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First Timers on the Frontline - Season 1 - Episode 01
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00:07It's one of the most pressurised jobs in the world.
00:15Becoming a paramedic is not for the faint-hearted.
00:24Each year, the National Ambulance Service College welcomes around 90 new hopefuls to their
00:31campuses in Dublin, Ballinasloe, Tullamore and Cork.
00:34These people here are going to be your absolute backup for the next three years.
00:40But not everyone makes it true.
00:47Because this is no ordinary degree course.
00:51Where are you going to go?
00:52It's cardiac.
00:57These students are out in ambulances across the country.
01:00999 mode activated.
01:04Learning on real emergency calls.
01:07Here, here, here. It's over there.
01:11Would every shift a crash course encourage?
01:14It doesn't get any harder than this.
01:17Resilience.
01:17Lift.
01:18And critical decision making.
01:20We have a device that brings the bones back into place, but it's going to cause them to
01:23scream.
01:24Big deep breath for me.
01:25The exams on this course aren't just a pass or fail.
01:30Why did I sign up for this?
01:32They're a potential matter of life.
01:34Are you going to wake up for me?
01:35Or death.
01:36We're not breathing.
02:04999 mode activated.
02:07First year paramedic student Rebecca is on a week long placement as an observer, joining
02:12experienced crew Cuiva and Greg on the road for the very first time.
02:17Rebecca will go to a 35 year old male, don't try to get on scene, the patient isn't breathing
02:22for themself, so they're doing assistive ventilation.
02:27I'm literally in the college two weeks and ran our way to a man who is not breathing on
02:33his own, it means assistive breathing, which is like the way this cookie crumbs, especially
02:37this week because you are just following a crew on their normal calls, so you could get
02:40anything, it's not like they filter it out for students.
02:43For Rebecca, who only has two weeks of basic training in college under her belt, attending
02:48a call like this will be a serious step up.
02:51Just go through like airway management and that, just have a look at that CPG, just have
02:55a little flick through it, alright?
02:58People are just telling me to quickly look at the airway management CPG to just, just literally
03:07a quick glance.
03:15For Rebecca coming on obviously she had no background experience in any sort of medical care so everything
03:20was absolutely new to her and it is, a lot of it is learned on the job.
03:24You can do so much in college, you can read so much, but most of it is your skill practice
03:29and actually bringing it forward, it's like an apprenticeship.
03:37Oh here!
03:41When we stepped off the ambulance, because of my lack of medical training, I was kind of
03:48like a deer in headlights, but trying my best not to look like a deer in headlights, so I
03:53wanted to be helpful but not get in the way.
03:57Did somebody walk by you see him with us?
04:15Somebody from Dublin Fire Brigade came up to me and started listing off the vitals that
04:19he had taken.
04:20So I was making a slow assessment in my head that nothing was standing out to me.
04:25Patient was on oxygen but he was doing okay so we were able to get him into the back of
04:30the ambulance, we'll go in, we'll get him comfortable, we'll keep him monitored and we'll bring him
04:34to the hospital.
04:36Hey guys did you get sugars by any time?
04:38Yeah, sugars 6.9.
04:39Brilliant.
04:40Thanks a million.
04:47Are you going to wake up for me?
04:48It was at that point we realised that we were getting no reaction from him.
04:53We're not breathing.
04:55I was tuning in and I was listening to what Greg and Quiva were saying and I was getting
04:59the gist that something was deteriorating and was going wrong.
05:04He was no longer breathing on his own but initially everybody else in the room knew that
05:16he had to ride it.
05:19In Wexford second year intern paramedic Nathan is on shift with advanced paramedic Paddy.
05:34They've been called out to an incident where a child has had a fall and suffered a suspected
05:39leg fracture.
05:40So the call came in and it was to a 13 year old boy who had slipped and was in
05:46kind of
05:46fairly substantial 10 out of 10 pain.
05:50Hardly, hardly a femur.
05:53Imagine midshot femur.
05:54Can't be.
05:55I haven't actually had a midshot femur yet.
05:57Neither have I.
05:58Have you not?
05:59Never.
06:01So when we arrived on scene, the child was on the ground and was kind of holding his leg
06:05up and he was in like serious pain.
06:12You could hear him screaming as we were driving in.
06:17How are you Ryan?
06:18What happened?
06:19I slipped.
06:20You slipped?
06:21OK.
06:22Where's the pain?
06:23On my leg.
06:24The right leg is it?
06:25No.
06:26OK.
06:27Have you been able to move your leg at all?
06:29No.
06:29OK.
06:30Can I have a look?
06:3013 year old Ryan was enjoying a holiday with his granddad William when he fell.
