is in this job i always have the best of intentions like you'll bring your salad won't you and then three o'clock in the morning and you think yeah i don't want that salad i want i want pizza yeah cake chocolate nobody wants a salad at three in the morning dude no to be honest i just wanted to three o'clock in the morning mcdonald's anything curry do you know what i'm not very experimental when it comes to pizza oh do you not hate sweet corn i've got issue with sweet corn what why have you got an issue with sweetheart because what's good about sweet corn it tastes nice you don't even absorb any of it though do you it comes out whole yeah it comes out sweet corn comes out exactly the same way as it went in there's nothing good about sweet corn it's half past 12 when their next call comes through they've been called to an 85 year old woman who's fallen over and hit her head and all the information we've got at the moment is that it's trauma patient in the street she's i bet you she's just fallen out falling over while i was doing out doing gardening means gardening is bad for you jobs i've gone to where people have been gardening as they pull up the woman is sitting on the pavement covered in blood hello sweetheart all right hello darling i'm carly i'm with the ambulance center tripped over the curb okay so what can i call you feral feral and i'm i was taking the dog is that your dog is it yeah beryl was wearing glasses when she fell and has badly cut the bridge of her nose because she bumped her head carly needs to check if she's also got a more serious head injury did you get straight up you were awake the whole time you didn't lose consciousness away you were a while i was awake yeah i don't know because someone i just said to them i've got my dear wrong cookie have you hurt yourself anywhere else mostly no you've got no pain anywhere else no pain in your hips no no i'm sure if i stood up i'd be alright jobs that are outside it's difficult to assess especially with head injuries they're not in their own environment there was no one around that knew beryl she also was quite focused on the dog and getting home to a husband i suppose it could also have been that she was a little bit agitated as well isn't she too that could be the sign of a head injury subtle but it could be do you suffer with any medical problems beryl i only have blood pressure a bit high blood pressure or low blood pressure just to be okay let's do your blood pressure then then we'll get you out the street i've got to get my dog out oh my god i want me all right don't what's your dog called buster buster don't worry about buster i do worry about it oh no he's safe though isn't he those lovely people are looking after them can i just get to your arm my darling is that all right does this all that comes up doesn't it lovely lovely rice this isn't your best coat beryl no i'll wash i'll put it in the washer as soon as i get out 154 over 90. there we go i'll take that off beryl's blood pressure is indeed high are we ready one two three push up oh lovely legs for a minute see how you feel yeah you don't feel dizzy at all now no feel okay yeah okay okay [Music] do you just have a seat on that chair let's just clear you up a little bit my darling all right i'll get rid of the dry blood first and then we'll have a look at you okay and then can i go home well let's see oh let's see i've got to go ahead and do our checks and everything well worse comes to the west we could always take get buster home because perhaps those people would take buster for you now i've got to go and see my husband dear buddy today is he not very well your husband now he's got alzheimer's yes i'm going to look after him he's already i've got to get home i can't go nowhere i can't go to most people when somebody's in that mindset straight away it's really hard to to talk them around let's do all these checks first i know i'll be all right i mean get me knows all right i'll be okay i mean we couldn't say for definite that it's not broken barrel but obviously we can't we haven't got an x-ray but it certainly looks quite swollen yeah you see i've gotta look after my husband you won't be out of it after himself you're his main carer i am yes i am i've got to be there for him so i can't go to hospital now i think that might need to stitch we've got skin tear there you can just see where the skin's actually been pulled back and then we've got a deep deep laceration there is there anybody i could call to come out come and say send me a time not really barrel not for a stitch and the thing is you've you've taken quite a bump to your head by the looks and have to come out and do a stitch no i'm not all in the way you can only do that in a e really a stitch obviously we can't force people to go but what we can do is try and identify if there's a problem that's stopping them go to go into hospital and if there's something that we can do to help whether that be reassurance or finding a way that they can go everybody we drive around to yours yeah yeah you see your husband drop buster off yeah yeah and is there anyone that could come and sit with him just for a couple of hours because you're not going to be there all night he won't want anybody sitting with him i know he won't would the neighbour pop in perhaps and make him a drink in a little while and something to eat you need your head looking at and you need that stitching [Music] hello hello hello buster come on come on he says what's this what's going on here [Music] is only a short distance away before going inside carly puts a dressing on beryl's nose and checks her heart rate but what if i don't go to hospital what'll happen there well we can't force you barrel we can't force you to go but i'd strongly recommend because you've bumped your head we don't know what's going on obviously if you've got any other injuries that we can't see how old are you very if you don't know me i'll be 86 in december [Music] my husband's 96 96 i mean the other option you've got is that buster could stay at home and your husband could come in the ambulance with you if you'd be happier i'll see what you said you'd have to leave you were down back you'd be all right that wouldn't yeah do you want a hand open another curve i'll be frightened [Music] after she's explained what happened beryl's husband dennis decides to accompany her to hospital [Music] do you think you could do with some alpha ohms we can try and organize someone a lot of people of the older generations are that headstrong that they don't want to accept the help and they don't want to need the help it's how you approach them and it's how you get them to see it as a positive thing okay you've not had any paracetamol in the last few hours no i am no are you not allergic to anything no on the road i'm sure that's not true you haven't managed to have a shave yeah there is a lady who comes and gives [Music] given her high blood pressure carly monitors barrel throughout the journey to hospital in walsall hello walking along the front with our sticks a rock and candy floss [Music] are we here we are the a and e staff will now stitch up beryl's nose and dennis will be with her throughout i've got him a chair as well darling all right are you gonna be all right on your feet are you sure as soon as they've dropped beryl off carly gets on the phone to social services they've got no family as such they've got a niece but she's got a young baby so they've got no no real assistance um beryl did agree to come to hospital in the end but she has sort of mentioned that she's struggling a little bit now to be the full-time carer for a husband the next emergency call comes in but carly and jamie can't stop thinking about beryl how often though do we we come across elderly people that they're the main carers for their other halves and they can't be left alone and that's the the only reason that they're reluctant to go to hospital i know i need to shame because they're kind of to take away their own health and put it onto the heart own needs come last don't they [Music] the emergency services are fire police and coast guard we don't get to retire 55 we're an essential service so at the moment you're gonna have two 64 year old paramedics carrying a 20 stone 18 year old lad down the stairs have more medication than the patient people of our generation are a bit more forthcoming in dialing nine nine nine aren't imagine in like 20 years time 999 is going to be used like 118118 isn't it yeah [Music] the fact that you can do a whole shift of work sometimes or even a whole four shifts at work sometimes and if you hadn't eternal it wouldn't have made a difference to anyone's life i like going out and helping people don't we all that's why i joined the ambulance service that's why i wanted to be a power ready it's past your bedtime you're getting [Music] cranky it's monday night nearly 10 o'clock the blue lights may be on but debbie woodcock and gaz clark are looking ahead to their days off i've got to have a barbecue tomorrow and we both planned it are we both off thanks i was gonna have one yesterday i didn't bother i had a chinese instead clear left clear clear i've no chinese for ages even healthy eating and i gave the rest of the rice and the soft noodles to the dogs this morning they were very very appreciative but i've still got spare ribs in the fridge my dog loves the barbecue beverages i can't give him this barbecue oh do you know i'll be cleaning mess up the next day if i give you all right fairy bones after 28 years in the ambulance service debbie recognizes certain addresses in this case they're being sent to a 33 year old diabetic woman who's also an alcoholic are we having bets on this one then i pub do you reckon yeah [Music] gaz is right it is a hypo when a diabetic's blood sugar gets too low they arrive to find the patient hayley is unconscious rapid responder john has just given her a hormone injection to boost her blood sugar but haley's hypo is so severe that she's still unresponsive [Music] they're 1.1 a.m he's seen control diabetes not been eaten much normally but not so daisy said she had a bad stomach admittedly she hasn't had a lot it's important for diabetics to eat regularly um blood sugars will drop after every meal if they miss the meal then over the night time they haven't got enough sugars to sustain them so it's important that they eat regularly our alcoholic dependent amateur every chad you know roughly just a rough guestimate five four five what's she been drinking cider cans of cider no just a bottle we'll just share it all right it's really tomorrow haley and her partner paul both struggle with alcohol but excess drinking seriously increases the chances of a diabetic having a hypo a lot of alcoholics because it has such an effect on the blood sugar they don't manage their diabetes people who've had it since they were younger and they've started drinking at a young age they just don't manage it at all do they it's just terrible it's now five minutes since the injection and haley should start to come round any minute highly i'm just going to pop these stickers on your chest sweetheart all right hello hello it's the ambulance service all right let's just pop these stickers on you it's just opened her eyes yeah she's starting to come around and [ __ ] pop these dots off you darling [Music] all right coming round a bit [Music] you've had a hypo hello bob hayley is slowly becoming more alert from the moment her attack started her cat tigger has been with her on the bed i can tell one as well because he could obviously because cats can smell the diabetes as blood sugar levels go up or down it causes changes to the body's metabolism which can alter how a person's sweat or breath smells animals about 100 times stronger than that since the smell yeah so with her it was sat on my chest wasn't it in the face and that's how they knew that she's having a hypo [Music] hayley is conscious and eating a sandwich to bolster her blood sugar levels further but she still can't speak oh look at that coming to you is it haley with a y or h a i l e y your name [Music] [Music] we'll get there in a minute nine minutes and a mug of sugary tea later they try again it's your name haley decides she doesn't want to go to hospital as long as the sugars are coming up nicely and you're not going to be alone there's somebody here with you as well i'm always here been together long enough aren't we yeah well i have me friend with me as well though yeah haley's blood sugar is continuing to climb and with john in attendance there's no need for debbie and gas to hang take care hayley i'd rather have animals than people they don't answer back they're not nasty they appreciate what you do just scratch the back