[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 going to be another two-hour session of wearing the man bra hello are you okay i'm all 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 fits 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 we're not in the bronx yes [Music] taking you right to the heart of the action you can't all right that's the worst [Music] six two i'm struggling with the things i'm struggling mcdonald's for breakfast yeah [Music] i missed part of my beard i think i'm gonna have to put it up with something because it feels like it's really big you pooped your pants then didn't you miss the bmw [Music] my nan said to me the one day and normally she's like you're none grandma really traditional like she said to me two women got married yesterday and i knew straight away what she meant i was like well women have been getting married to each other for a long time but it's legal now it's not like a civil partnership it's actually illegal oh she says well anyway i've been thinking about it and she clearly had put a lot of thought into how it was going to affect her and she said if it's good enough for elton john it's good enough for me and they went back to what shoes great love it love it it's 4 30 on friday morning hannah simkins and mike arrowsmith are on the night shift two and a half hours we can do this this is a rare period without an emergency to deal with [Music] but at quarter to five they get a call job number four zero five was a 45 year old male that had a kidney stone in operation on wednesday had a standard move yesterday and now he's running one and we're on our way they arrived just four minutes later hello oh hello there is it david is it oh yeah you're right on wednesday i had to kidney was that very surgery david was discharged from hospital yesterday morning but then when he got back home he had a baby bad pain in his kidney but then after about 20 minutes it went okay but then last night at about 10 o'clock it started the game and it was very much like this rolling around in pain so i rang for an ambulance that gave him painkillers took him to a in there we've been eliminated right and he's rolling around in pain again just give me a prescription for some liquid morphine which obviously i couldn't get because the result is not open in this job you quickly learn the difference between someone that's you know really poorly or really ill and someone who's not as poorly sort of like developer and instinct for it so david it was obvious quite quickly that he was in a lot of pain and that he needed needed some help whereabouts have you got pain at the moment david on that side is that the side that you had the stone yeah okay does it feel similar to when you had the pain the last few times okay david suffered from kidney stones for over two years we'll do some checks on you and that then we'll get you started so was your pain free when you left the hospital then yeah no it's come back have you passed water tonight yeah everything all uh no no in what way was it bright red yeah blood in urine often happens with kidney stones but it can also be a sign of a kidney infection [Music] is that pain starting to ease no it's still saying is it a constant pain that's there all the time yeah did you have international when the first ambulance came the gas and nerd is did it work no no does this like come on all right let's put that on hold some on away for a second kidney stones mainly affect middle-aged people and are formed from a build-up of chemicals in the body is it the first time that you've had one removed he's fired yeah i've passed okay right that was worse wasn't it all right this isn't the best vein in the world david alright so i'm gonna have a go on this one if this doesn't work we're just gonna take you straight up alright because there's no point in waving around okay nice and still for me okay that's it sharp scratch okay david thank you shiraman with david we worked away quite quietly mike and i both knew what the problem was knew what we needed to do so there was no point in chit-chatting with him in the same way that i would with other people the best thing for him was just to get him some pain relief and take him to hospital all right should we get you ready to go let's just get you up there and get you sorted yeah because of the agony he's in they don't want david to walk to the ambulance that's all right i'll grab it don't worry i think [Music] oh less than two hours after leaving hospital david's on his way [Music] gold back see here we'll get the door shut and get the heating on david all right [Music] how you doing david any easier no okay do you want to try some gas in there just on the way or [Music] david uses the gas and air for a few minutes but just like earlier in the night it makes no difference to his pain mike this stopping beard so i've got some more morphine a second way all right let's pass this around again david keep breathing your interlocks if you want to make okay okay they arrive at hospital less than five minutes later the staff in a and e will now look for a reason why david is in such extreme pain a couple of bumps on the way down the ramp david rice [Music] michelle mcnulty and simon