06:35Nathan and Paddy now need to get his pain under control before attempting to move him
06:40to the ambulance.
06:41Ah, my leg.
06:43I have your leg.
06:44Your leg isn't going anywhere.
06:44Can you hold it with two hands?
06:46I can't.
06:50I can't move it.
06:52OK, OK.
06:54All right.
06:55So, can you do me a favor?
06:57All right.
06:57I want you to bite down on this for me.
06:59All right.
07:00I want you to wrap your lips around it.
07:01And I want you to inhale like you're about to blow out your birthday candle.
07:05It's not that kind of inhale?
07:07Is that working for you?
07:09Yeah.
07:10When you hear kids screaming in pain, that's never a nice call.
07:15There's no paramedic will, or anybody who works pre-hospitaly or even in hospital,
07:19will tell you that they enjoy hearing a child screaming like that in pain.
07:23Now, I want you to point exactly where the pain is.
07:27All over your leg.
07:30Yeah?
07:31Yeah?
07:32OK.
07:32Yeah.
07:33Right, big deep breath.
07:34I'm going to get my colleague to give you something stronger pain relief wise, OK?
07:38Kids tend to deal with pain an awful lot worse than adults.
07:40They tend to, they don't always tell you where the pain is straight away.
07:44And then again, being a parent, there's that kind of, Jesus, if this was one of my kids as well.
07:52I just know deep down that I just, I hate the paediatric calls because they're just that much harder to
08:01deal with sometimes.
08:02Come here for a second now.
08:04Big deep breath in.
08:05Bite down on this for me.
08:06No, no.
08:07Ryan?
08:10Right.
08:10I'm just going to try and straighten this.
08:15Do all this.
08:16Try and look.
08:19No, it's OK.
08:20It's OK.
08:26It's OK.
08:27No.
08:30OK then, kiddo.
08:31We're going to get you up off the ground, OK?
08:34Not only did we have to move him from the door outside to the kind of little kind of alleyway
08:39that we were in,
08:40we also needed to get him onto a combi board and get him lifted up and onto the stretcher and
08:46then into the ambulance.
08:47There was quite a lot of movement that needed to be done.
08:49Our goal is to get them as pain free as possible by the fastest method possible.
08:56Unfortunately, to get him into a better position and to get his injured limb into a better position,
09:03we had to cause him a little bit more pain and a little bit more movement.
09:07Get ready.
09:08One, two.
09:12That's it.
09:13Well done, kiddo.
09:14Hearing him scream from just without us touching him and without us moving him was hard enough to listen to.
09:21Hearing him scream when we were moving him.
09:26This one.
09:27This one.
09:27This one.
09:28Your left leg.
09:29Bend it for me.
09:30I can't.
09:31Why can't you?
09:33I can't.
09:34It's sore for this one.
09:36It's sore up there, is it?
09:38Yeah.
09:39OK.
09:39You'd want to be fairly made of stone for it not to affect you, I think.
09:44One, two.
09:46Ah!
09:49Now, just like.
09:50I can't.
09:51Let me back.
09:52OK.
09:52I have you.
09:56Now, let go of my arm.
09:57Let go of my arm.
09:58That's it.
10:00Well done.
10:00Well done.
10:01Well done.
10:02Well done.
10:02Well done.
10:02Well done, kiddo.
10:04Well done.
10:10Back in Dublin, the unconscious male found on the street has deteriorated and is suddenly
10:15in respiratory arrest.
10:17Rebecca, so squeeze that bag for me.
10:19One.
10:21And one.
10:2286 seconds.
10:28I could only go off the reactions of the others in the back, that something was going wrong.
10:34All of a sudden people started moving much quicker, you know, directions became clearer
10:38and we need to assist him breathing.
10:41One, two, three, four, five, six.
10:45We'd done work with the BVM, bag valve mask, which is to support the airway.
10:50And that is the only kind of piece of equipment I was trained on.
10:54OK, ETCO2 coming back up.
10:58We got Rebecca involved because she was an extra set of hands and she was able to take
11:02direction.
11:03And in those moments, if you give somebody a job like that, they're fantastic at performing
11:09because that's all that she can think about.
11:11So I want you to keep watching this chest.
11:13OK.
11:13So put your hand on the chest.
11:14Yeah.
11:15So we're belly breathing.
11:16OK.
11:17That drops below 10, I want to know.
11:19OK.
11:19Keep the oxygen on.
11:20OK.
11:21Yeah.
11:21Like this.
11:26Start doing it for me.
11:27Yeah.
11:27Back on it for me.
11:29Pressure's still holding that 138 over 92.
11:33That'll be four seconds.
