[Music] we're back on shift inside the ambulance it's on it's on let's go with more medical emergencies is that a little bit better now and more cameras there are some new faces this could potentially be quite hazardous and some old friends seriously oh that's disgusting [Music] body mounted cameras record every moment nice and slow to show you what goes on behind closed doors caroline can you hear me sweet mikey that is a chunk you'll be on the front line with the ambulance crews from west midlands ambulance service i reckon you could do this job you know take a big deep breath and hold it for me never a wasted moment when i'm being paid by the ambulance service as they deal with three thousand emergency calls each day there's nothing to worry about that's not too bad petal is it no you're eager to come into the world step inside the ambulance i love this job [Music] i like it when it happens like moses isn't it the sea party [Music] do you ever go home and like dream of the sirens in your head regularly we're good yeah cool i could never see out of these windows that took time didn't it sorry but uh yeah i have a problem with these i'm looking out the roof why don't you lower yourself this is as low as it goes oh really got a long body short legs i have a long torso it's coming up to half past seven in the evening and hannah meredith and luka barron are on their way to their latest call up hey fighting for breath fighting for breathe a 58 year old woman is suffering with severe abdominal pain at her home nearby just six minutes later luca and hannah arrive at the house hello really bad stomach pains for about 26 minutes now right and just been getting worse and worse so say about 25 minutes and he's just coming all of a sudden yeah no indicators nothing's like triggered it all of a sudden okay and eating causes stomach pain so eating causes pain did you say she does yeah at times kim a professional carer has long term stomach problems and two years ago had her gallbladder removed but the pain has started to come back literally just there and according to her daughter also called kim today it's reached breaking point okay have you taken any pain relief [Music] yeah what would you score the pain out of 10 shifts and she's only had that i i briefed it yeah yeah that was about an hour ago okay cool and i'll get some internet yeah can you just get out of your house as well although kim's had her gallbladder removed she's continued to have bouts of pain like this her doctors think the tubes which were connected to her gallbladder are still making stones whatever it is hannah needs to get the pain under control tight seal breathing suck it like a straw they start with some gas and air deep breath in you can't because of the pain that's okay okay and that makes it worse just a little listen to your tummy okay right there any pain down here uh uh uh uh just in the middle ah okay gall stones cause a lot of pain um some people say that it's worse than childbirth because something's trying to get out of a space that's smaller than what it is we're gonna get we're getting some pain relief sorted now okay to speed up the pain relief they plan to give her paracetamol through a drip oh man i can't check the pain all right we're gonna get you started the pain is worse and it's worse we'll get your pain under control and then we'll take you up to the hospital okay it's worse it's really worse we've got some pain relief going through the cannula we've put in your arm okay so it'll take a few minutes it'll take a few minutes it won't start straight away is it still getting worse the pain oh yeah or is it easing off slightly ah it's only gone through isn't it i'm gonna wait for that um they need to manage her pain to be able to move her to the ambulance but it's getting worse so hannah and luca's only option is to go for stronger medication i'm it's quite hard not to get panicked yourself when you see somebody in that much pain and you kind of almost want to start flapping yourself and panicking for them sometimes you go through all the different types of pain relief or sometimes you think i'll stuff it i'm just going to go for the big guns and get them all for you now um because when they're in that much pain you know that the anti-knocks and paracetamol isn't going to touch them with a barge pole right morphine's coming off okay might make you feel a little bit woozy yeah it does [Music] oh but even with the morphine and the gas and air kim is still in agony is this the worst one yet all they can do is increase the dose we'll wait for this to hopefully ease off and then we'll get you out to the ambulance okay finally the morphine begins to work please please really yeah oh do you want to sit there for a second with kim's pain easing hannah can at last move her outside i'm heavy you're not heavy all right actually there's nothing to you i lift more than you at the gym it's me that'll be weird i know i'm sorry let's get you on the bed it's cool yeah we'll get you wrapped up as well just sit back ah let me wrap you up put everyone knees up okay yeah that's fine there you go i think kim had experienced his pain quite a lot it wasn't the first time by any means that she'd had it but she did say i think that it was one of the worst worst that she'd had she was due to go back to south africa within the next few days and that was concerning her that she was in this amount of pain and she thought something else had gone wrong with her you feel like you've been punched in the stomach now ginger it stops you an hour after first arriving at her house hannah and luca finally get kim to hospital we're here now [Music] should i jump up there yes please that'd be great we'll try and be as