little are on the day shift a male of 65 don't know who he's called but apparently he's having a stroke he's got slurred speech however he has diabetic chicken licking that's what we're going to chicken licking we'll get some chicken get some chicken inside the takeaway clive has collapsed hello hi my name's simon and this is shell [Music] okay clive is diabetic a hypo happens when the blood sugar levels in his body drop too low he felt like you were having a liverpool is that right okay and have you had anything to eat since then or drink sugary drinks at all [Music] what did you add how much have you had one full of okay i think what school the crew needs to quickly find out how low his glucose levels are oh you are low 36 1.9 that is a bit low that is i was really surprised at live's blood sugar levels uh 1.9 is really low most people run at a level of between four and eight i've seen somebody at a level of 2.2 and they've been unconscious in a diabetic coma put your feet feet flat on the floor yeah right you ready ready steady push take a step back there we go feet right there's a bit of air con on here and hopefully make you feel a bit cooler clive is a retired fireman today's episode has left him confused yeah i've seen it a few times ah other than the diabetes do you suffer with anything else uh dad do check me out for another one or two things go on then you tell us what they are now it'll come to you it'll come to you just a bit confused at the minute do you feel sick at all no no do you fancy having uh having some sugar some of this sugary gel that we've got yeah yeah oh what can you oh oh good girl hold it with your hand young man you got it let's have some of that then finish give it a good squeeze good sucky suckaroo well done clyde the glucose gel should slowly bring up clive's blood sugars and stop his confusion you can feel yourself going to did you feel it today that you were going and you had nothing to somewhat it's amazing sometimes you get warm sometimes eat down yeah do you have them very often then well i have to watch myself because i'm i'm on the outside yeah what what what kind of figure are you at like during [Music] the day around the bed 10 so you are really low then come on and get all this in yet and then we'll do what you see your blood sugars in a few minutes time attacks like these have plagued clive for the last 30 years you know since about this it costs to be my marriage the driving horses we job [Music] you a lot then yes yeah after two doses of glucose gel clive's starting to show positive signs there were 1.9 when we got to you and you'd already had some mars bar so they must have been really low but they're 3.2 now so they're coming up could we do it near some carbs [Music] you've got to remember though clive eat and drink after an hour and a half clive's blood sugars are finally back to where they should be and simon is happy to let him leave [Music] drive a little walk around yeah you'll be all right yeah sure yeah [Music] simon and michelle are straight out on another call but they're still surprised that clive had remained conscious during such a serious diabetic attack you can't rush these things no i mean it all takes time if it takes time [Music] they were fitting or when they fit because they're shaking basically a whole of their body to try and get any sugar out [Applause] [Music] rock and roll hannah meredith and shane jones have been called to a two-year-old little leighton's had a nasty accident falling off a trampoline the crew's body cameras will record every moment inside the house what's happened then today on the trampoline bouncing away and then just come off it and like fell right onto his shoulder when he moves it he screams like it's painful and he knows like he's touching saying so okay has he been holding his arms hold it still just [Music] while leighton didn't lose consciousness he's been very quiet and drowsy in the 13 minutes since the accident is it all right there does that hurt broke any bones or anything before yeah he's very he's a very cautious child to be fair he knows yeah very so quite short now sit up for me ask me this hand and i'll help you i have a little feeler this side as well [Music] is that here have his legs how did he get back up did you pick him up himself has he walked around since no but literally just shoulder no playing pain anywhere else every time he's like you know safe comes to scratch his face he's going to sit out on his screen with the pain oh god leighton only wants to cuddle his nan he's not yet had anything for the pain so they give him some paracetamol take some of that special half you've got have you mentioned you want to give it to them make you feel better [Music] it doesn't look dislocated at the moment anyway it is still worth an x-ray because you never know to minimize any further damage to the shoulder hannah wants to put leighton's arm in a sling yeah yeah i've got a special bandage for you you're going to put your arm in a bandage look and make you better yeah you know you have to do it and then that means you haven't got to hold your own arm yeah yeah let's put a little bandage on there okay maybe he might be happier just holding it himself from the way he