11:35Yeah.
11:36Four.
11:38When you're dealing with these kind of scenarios, you don't want to be panicking and overly
11:43emotional and thinking about it too much in the moment because it's only got to give
11:47more room for error.
12:03In Wexford, intern paramedic Nathan is on scene where a 13 year old boy has fallen, causing
12:10a suspected leg break.
12:12Good man.
12:16Can I have a proper look just here for a second?
12:19Just want to have a feel up here.
12:28Right there.
12:30Once we got him into the ambulance, we were kind of querying a mid-shaft femur fracture,
12:34so somewhere along his femur was broken.
12:38And for the age of the child, that's exceptionally painful to break.
12:45We think he may have done the actual femur itself,
12:47so we have a device that brings the bones back into place
12:50and it'll stop a lot of the pain and should hopefully stop a lot of the swelling from happening,
12:54but it's going to cause him to scream.
12:55All right, we're going to give him some medication to try and limit the pain,
12:58but just to be aware...
13:00That'll be done before you go to the hospital.
13:01Before we're going to do it right now.
13:09How tall are you?
13:11I don't know.
13:13If you had to guess how tall you think you are.
13:15Five-five.
13:16Five-five.
13:17That's a pretty good guess for somebody who didn't know.
13:19So a traction splint, effectively what it is,
13:22it's quite a long pole with three Velcro straps.
13:25And what it does is it straps to the patient's foot and applies traction,
13:30so it pulls the bones to where they're meant to be.
13:33And that in itself can be a massive form of relief for patients.
13:41Ow!
13:42Big deep breath for me.
13:44Hard as you can.
13:45Don't lift my leg!
13:46Please!
13:47We're going to make your leg better.
13:48We're going to make it much better.
13:50And while Nathan has trained for this exact scenario in college,
13:53this is his first time ever using the equipment on a real patient.
13:57That's it.
13:58Good job.
13:58You're doing a really good job.
14:00For me, the last time I used a traction splint was in my mega-osky,
14:03so it took me a minute to remember how to use it because I hadn't been using it.
14:13I don't bleed!
14:19I'm sorry, Ryan. I'm sorry.
14:21Why was I getting that?
14:22He's just outside.
14:23We're just going to get him in now in just a sec.
14:34That minute straight after the traction splint was applied,
14:37when he wasn't screaming in pain,
14:39was probably the best part of the whole call because
14:43we had gone from screaming at everything
14:46to now we were able to chat with him.
14:51Thank you, Minigo. It's so pretty.
14:54I'm on TV.
14:56You're on TV. How you doing?
14:58Yeah.
14:59I think I'm higher than a plane, though.
15:03You're higher than a plane?
15:05Yeah.
15:07Part of me knew that he's going to probably spend some time in hospital
15:11that's going to be a little bit of a slow recovery.
15:16I'm not sure what plans he had, but I'd imagine he's probably not going to be playing soccer
15:20or swimming on the beach or anything any time soon.
15:22So, yeah, they'd probably put a bit of a dampener on his plans for the rest of the year.
15:49In Dublin...
15:50You doing okay?
15:51First-year student paramedic Rebecca is assisting.
15:54Can I get access into both my room, please? Over.
15:56As a man found unconscious on the street is rushed to hospital.
15:59Approximately 35-year-old male, GCS at three here, currently being assisted ventilation.
16:05This call in particular would show you that a standard call, any call, can change very, very quickly.
16:11What needed to be done was a more advanced airway was placed to help this patient breathe.
16:17It was Rebecca's task then to help with the BVM.
16:20It was a vital skill that was needed to get that patient to the hospital.
16:25And, yes, she did really well on it.
16:27Even in that scenario, you know, you become kind of separated between
16:31the patient being a person and then the scenario at hand.
16:35You kind of have to just separate your emotions and how you feel about it and treat what you see.
16:43Can you open your eyes for me?
16:46Can you open your eyes?
16:49You're in an ambulance, OK? We're bringing you to the hospital.
16:54As we just pulled into the hospital then is when we got a, I suppose, positive reaction from the patient
16:59that his GCS was increasing, which is always something we like to see.
17:06Hey, hey, hey, you're all right.
17:10An odd little sit-up but straight back down.
17:16This is where you stand.
17:17OK.
17:18You're all right.
17:19OK. Lie back there, good man.
17:21We knew that the patient would be going in to reach us and that he'd be met by a team
17:24of nurses and doctors.
17:26But it was great to be able to go in and give, I suppose, a handover that things were starting
17:33to improve for the patient and hopefully continue to improve after we left.
17:37Are you happy there?
17:38Yeah, I'm happy here.