gentle as we can kim's handed over to the a and e team to see if they can work out exactly what is causing her such excruciating pain [Music] she was one of those people that kind of that i know you kind of like say you know people when people say they've got like a 10 out of 10 pain and but their obs don't reflect that you know and you can see that they're not in that much pain however with her she was genuinely looked like she was in a 10 out of 10 paintings there's another one she was a lovely lady though she was when i was a student and we got called like in the sticks somewhere knock on the door and uh this a guy answers the door and he's stuck naked i'm like oh i just looked at him like in the face and gone it's not you we've come to see it's a where's our patient oh she's through here and they're neighbors around apparently and they're stark naked and this woman was sat on the sofa okay what have i walked into and apparently that whole area is a nudist village [Music] willenhall ambulance hub is where leon and preet are based along with over 260 other west midlands ambulance crew it's nearly 9 00 a.m on monday morning and they're on route to their next emergency call we are going through a 16 year old female who apparently is having an absolute attack it could be a panic attack as well on the side of an asthma attack making it seem worse the calls come from a worried mum whose 16 year old daughter is having a full-blown asthma attack [Music] when leon and preet arrive bonnie is struggling to breathe right that sounds like a wheeze to me come here um she's got an exam are you panicking yeah what do you suffer from darling [Music] thank you bonnie had her first asthma attack five years ago she also suffers with anxiety and today is a particularly stressful day for her as it's her gcse english exam but she's been panicking all morning and it's brought on an asthma attack what time does she need to be there for five to nine five five to nine but it's now five past nine coughing doesn't help either does it open your mouth four minutes have a quick look whilst preet checks her airways leon prepares some cell butamol which bonnie can inhale through a nebulizer [Music] what exam is it [Music] gcse yeah quite stressed and panicked bonnie's school have said that as long as she gets there before 10 am she can take the exam but the salbutamol takes at least half an hour to have an effect and bonnie can't go anywhere until she's more stable oh she's still wheezy [Music] she looked really pale we could hear her wheezing her chest was going you know up and down really struggling really working hard to breathe we needed to make sure that that didn't escalate because us for asthmatics especially brittle asthma it's that kind of condition where it will take hold and it will get worse very very quickly to a point where you're unable to stop it at a certain point you could very quickly go into cardiac arrest feeling okay try and breathe through your mouth not through your nose okay so open that mouth lightyear asleep when your mouth wide open okay nice and chilled preet needs to keep bonnie calm a stress can make the wheezing worse but she still needs more medication what i'll do after i've given you this i'll give you a steroid that keeps everything open it's now 20 to 10. the nebulizer is starting to help bonnie but she's running out of time to make the 10 o'clock deadline preet calls the school um hello i'm just with one of the pupils that attends your school she's quite anxious that she's going to miss this exam i can't get her breathing under control until she is assured that she can sit this exam now it is a medical emergency and it's good news for bonnie the school are going to extend the deadline so if i can say to mum and daughter that they they need to get there before 11 perfect with an extra hour's extension hopefully bonnie will calm down hi i want your pulse to come down a little bit sweet it's a little bit high her breathing though is improving you are officially wheeze free so that's great so now it's coming at 123. so it's slowly coming down all right let's get you to that exam take everything off you all right as bonnie gets into the ambulance her mum follows in her car bonnie was not recovering as quickly as i would have liked her to take a seat there for me so the deal was had she'd fully recovered by the time we get to school she can hop off the ambulance get into her exam and sit her exam if not then she would have had to come to hospital i want you to really concentrate on relaxing okay during the three mile journey to the school bonnie's heart rate will continue to be monitored four four nine seven [Music] nine ten this patient's heart rate was still quite elevated so we were observing her on her way to school so she doesn't miss her exam medical issue is fine we just want to make sure that our heart rate does come down she's a bit nervous about the example so uh received you're doing really really well i see you've got it down from 145 to 122 so that's really good a couple of minutes away from school and bonnie is feeling quietly [Music] are you doing the relieved it's good against all odds aren't you thrilled my husband will be happy i did this you know he's a teacher secondary school teacher and uh that would tell him like i made sure a student did have gcse today bonnie arrives at school with 30 minutes to spare we're here the rivalry mode activated best of luck thank you very much bye-bye take care say yeah there we go just in time poor thing i think she was so nervous about her exam she wasn't she wasn't concentrating on her breathing she just kept you know panicking panicking she suffered with anxiety as well so it just doesn't make it easy and