of the neck and they're happy yeah that's it i need a job in that carer so i do breaking something just to do yes we actually went there about half two in the morning we have got some bacon in the fridge if you want us to do your sandwich it's like no it's okay so we can only grill it we can't fry it i'll go on then what you got love you got mackies is it nice breakfast she's got a scratch brain mcdonald's hash browns are so luscious i just sometimes just can't help myself for the go do an extra hashbrown for 50p yes throw in four grabbing four i'll jam those down do you think people know that the way to our heart is through our stomachs i think [Music] between them neil weaver and steve geno have 30 years experience with the west midlands ambulance service there's not much they haven't seen before and that includes drivers who don't get out of their way you don't have to move dangerous with a grind or something i really would [Music] they pretty much do anything except what you want them to do yeah all you want them to do is pull over to the left but they'll do invariably they'll do anything acceptable over to the left i've ended up following a car down the melt away in the outside lane for approximately 10 miles before we even realized i was there before and that was with lights and sirens yeah it can be quite frustrating they're responding to a 999 call from a worried husband his wife has suddenly become confused and is struggling to speak she could be having a stroke hello there good afternoon i'm neil this is steve what's going on then today i was absolutely fine it just seemed to come back a bit now okay it was like just have your wrist i was just cooking and then all of a sudden it was just like i just couldn't make a sentence just couldn't physically get your words out no i just couldn't was it like you knew what you wanted to say but you just couldn't say it yeah yeah it was just like um i just could not get anything new me wink that's happened again now you were dead i just couldn't get the word out what i was trying to say okay yeah right yeah first thought was that she might have had a tie which is a mini stroke and then as soon as she started to sort of get him words jumbled again then maybe you think well it could be something else going on as well some that's something that needs further investigation have you had any problems with your coordination you know like while you were trying to eat like your knife and fork or anything did you find that it was difficult to cut things or you could no no i was trying to pick your spots up or anything it was just the words i just could not get what i was trying to say what i was trying to say to people okay does it still feel a little bit sort of it does still look a bit like that yeah being unable to speak is a classic symptom of a stroke it's called dysphasia and it indicates a blockage or blood clot in part of the brain margaret is on medication for high blood pressure so it should be under control but when steve checks it the results ring alarm bells margaret's blood pressure was excessively high and 189 over 105 and particularly somebody who's having a tia or potentially a stroke pressure of that high can cause further complications and exacerbate the symptoms that she's already having margaret also tells them that she has trouble with her eyes every time i bend down we're going to bleed my eye is getting really really pretty grab hold of my hands the signs aren't good neil begins the standard tests for a stroke close your eyes for me keep your hands just out out in front of you and i'm going to let go of your hands keep your eyes shut and just keep your hands there for me okay lovely real pop them down okay fantastic we kind of do a what's called a fast test for people who potentially having a stroke which basically is face arms and speech and just in his simplest form i'm just gonna have a quick feel around your face yeah okay let me know if it feels the same on both sides does that feel the same on both sides yeah and down there yeah the fact that she got this word slurred speech and she was getting um a blood shot eye as well and that then makes you think there's quite a lot of pressure going on somewhere inside of a head okay lovely what i want you to do now screw your face up for me forty percent of people who have a mini stroke will go on to have a full stroke and it usually happens within a few days you've had no funny smells or tastes at all no not that you've noticed no okay worst case scenario that you could be having a little bit of a something going on with your brain a bit of a bleed or something like that i'm not saying that you are but worst case scenario a transient ischemic attack known as a tia or mini stroke usually only lasts a few minutes and doesn't cause permanent damage to the brain but they still need to know what's caused it thank you here we go just where you're twenty what we need to do is make sure it's not a precursor for anything else that might happen all right that's the main reason we're taking it to the hospital to be honest have you been getting any headaches at all recently or i know you've been getting this blood shut off have you been getting any nosebleeds at all or no the reason why i ask is sometimes if your blood pressure does increase obviously the smaller vessels that you've got in your body either like your nose or your eyes sometimes or like sometimes tiny little ones in your brain yeah that because the blood is pumping at such a pressure yeah um it can cause tiny little vessels to burst sometimes maybe it's something to give your blood pressure possibly [Music] it's just over an hour since margaret lost the ability to speak while having her lunch now she's at a e where she'll have to undergo a series of tests and scans to try to work out what caused the blockage in her brain okay simon went to a e later that day he was found to be suffering from cellulitis an infection of the deeper skin layers he discharged himself at two o'clock in the morning and somehow walked home a ct scan showed margaret had no tumors or bleeds on her brain but that she had indeed suffered a mini stroke her gp has changed her blood pressure medication [Music] and baby marissa was kept in hospital for a week after doctors discovered she had a virus and heat stroke [Music] save the life go home see the wife [Music] you