17:42You know, are you pushing? I'm just going to take over that for you, OK?
17:46Is that fair enough?
17:47Yeah, that's fair enough. Thank you.
17:49When we got to the hospital, we saw him begin to breathe on his own again.
17:53And even, like, I remember one of the nurses said, you know, you have helped, he's now breathing on his
17:58own.
18:00You know, a lot of the time you leave a patient and you've no idea what's going to happen to
18:05them after the fact that you've dropped them off at the hospital.
18:08It's not the people that you know have passed or have died, you know, it's the people who you're unsure
18:15about and you hope that they'll improve, but you've no way of kind of following up on them a lot
18:20of the time.
18:22I was just focused on the task, like, give me a job to do and I'll do it and I
18:26won't notice anything that else is going on in the room.
18:29And it was perfect.
18:30Oh, she was fantastic. Your communication with patients, with staff, with everybody we met was brilliant.
18:36You didn't shy away from anything, you know, that we asked you to do. You jumped straight in. It was
18:41brilliant.
18:41And you're just absolutely fly it.
18:52Obviously, the first year of being a student paramedic is quite tough, especially when you're on placement.
18:59You know, you're going to different calls every day and they just can sometimes really, you know, throw you off
19:06if it's something a bit crazy and wild.
19:09How was it?
19:11Mad, but good.
19:13I'm still living at home. It's quite difficult to buy a house in Dublin at 23, but, you know, I'm
19:20trying.
19:21Some of them were just kind of your calls that you expect. And then there was one, like, our last
19:27one was kind of a bit more tense.
19:31Okay.
19:32It was out near Swords Village and there was a man who just came in as unconscious.
19:40It's great to have my mum at home. Obviously, she's able to relate to some of the problems I have.
19:46And was he okay in the end?
19:48Well, when we left him, he was in better condition than when we found him. But I got to get
19:53involved a bit with the BVM.
19:56Oh, well done. Yeah.
19:58But Deirdre's interest is more than just offering tea and sympathy because she's also studying for her paramedic degree.
20:05So I'm two years ahead of Rebecca. I started in 2023. She started in 2025. So I know, I knew
20:14the year one that she was going to have and I explained to her how tough it was going to
20:17be.
20:17And I know how hard the next two years are going to be. But I'll, I'll be there hopefully to
20:22guide her through it. And hopefully she'll, she'll get through it. Okay.
20:28You know, I was kind of just trying to help with what I could, like one of the DFB paramedics
20:33was there and he started telling me any kind of vitals that they'd taken.
20:36So I was just writing them down on my glove. I didn't even know what any of them meant, but
20:39I was just writing them down on my glove.
20:41And, uh, I swear I know what I'm doing. Yeah. Yeah. Like it doesn't, I was just knew I was
20:47gonna say like, this is my first day.
20:48And then I was like, no, do you know what? Just let them tell me the information and I'll write
20:51it down.
20:52Obviously with us both being in the same job, there's a high probability, the probability that the two of us
20:57would be on a ship together, you know, and it would be really exciting.
21:03And, and I think it would be really enjoyable to do it.
21:10With two years of the course behind her, Deirdre now works on shift rotation as a full-time paramedic while
21:17finishing her degree.
21:18Oh, cardiac arrest coming in. Dolly mount.
21:22Yeah.
21:24So we were tasked to a nine echo one, which comes in as cardiac arrest.
21:30It's the one we all dread when the screen goes purple.
21:33Immediately the adrenaline just goes up, but it doesn't stop the fear.
21:38And you know, the anxiety when you're going to it.
21:41We need an address. Is it on the beach?
21:43I know.
21:43Like two entrances to Dolly mount.
21:49There's a few things run through your mind is, you're gonna have people watching you.
21:52This guy might be alone. So what happens isn't even a cardiac arrest.
21:57It might be just an unconscious male.
22:02Where are we going?
22:05You haven't seen any crowds of people anywhere, sir, have you?
22:08Initially, when we got there, we had been given information as to where the patient was.
22:13When we arrived there, the patient wasn't in the location.
22:17Just can't find...
22:21They told us the patient was 50 yards away.
22:24Here, here, here, here.
22:28Okay.
22:29But it was much further than 50 yards away, you know, probably about 200 yards.
22:34So that's hugely frustrating for us when we're trying to get to the patient.
22:41Despite location issues, Deirdre and Greg are the first crew on scene.
22:46Taken over from bystanders and community first responders who have already commenced CPR.
22:52When you turn up at a cardiac arrest, the first thing you're doing is confirming that the patient is in
22:56cardiac arrest.
22:56That there's no breathing, there's no pulse.
22:58We did that immediately.