landed leighton could have broken his collarbone so needs to have an x-ray on the ambulance shane tries to keep him occupied look i'm gonna play with it just press that one press that button [Music] don't you want it oh a couple of minutes into the journey leighton falls asleep but that makes him harder to assess for signs of concussion so shane wants him awake layton wakey wakey are you tired the only way to keep him awake is constant entertainment should try making elephants to make this into an elephant give me a baby elephant it's lovely isn't it another one now look this is mummy elephant this is it's a hand oh you're very clever aren't you right there we are [Music] shane manages to keep leighton awake for the whole journey to hospital really pretty wow somebody's had a seductive no well i have to take your safety belts off this has all been for shane's benefit no one else's the pain relief they gave leighton at the house has worked a and e staff will now x-ray him and find out what's happened inside his shoulder can you hold on to that later don't don't drop in because the week [Music] a lot of people tend to ring one one one instead of 999 because they they realize itself that they don't actually need an ambulance and therefore just want some other kind of treatment or some advice or something like that unfortunately the way the system works sometimes is that you end up with an ambulance anyway talking to someone over the phone is not the same as seeing them in person you can only go on what the person says so therefore you're always going to wear on the side of caution a lot of people knowingly abuse the ambulance service yeah definitely and they think it's just them that's doing it so it doesn't matter if they use an ambulance as a taxi because it's only them that's doing it but it's not is it no the nhs is also a breaking point it can't it can't sustain the amount of of course that we have one of the most frustrating thing is is when you turn up and then they shout out on the radio there's no cruise to send to a red one cardiac arrest someone that is genuinely ill they need an ambulance and we're stuck unfortunately or someone that's not not ill at all just wants attention if people just use their brain and looked after themselves and only went to the doctors if they needed it the doctors would have appointments and then the ambulances would be able to deal with life-threatening emergencies rather than things that we shouldn't even be going to [Music] we never used to get this many things have changed diarrhea chest infections we need to start charging people when it comes to inappropriate service use that's what we need to do uh now i'm not michelle mcnulty i have an acting name oh okay yeah kitty compound 24 years of age [Laughter] it's early afternoon hannah simkins is on shift with michelle mcnulty before this job michelle spent 10 years in the raf in the six months she's been on the ambulance one of her most challenging cases was her first cardiac arrest it came through at lloyd's bank block switch high street and i just remember getting there and just being like wow i don't know what i'm doing but thankfully we had well another crew turned up um there were about four coppers there who could help out with chest compressions and stuff i was ready to go but then they called it in the back oh really yeah because we worked on it for 40 minutes um but the hardest part about it was that they because she was only 50. um and her 80 year old dad was put in the front with me and so my crewmate wrote the news to him but then they went off to the paperwork and they just left him with me and i just had to console him and i'd nev i'd not been put in that position either um it was just really tough you know no one should have to see the child pass away really bless him 999 their next call is to a man with heart problems he's 79 and is suffering from a buildup of fluid on his chest [Music] thank you very much [Music] hello hello hello what's your name glenn glenn glenn i'm michelle and this is hannah nice to meet you glenn so what's been happening then he's not been doing well for a while to be honest so um i've listened to his chest poor air entry on the left side legs are definitely swelling up from when i saw him laughing so he's end stage heart failure as well so we've all been trying to convince him for a while to go to enough hospital this time i said you know we really need to get exhausted all right okay glenn has been told he has no more than 12 months to live his pulse do you feel shorter breath as you sat there glenn or is it more when you move around as soon as you move you it kicks in yeah okay and how do you feel in yourself other than that terrible okay have you got any pain anywhere in your legs or sore yeah okay is that from the swelling do you think okay can i have a quick look i won't poke it or anything don't worry glenn has fluid retention on his legs which often happens to people who have a build-up of fluid on their lungs are they both the same they're both swollen yeah okay so it's really tight across yeah that looks really sore [Music] glenn's blood sugars are low so he has a biscuit before heading to walsall manor hospital there you go yeah