she's revised hard [Music] i love a good sing-song definitely to a power ballad like i hurt my own ears i'm completely tone deaf but i'm really enthusiastic and that's what makes it funny i think 10 out of 10. yeah exactly the effort was there the air grub was there the deep breath and the just the just the sound is just awful but if you turn it loud you sound more in tune talking from experience like when you're in the shower you sound like whitney you get out and you sound like you've been turned on [Music] i'd love to go traveling i mean i've got family that live in australia but the thing that puts me up about australia is the spiders man babe they're scared of spiders yeah absolutely petrified in a nice yeah there is this spider this and i reckon it was easily the size of my palm easily and those looks about three four mil thick at least how can you talk about it oh that mate it was awful honestly the only time i've stayed still with a spider is mid cardiac arrest when i'm doing chest compressions on a patient and i'm seeing this little like scuttling across the floor and i'm like go away just go away yeah okay terrifying like any spider any size oh i just hate them so much ambulance crew darren westwood and ash bolas are both west midlands born and bred tear story then they're on the left-hand side there's a lady flashing her boobs at all the traffic no yeah darren has been a paramedic for seven years she may have been intoxicated oh say she's not there today don't worry no 23 year old ash is a student paramedic don't get hang any heads out the window i'm going to be looking [Music] [Music] with the west midlands ambulance service responding to an average of 3 000 call outs every day darren and ash are used to being kept busy we're going out to a two-year-old that's sick stroke ill with an apparent toxic ingestion of medication if the child has swallowed a dangerous substance they need to act fast [Applause] [Music] the problem is with kids they compensate so they can present quite normal and quite happy when in reality they're actually quite bully darren and ash arrive quickly and spot a family waiting for them is that them there you think that looks like they're waiting for us hello mom hello what you've been up to well you've got a nice smile haven't you took a tablet oh what type of tuesday two-year-old aria has taken one of mamsara's maximum strength migraine tablets they said she's just over on the pausing scale who did your contacts with one on one and the doctor and they've done a toxicology thing they've done like a top space yeah they said it was just over okay we'll do some observations in the first time bring your bag with any kind of overdose if we can get there within an hour they can be taken to hospital and they can have a charcoal drink which stops the absorption from the lining of their stomach would should be all right up with their one of our child strains on dosages are different for children so they're more easily to have an overdose of a drug um at an adult dose so it's more important for us to get there quickly to get them to a e and to get it all stopped and we definitely know she's taken yeah because that was um a free pack and as i went to the toilet come back and then she took one out and they smell strongly of orange and smelted on her breath aria might be all smiles now but she needs to get to hospital as the negative effects from the medication could kick in at any time has she been sick at all no not sure but she just seemed a bit wobbly on food okay how long ago did she take it uh probably about half an hour now because i literally phoned up straight away before taking arya to hospital darren will need to complete some basic health checks look at your little smile big bang ready what do you mean make sure you listen for the beep ready listen ready go give me thirty six four three six four give me the beep beep yeah so far it appears the medication hasn't had any effect on the happy toddler right we'll get off okay is your tummy hurting at all your belly hurting it is did it hurt down here oh it tickles down there yeah do you feel sick at all oh are you are you gonna say yeah to everything right this is my torch keep looking at me there you go and that one you're being good really am yeah you're gonna get a badge when you get back into the hospital aren't you [Music] everything's looking all right at the moment it's nice and it's not too bad so she's not exactly um presenting as having any effects on their subjects at the moment yeah all right if we want to do some blood tests on here and to see if there's any been absorbed [Music] although it's been a frightening experience for arya's mum the two-year-old has loved her trip in the ambulance it looks like she's had a lucky escape who's that daddy i've lost my torch i think she's got it are you keeping you keeping with his torch [Music] are you ready [Music] he's a very very happy little girl wasn't he yeah it's always a good sign if he can entertain him yeah it's one of those that the mother admitted that she got into the handbag and took this tablet it's important about making sure that all the medication is out of reach of small children because to children they look like sweets and they smell like they smell like sweets [Music] this is the worst one i was in the bathroom right brushing my teeth there's mirror in front of me a little wall here door here and as i'm walking around i see this massive spider on the wall probably would have been about this far away from my head while i was brushing my teeth next to the door for us ran back i was like i can't escape i can't get out the door i looked at the window there's a tiny window it's probably about that big i was like can