22:59Then you're straight onto the chest.
23:01You're keeping the compressions going while someone else is getting the machine on and getting the pads ready to go
23:07on.
23:08The pads are on.
23:10Is everyone clear?
23:12Have you left that shears there?
23:13That was 1725.
23:15Right, first shock in.
23:17One of the difficult things in that arrest was the delivering of the shocks because we were in such a
23:22confined space and there was so many people around the patient.
23:26Clear.
23:28Second shock in at 1727.
23:31When you're delivering the shocks and someone's on the airway, you're making sure that everybody is hands off.
23:36That's flying in there.
23:38Mark, is that okay? It's in.
23:40Do you want an extension?
23:42Timing is vital when we land on scene.
23:46I'd say it was about a minute that I then got over to the patient following Deirdre and Greg and
23:53I started making advanced interventions.
23:55We'll give them drug therapy and a fluid challenge as well to see what this assists with reviving the patient.
24:03Okay, escalating going up.
24:05Stand clear.
24:06Greg, that was third shock.
24:08Yeah, yeah.
24:0925, 27 and 29.
24:10Yeah, it tells me three shocks there.
24:11It's recorded on the machine.
24:13Do you keep an eye on the times, Greg?
24:15Yeah.
24:15Yeah, we'll do a rhythm check in 30 seconds.
24:18Good.
24:20What are we getting?
24:22That's a change I've written there, guys.
24:24Looks like an organisation.
24:25Have we got a pulse?
24:40On Dollymount Strand, Deirdre and the team are continuing to work on the man who's had a suspected cardiac arrest.
24:48It was a really, really hot day.
24:51Everybody was out enjoying themselves.
24:52The beach was full.
24:54We were on a sand dune behind them.
24:56There was people sunbathing.
24:57They didn't realise this was going on.
25:01Doing CPR is exhausting.
25:07Someone recently said, how long can someone give good quality CPR?
25:12And I believe it was like 40 seconds.
25:15It's that tiring.
25:16It's really, really hard work doing good, hard compressions.
25:21So we got the Lucas on, which is a fabulous piece of equipment that we have.
25:25And it gives artificial compressions at the rate that we're wanted to and at the pressure that we needed to
25:31do.
25:32Will we just do this really quickly?
25:33Yeah.
25:33Yeah.
25:34Are we prepared to lift?
25:35Lift.
25:38So once we had the airway managed, the Lucas was running, it was then the decision to try and get
25:43him out of there.
25:46We carried him back from the sand dunes, which proved difficult as well, with the footing that was under us
25:54and got him back to the amulets.
26:15And this occasion, resuscitation efforts went on for an extended period of time, with advanced life support being provided from
26:23an early, early stage once we, once we arrived.
26:26He's not responding to any of the treatments he's had so far. He's been down nearly 50 minutes.
26:32It's extremely difficult to make the decision to stop resuscitation.
26:39Yeah.
26:40Yeah.
26:41Okay.
26:41Not the outcome we want, but...
26:42Now the decision's made collectively, and if someone has an objection to it, that objection is, is listened to and
26:50taken on board.
26:51It's a really difficult decision because no one wants to give up. And at that stage, there was nothing more
27:01we could do for that patient. We had given him every chance we could considering the circumstances of having the
27:07out of hospital cardiac arrest.
27:25You could be just having the best day ever. And then, you know, feel like you're doing a great job.
27:31I'm not saying we're not doing a great job. It's just, you have to take the highs and the lows.
27:36Sometimes calls do affect you differently. And I would consider myself quite strong most of the time. And I am
27:44very good at leaving the calls at work.
27:47Like a day ending like that was really difficult. He is somebody's brother, uncle, son, you know, and it is
27:57sad because someone's getting a knock on the door this evening to say, you know, they're not coming home. They
28:04went out for a walk and they won't be home tonight.
28:17Pressure to make the grade is a constant part of the paramedic degree course and not everyone makes it. For
28:2421 year old Aoife, it's taken 12 months of hard work and study to make it through her first year.
28:30Welcome to PD23, the passing out ceremony of their year one. Graduates, as you leave, remember that the journey of
28:39a thousand miles begins with one single step.
28:42So be brave, be bold and never stop believing in yourselves. So well done to each and every one of
28:50you.
29:09Graduating first year means Aoife is now out on the road, a second person in a crew of two.
29:20I absolutely love my job. Like, it's my biggest passion I probably have in life. I love how proud everybody
29:26is of me.
29:27I love how, like, my mum and dad would be beam and telling people I'm a paramedic. I like knowing
29:31that I've made my mum and dad proud.