bobbing backwards and forwards he's back again as long as it's a small alien face the derma glenn only came out of hospital six weeks ago glenn's blood pressure was a little low inside the house there we go that's your chair on the left-hand side though so michelle wants to check it again before starting the journey raf yeah i swear you can just smell other people that were in there uh he's got it she's like every time she's like it says whatever you can sense people like spoiled sentences what did you do a butcher yeah in the wrath yeah i was the first one to be a butcher really yeah awesome no way 1955. that's quite a nice little claim to be able to make that wouldn't it that you were the first butcher yeah it was you she was brilliant she'll breathe despite having chronic heart failure glenn's only had one heart attack and that was 20 years ago but in the last six months he's got progressively worse that shiro was falling into the people i was cutting the lawn going abroad and everything ready juiced a lot to go jerky it's very nice glenn's heart problems mean he could no longer fly that's where were you based on glass bridge north yeah insworth yeah what in norfolk yeah i was there most of the time so what did you do when you left did you do butchery as well yeah how long did you do that for 50 years really yeah wow so what's your favorite meat yeah it's lovely in it so do you do the cooking of it then yeah linda and glenn have been married for 15 years they got together soon after linda had spent a long time in hospital herself will scan glenn's chest to see just how much fluid is there hey we do it all right do you have a little walk down for me first i would love see you can tell you're a pro at this we'll come and grab you in a minute all right yep oh yeah i have been to a young female in her 20s that's had an abdominal pain after a full roast dinner for 10 minutes have you taken any pain relief no because i didn't want to disguise any symptoms that i might be having if you tried getting rid of some wind so we're now going to a 21 year old month old male this 21 year old monty knocked his head on a wall you said 21 year old month yeah twice he's 21 months old i do apologize it's not when people say hello i'm sorry i did that wrong for you some people say how was your child i was 24 months two your child is two yeah it's when you go out to like an old old chaff you go well how old are you well i'll be 81 next year so you're right we'll see 80 don't put a year on yourself everybody cracks the ambulance jake's like am i still going to strap you into the stretcher so you can't run off and i've heard people say that and i've thought i've never signed that yeah and i've said it today i've said a cheesy [Music] ambulance it's 11 a.m los horobin and mike arrowsmith have just got their first emergency call of the shift laws wasn't due to work with mike today but there's been a rotor change is this overtime for yourself then oh no i should have been on a tour too today i didn't eat breakfast no i haven't i'll wait is that classed as your breakfast though it's a protein shake because normally i have like a cereal bar or something from some weetabix because i'm filming yeah so i've been having like a similar bite and a protein shake called like a banana and a protein shake oh does it tend to fail you're not done protein shake [Music] they've been called to a walk-in center where a man has an abnormally slow heart rate well it's the big update arrived a slow heart rate known as bradycardia is usually between 40 and 60 beats per minute in a normal adult is it clifford hello i'm lost this is mike it is he's coming with a 10-day history of having fitz um he knows aware that it comes on glazes over and then his whole body's shaking uncontrollably that's reflective 10 seconds you know he's completely aware through all this doesn't fall to the floor you kind of deep breathe out and he regulates it he stops we're concerned because he's completely bradycardic that's how he's been all along [Music] 33 at 33 beats a minute you'd expect clifford's heart rate to be irregular but strangely it's not meaning it's the same as a top-class endurance athlete okay what we'll do clifford is we'll pop your top on pop you in this chair and we'll wish you down to the ambulance we'll do another setting you can't walk no i mean don't whiz me down you know just down the stairs in the jail we'll use the left clifford don't worry put a rope out there i'll give you a piggyback if you like we'll do another set of checks on the ambulance to make sure nothing's changed and then we'll pop you to new cross okay so how are you feeling at the minute do you just feel a bit generally unwell or i don't feel like i normally do yeah one of the symptoms of bradycardia is dizziness and fainting but clifford wonders if he's been having strokes how old are you clifford 76. you don't look a day over 75 yes you look at me 15. loz wants to do another ecg just keep as still as you can for me clifford's heart rate hasn't changed definitely got no chest pain food no definitely not working just in case your heart rate gets any lower or you feel poorly we'll pop a needle in your arms that can give you something right yeah