i get out that window probably can't gather what i did was i took the shower curtain off kind of wrapped myself in the shower curtain ran to the door opened the lock and then ran out the door again i just took the shower curtain back i can't handle it [Music] [Music] it's five o'clock in the evening and michelle mcnulty and hannah simkins are coming to the end of their 12-hour shift they've been crewmates for nearly two years it is a 62 year old male who is either fitting or has recently had a fit across the whole of the uk the nhs treats over 600 000 patients [Music] slow down epilepsy affects different people in different ways for the crew there's no way of knowing what condition their patient will be in hello hello hello hello right then what's been happening then it started tea time but this afternoon he keeps doing this distorting his face okay and his eyes i know he's gonna go into one it's up and tell right but he has got a cold she's doing it now look he had stopped but i have to get you out because you nearly died with him at all the while two days so i have to get you to hang out okay i've been told not to leave him yeah it's not like anybody else in the past a mild infection had triggered melvin's seizures escalating so badly they became life-threatening now he's showing the same symptoms and his wife janine is terrified and how long do you say it's been going on for today since that four o'clock four o'clock this afternoon okay we have these petty mouths not bottled face a petty mouth also known as an absent seizure is a brief loss of consciousness that should last just a few seconds janine has kept a log of all of melvin's seizures wednesday just said what we call the petty valves okay is it about yesterday you say that he's had full tonic clonic seizures though in the past where his whole body's shaking it was difficult with melvin because he was having pessimal seizures in as much as he'd got sort of facial twitches his wife who obviously knew him quite well and monitors his condition quite well we're saying he has these small seizures and then they develop into something bigger and we could have something developing that obviously we don't know about so these crosses when he's had a fit and has he been to the hospital these times where he's had he's numerous yeah you didn't do very well in january did you how long did the petty mouth last then usually not long about two seconds but this is going on and on this one yeah just continually died with this melvin's epilepsy can be triggered by something as ordinary as catching a cold or feeling stressed being this vulnerable means his life is always at risk right it's going to go tight on your arm we've got two types of epilepsy one that janine is a full-time carer for her husband melvin's health is a constant worry for her what infection it was did they that's why then you died right so if it has a cold sore throat or headache i've got to ring you straight away okay melvin's seizures are becoming more frequent the pressure is now on to get him treated as soon as possible to prevent any risk of potential brain damage you had your lunch today suddenly melvin starts having another seizure you've got any dinner or anything but all right all right you're fine okay hannah and michelle make the decision to take him to hospital to be urgently investigated when was the last time that you knew melvin had this benefits in a row like this well when he was ill in january yeah yeah and that was the last time you know the way jeanine's helped melvin through his seizures for 30 years activated but with two serious episodes in the past few months this is a worrying time for them both we're gonna put the blue lights on to get through but it was also quite busy when we were there last time so just to make sure that there's someone that can have a look at you straight away melvin all right hannah needs to warn the hospital they're on their way with a patient having a seizure [Music] they're 14 miles away and she wants to make sure the doctors will be ready and waiting [Music] but the line's busy she can't get [Music] through [Music] hannah gets through and reports all they need to know to prepare for melvin's arrival hello i've got an inform for you i have a 62 year old male [Music] who is a known epileptic [Music] he's been having petty male seizures uh since four o'clock this afternoon he normally has like two or three a day and he's basically been having them constantly now for the last two hours no no no no it's like cluster petty metals is probably the best way that i can put it they're probably happening four times a minute they last for about 10 seconds each tree's having like three to four a minute if that makes sense melvin will be under the care of the a and e doctors who for now can take away some of the strain and responsibility from his wife janine it's the middle of a busy evening shift for paramedic hannah meredith and technician luca baron stand down and they've just found time for a quick break strawberry crunch but their snack is going to have to wait we've got another job right [Music] and we've got a 44 year old male by the name of richard who has fallen off a ladder and he's hurt his head is wrist his leg and his chest the incident happened at the tail end of a children's birthday party and seven minutes later hannah and luca arrive to gatecrash it laughing that's good [Music] richard i'm hannah and this is luca what's happened um ball was on top of the shadow put the ladders on gone up come to them how high were you up the ladder and what did you land on yeah we'll give you a full top to toe then shall we are you feeling like a bit of a tool right now it yeah just chaos i think would be your word