29:33But yeah, I think the main thing is making a difference. Like, I feel like it is a vocation.
29:39It also means an upgrade on her epaulets, from baby blue to a navy stripe denoting her new intern status.
29:47Feel different?
29:49I just feel the responsibility come over me.
29:54Today Aoife is taking her new found sense of responsibility onto the streets of Dublin with advanced paramedic Cuiva.
30:03Aw, seven-year-old female found laying in a hospital gown in garden.
30:08Patients are soaking wet.
30:10Aw, no!
30:16So initially when we got the call, we thought it was a lady that possibly may have slipped outside.
30:21Do you know, we thought initially it was her home.
30:25Hello.
30:27How long have you been outside?
30:29No, I just was here that time.
30:31All night?
30:32Is this your house?
30:33No.
30:33OK.
30:36I think it was sad when we got the call.
30:37Like, I think me and Cuiva's heart broke when we got the call initially to think there was an elderly
30:41lady outside on the floor,
30:42but then to find out it wasn't even her house and that she had just kind of set up camp
30:47there for the night
30:48because she couldn't walk home, I suppose, added that even more.
30:51And how did you end up on the floor? Did you stay here last night?
30:53Yeah, I slept with my shower today.
30:55Yeah?
30:55Not much here.
30:56Yeah.
30:56She was a little bit reluctant at first to engage with us, so it was a very slow kind of
31:01step-by-step little approach.
31:03We could see she was soaked.
31:05She had sleeping bags around her, they were soaked.
31:07She had a buggy and the whole thing was drenched.
31:11We couldn't figure out how long she'd been there.
31:1370-year-old Lester was walking home from Drumcondra to Finglas, a distance of over four kilometres,
31:20when she realised she had lost her house key and became too tired to continue.
31:25We might get you into the ambulance and assess you, is that all right?
31:28Oh, sorry, I'm fine.
31:29Oh, sorry, what do you need to assess me?
31:31Just because you can't.
31:32We think you might have been out all night, have you been?
31:35Yeah, but what do you call it?
31:36As soon as I just get motivated, I'll be grand, I'll just go home.
31:40How are you going to get home?
31:41Yeah, I get my bus home and sometimes I work.
31:43OK, all right.
31:44Like, I'm old school, we don't need a lot of walking in the school.
31:47Yeah.
31:48She didn't have a time frame.
31:50She said she'd been walking, got tired and then her legs had kind of given up on her.
31:56Well, it doesn't bother me.
31:57Will you step me into the ambulance for a minute or we'll just get you dry?
31:59Well, I could do one or two little dry clothes.
32:01Yeah, let's just do that first and we'll see.
32:04She was a tough old cook, you know, she did not complain once the whole time we had her.
32:08But I think it was heartbreaking to see anybody outside sleeping rough.
32:11What's with the gown?
32:13I was in hospital.
32:14You were in the hospital?
32:15Oh!
32:16And what were you in the hospital for?
32:18With my feet and legs.
32:19With the feet and the legs.
32:20What's wrong with them?
32:21Just a bit sore.
32:22Just a bit sore?
32:23I think having that hospital gown on kind of raised suspicions being like,
32:28well, dude, when was she last in hospital?
32:30Is she homeless?
32:31Did she discharge herself?
32:33Did she just leave the hospital?
32:35You don't know.
32:37Right.
32:38Do you think you'll be able to get up if I give you a hand?
32:40Yeah, once I get most of it.
32:42Yeah, that's all.
32:43That's it.
32:43Have you a pair of shoes?
32:45They're all wet.
32:46They're all wet.
32:46OK.
32:47I feel like with our calming approach and we had a lot of patience for a client of
32:53entice her to come into the ambulance.
32:54OK.
32:55Ready?
32:56Steady.
32:57Up.
32:58Now.
32:58Now.
32:59Once I get most of it.
33:00You're all right.
33:01Hang on there a second.
33:02Any dizziness or anything?
33:04No.
33:04Not at all.
33:05We're going to keep asking you silly questions, I'm afraid.
33:08Yeah.
33:09I think in that point it's step by step.
33:11So it's, we're not just whisking you away to a hospital.
33:14Let's get you in.
33:15Let's get you warm.
33:16Let's just look you over.
33:17You kind of build that trust with the patient.
33:19So you're out doing a bit of your shopping.
33:21Yeah.
33:21And then you had a little rest in the spot that we found you.
33:25Mm.
33:26And that means you slept all night.
33:27Yeah.
33:28And it would be, would that be normal for you to not be able to walk home?
33:31What do you mean?
33:32Oh no, sorry, you said you forgot your key.
33:34I didn't like my key was lost.
33:36My key was lost and that's why you ended up there.