people with a heart rate as slow as clifford are at risk of sudden cardiac arrest so laws is treating this as a full emergency might put the lights on yeah just going to go across your waist wants the hospital to be ready for them i've got a 76 year old gentleman who's been having seizures over the last 10 days all his jobs are fine but obviously his heart rate is 33 oh it should be between 60 and 80 beats a minute [Music] yeah when i went to bed last night i didn't have an attack bradycardia mainly affects older people but the other risks are similar to those of heart disease i assume you don't take any recreational drinks no i don't do i have a drink of a sunday yeah [Music] being good that's for you to work out clifford needs a full investigation by the cardiac doctors to find out what's causing his dangerously low heart rate 50 minutes later loz and mike are back on the road and responding to their next emergency call but i had a nice follower as well he was just yeah he was lovely this is very relaxing witty as well yeah it's not often that you actually get people that have a laugh i mean obviously yeah so people generally call us when they're really unwell and they like to be really sure at their lowest point really isn't it still got a sense of humour yeah definitely oh going to the elderly way they're just the witty as anything they just fire straight back at you yeah what number number nine [Applause] [Music] simon little and michelle mcnulty are at the start of another day shift where are we going where am i left i should have gone right they're on their way to an 80 year old woman who's had a fall in her garden what's her name dorothy i wonder if we have to follow the yellow brick road i commit a tin man i've got no heart well you don't have to agree you meant to say oh don't be silly michelle of course you have a heart i almost dorothy's husband of 58 years is waiting for them hello dorothy hello what have you done to yourself i just went out to the just in there yeah i tripped it then i felt my face oh it decided the edge of the step there right so it was actually on the concrete step and i've got these on they'll be throwing in the glasses oh do you so is it the glasses that's hit your face or is it like this yeah well the house okay because i felt the whole lot it came like that yeah dorothy is it just your face and your leg or is there anywhere else that you're hurting no i think i must have tried to save myself so you've put your arm out dorothy's husband brian rang 1-1-1 after she fell but the advisers decided her injuries called for an ambulance as well so you've found it there haven't you okay so does it does it hurt anywhere though just there as you press in it just in there oh don't be daft i can still see a twinkle in that eye brian and dorothy first met in their early 20s they worked at the same engineering firm for 25 years before retiring they look after each other really well i think dorothy was really embarrassed by the fact that she'd just tripped down the step as she was putting the bin out and i think brian felt a little bit guilty because he hadn't done it for her you know [Music] okay well it's um yeah just about an inch and a half could this be handled at the doctors it needs to be closed plus so i think considering a wrist and the bump to your noggin it's worth being seen at the hospital as we get older and we tend to be have a higher pain thresholds and may not notice certain things some damage not just to the tissues but to the bones so we'll get two birds with one stone i'll keep an eye on it they might they might want to x-ray your wrist your skin's quite frail isn't it yeah yeah it's my eyes you say i'm wearing it out she was 80 last month was you really oh gosh congratulations [Laughter] this is one way to celebrate well dorothy'll teach you for putting things in the bin yeah make him do it next time [Music] you're welcome too there you go ready when you outside i think we will do you driving jack um i'm actually a student paramedic for each group tonight you're doing something worthwhile we're grateful to you for it are you welcome that's what we're here for as a couple they were just lovely together um and just so grateful to cyanide just for the little things that we did a lot of the time with old people is they think that they can just get on with it they don't want to be a hindrance or a burden to anybody it's just their mentality because they've just been brought up you know to just get on with things really all right so you're able to hop off first for me watch the ramp all right you're right hey sean thanks for coming no worries not a problem so i was going to catch you hello the scottish in me might do that and then pass you on x-rays showed that two-year-old leighton had broken his collarbone when he fell off the trampoline within a month the fracture had completely healed clifford had a pacemaker fitted the next day to correct his slow heartbeat he chatted to a nurse throughout the procedure he's now feeling a lot better clive soon suffered another more serious hypoglycemic attack this time he was at home alone he fell into a diabetic coma and died it was just five days since michelle and simon had seen him [Music] you