for it out of chaos initially when that call come through we thought that it could have been quite a serious injury and then when we were kind of greeted with a load of people that were just taking the absolute mick out of him for what he'd done it kind of like brought the whole thing just back down to an easier level and obviously we knew then that it wasn't as serious as we thought it might have potentially have been he might be putting on a brave face but richard's in real pain and there's still a risk he sustained a serious injury hannah needs to check his back neck and arm that's good right next bit wrist can you move it yeah so where's it hurting the most across there sunday so we do yeah yeah that'll be the that'll be the part right there yeah okay what about your chest you've just bashed it oh look you nearly cut your nipple [Music] and it's just you're like yeah yeah i've gone through three wipes to clean it so i'm gonna give that a little cleanup for you all right keeping a careful eye on proceedings is richard's eight-year-old son jack hello yeah he's fine don't worry sorry it's gonna sting a little bit let's give it a little clean we're just cleaning anymore it was jack's joint birthday party with older sister sarah that his dad accidentally interrupted you're right daddy's fine daddy's okay he's all right unless he says i don't want to call you guys it's easy as well as autism jack also suffers from epilepsy and is no stranger to ambulances [Music] feeling until that's probably the best description that accidents happening in it actually what's happening just gave way you know i know i've put a few pound on but not that much i didn't think so the leg might look worse but hannah's main worry is still richard's wrist [Music] you have got tenderness over one of the bones so it might be worth getting an x-ray on that um just to make sure because you're falling for quite a height as well so it's possible that you could have got a stress fracture on one of the small bones in your hand richard might be taking it in his stride but that's not the case for jack after his own call out earlier in the week the presence of the ambulance and uniformed paramedics is making him worry about his dad [Music] so only he's a precaution just here's a little picture of his hands you're staying here with your sister i'm gonna go with daddy your friends are still here all right there's nothing to worry about okay [Music] i need you to be really good for sarah yes coming okay so when sarah needs to put your pajamas on okay pajamas in bed okay deal children who've got autism find situations like that quite hard and quite stressful obviously he wasn't really really concerned for his dad he thought obviously seeing an ambulance meant that you know something really bad was going on and he could see the blood on his dad's leg and thought you know that he's going to be really poorly to put jack at ease hannah and luca suggest he checks he's happy with the transportation they're laying on for his dad jump in then go i'm coming i'm with you darling there's a special button you have to press to put all the lights on can you show me how you prep go on then so the buttons all the way up the top up there so you have to press that button there to turn the lights on that's it see you turn the lights on now [Music] can you turn the lights off right come on [Music] one two three satisfied jack agrees to let dad go with mum wendy and hannah and luca [Music] okay i'm good when you are just about come on daddy stop worrying everything's fine okay you can't darling we'll stay with you go and play so we might even put your new swing ball up for you all right we'll be back in a bit okay okay and i've got my phone got my phone all right all right i will read you though i'll bring you in a bit i promise we won't be long okay love you well this will be a memorable party won't it i bet you anything next year will be oh do you remember last year and the ambulance turned off definitely provided us with some entertainment [Music] let's hope it's not broken otherwise that'll be another thing for them to rip you for [Music] at nine o'clock forty minutes after they gate crashed the party hannah and luca arrive at the hospital where richard can finally get his wrist x-rayed and give jack that phone call kim who was suffering with severe abdominal pain was kept in hospital overnight and given even larger doses of morphine she was able to fly to south africa four days later but has continued to have the pains she's waiting to see a specialist to find out what's going on bonnie who was having a severe asthma attack on the morning of her english gcse arrived just in time to sit it since then she's been back in hospital with another asthma attack but the good news is she got a b in english and is now at college studying applied sciences [Music] toddler area worried her mom after taking one of her maximum strength migraine tablets she was kept under observation in hospital for four hours fortunately she suffered no ill effects from the pill and was able to go home with her mum melvin who was rushed into a d after a series of fits had an even worse episode the next day he was kept in hospital for three days but wasn't able to go back home immediately as his wife jeanine was in hospital herself with pneumonia they're now finally back at home together doing what they do best looking after each other richard who fell off a ladder had fractured a bone in his wrist he needed a cast which meant he couldn't go swimming or cycling with jack as usual unfortunately the bone still hasn't healed up and richard may need surgery but he's pleased the cast is off and that he and jack can get back in the swimming pool [Music] you