33:40And you're not in any pain.
33:41No.
33:41No, no, don't feel short of breath.
33:43No.
33:44But it's all just possibly a bit cold, eh?
33:47Yeah, I suppose I'm old school.
33:48I know, you're just a tough cookie, eh?
33:51It's hard for you.
33:51Yeah, that's it.
33:52So what do you want to do?
33:54Sorry, what do you mean, what do I want to do?
33:56Like, we would like to bring you into the hospital.
33:58No, no.
33:59To get you so much.
34:01Yeah.
34:02I tell you, Esther, the problem is, we now have no clothes for you.
34:08So, I know, but listen to me, you can't walk back out.
34:11It's raining outside, all your stuff is absolutely soaked.
34:14Your shoes are soaked and everything.
34:15You know what about your clothes?
34:16It's all wet.
34:18It's all wet.
34:18It's all wet in the pram.
34:19Yeah, but then better again, can't I get a taxi out of my house?
34:22But listen, what I'm thinking is, if we can bring you in, we'll get all your stuff dried,
34:26and we'll get you a taxi home then.
34:28Bring me in where?
34:29We're going to bring you in just to the Matter Hospital.
34:31I'm not going back there.
34:32I'm sorry, I'm not going back there.
34:34I didn't have a great experience.
34:35I can imagine, but listen.
34:37Sorry, please, I'm, please, lady, I am not going back there.
35:06I'm sorry, I'm not going back there.
35:08I didn't have a great experience.
35:10I can imagine, but listen.
35:11Sorry, please, I'm, please, lady, I am not going back there.
35:15I know she was expressing to us that she wasn't cold and that she was fine and that
35:20everything was okay, but, like, you could see in herself, like, she was, she was rubbing
35:24her hands together.
35:25She had wet clothes on her.
35:27And I just feel like a lot of times with the elderly, they don't want to go to hospital.
35:34Are you supposed to be on any medication?
35:37No, but medication for what?
35:39I'm just wondering, your blood pressure's a little bit high?
35:41Yeah, but it's, like, I don't feel any pain.
35:43No.
35:44If I did, I would tell you.
35:46Yeah, and are you living alone?
35:48Yeah, I live on my own, yeah.
35:50Are you cooking yourself?
35:51Yeah, it's all bits and pieces.
35:53And then when I'm out there, I'm going to work for the home,
35:55and I might buy, um, chicken nuggets and chips and things like that.
35:59Okay, yeah.
36:00I don't like alcohol now, but I smoke.
36:02Yeah, that's fine.
36:03No, I was told off enough.
36:05Right, okay, okay.
36:07You know, an old woman likes to smoke.
36:08Yeah, you're too long in the truth to be told off about that now.
36:10No, but you know what I mean?
36:12I do.
36:14And come here to me, your house is upstairs and downstairs.
36:17Yeah, there's three bedrooms.
36:18Are you able to kind of keep on top of it, keep it clean, keep it warm?
36:22Is it?
36:23See, I don't know which kind of hot water centre these days.
36:26Nothing?
36:27No, about five or six years.
36:28She's looking at me in an evening.
36:30I am.
36:31Yeah.
36:31I said, well, maybe I need a good man at night, but I don't know.
36:37I said, well, what can you do?
36:40Like, this was all the way years ago.
36:42Do you know something?
36:43I know.
36:44She managed to kind of tell us about her home life and that was heartbreaking.
36:49To hear that she was living in a place with no heating, no electricity.
36:55I started to ask her how she's managing.
36:57You know, is she in like a duplex?
36:59Could she get up the stairs with her legs?
37:01I was then becoming very concerned about her actual general welfare.
37:06With all attempts to get Esther to go to hospital failing, the crew asked the guards on scene
37:12to help persuade her.
37:13The matter is closer to your house than here.
37:16Yes, it's fine.
37:17I don't feel you.
37:17I could have to go home.
37:18Yeah.
37:19But it's only to get warm and dry and then the matter can bring you a taxi and get home,
37:23which there's no point going home without having to sort that locksmith because you can't
37:27get in and it's a horrible day out.
37:30What's the problem with the locksmith?
37:32You just have to come and fix the eye pain.
37:33I know, but the locksmith doesn't know where you live, right?
37:36So if you go to the matter...
37:37I told a lady that's going to sell a boat along the way down.
37:42I know, but you've been out there for hours.
37:45She might even be there.
37:46I don't feel cold in that one.
37:48No, I know, but see, sometimes when you get so cold you actually don't feel cold.
37:51So if you go to the matter, they'll ring you a taxi, they'll ring the locksmith for you,
37:54get everything all squared off and we'll get you nice and dry, nice and warm,
37:58get your mum, get the key cut and we'll get you on the back.
38:02All right, and the lads will help you out.
38:05We have all your stuff there, so we're going to bring them to the hospital.
38:09So sometimes, like a fresh face, that kind of thing can also help that situation
38:14and it did in this case, thank God, because then she was more than willing to come with us.
38:19And where do you help the homeless? Is there like a table or just a table?
38:23Sometimes.
38:24It's just not out and about.
38:25Yeah?
38:26Yeah.
38:26It's really a reward in the world.
38:28Yeah, definitely.
38:30It probably gives you a nice feel-good factor as well, knowing that you're making a difference,
38:34isn't it?
38:35I think you define the people that have nothing give everything,
38:37the people that have everything give nothing.
38:39Like, she had little to nothing.
38:40And she was willing to devote her life as such to helping other people.
38:45Yeah, we're just here now, Wester.
38:49It wasn't too bad of a journey, was it?
38:52Yeah.
38:53I thought you, you, you, you, you were, you, you, you seem to need to be expecting me to
38:56die in the doorway.
38:58Yes!
38:59What do you mean?
39:01Expecting you to die?
39:02In the doorway, yeah, with the collar function.
39:04I don't feel it.
39:06You know what I mean?
39:07Oh, my God.
39:09I wasn't expecting you to die.
39:11I said...
39:11What did you say?
39:12You had a felony in the doorway dead.
39:13What would you do?
39:14Oh!
39:16Well, I would've, I would've, I would've tried my best to, to help you.
39:22I think welfare is a massive, like, massive part of our, our daily job.
39:29People not maybe having self-care for them, not being able to self-care for themselves
39:33anymore.
39:33We come across it more than I'd like.
39:35And with those people, like, we could only, we could only do so much.
39:39We're only the first face of, you know, their hospital journey.
39:43So it's really just getting them in and advocating.
39:45And I suppose on our paperwork popping down that they're either a vulnerable patient
39:49or that we're concerned about going home.
39:52Those are definitely the calls that hit home with me, is care of the elderly.
39:58And they just deserve so much respect from us, everything that they've been through
40:02and they've lived their lives.
40:04And they are absolutely the ones that will stick out in my mind.
40:07And the ones that I will think about going forward.
40:10And the ones that, I suppose, raise more emotion in me than others.
40:15Now, let's get you out of the range.
40:17I think as much as that was a heartbreaking call, I think towards the end of it,
40:21or at the end of it, it gave us a feel-good factor.
40:25Just knowing that we had taken her off the streets and as much as we brought her to hospital,
40:29we brought her somewhere that was warm and safe.
40:31Just knowing that you made a difference in someone's life is just great.
40:53In Dublin, third-year student Deirdre and her partner Cillian have been tasked to respond to a different type of
40:59call than usual.
41:00So we were tasked for a helicopter retrieval call.
41:05And we were told to dispatch to the helicopter base at Talavik University Hospital.
41:10Male chest injury between truck bumpers, difficulty breathing in chest pain, GCS 15, artery 102.
41:16This job was for a man who has been flown down after having a workplace accident.
41:22He had had a chest crush injury.
41:28Working in conjunction with the National Ambulance Service,
41:31the Irish Air Corps operate two helicopters with paramedics on board,
41:36able to respond to emergencies all across the country.
41:39So we're tasked by the Emergency Control Centre based in Talavik,
41:43who relayed that they had a patient who had suffered a traumatic crush injury in Virginia and Couty Cavan.
41:48For us, it's a really short flight time, less than 20 minutes to scene.
41:52We had the ability to land in this man's back garden.
41:55Once we made contact, it was obvious what had happened.
41:57He had been working on a truck.
41:59The truck had, Jack had slipped or it had rolled off the support stands
42:03and the truck had landed on his chest.
42:06Luckily, he was able to crawl out from under it and alert people that he needed help.
42:11George, we're just going to put a bit of monitoring back on you, alright?
42:15Now, relax your hand down there.
42:18How's your pain? Do you work my surgery?
42:19Yeah, yeah.
42:20How's your pain?
42:25From the patient's perspective,
42:27he would have taken quite a bit of weight of the truck onto his chest wall.
42:30And again, you know, the chest is described, well, is designed to be,
42:34you know, lots of cartilage, it's designed to be springy.
42:36So it will take it, but obviously I suppose we're more concerned about the organs
42:40and injuries that would take place underneath that you might not necessarily see from the outside.
42:44Was he on any oxygen coming up?
42:45He was just on a little bit, yeah.
42:48Do you want it back on it?
42:49Yeah, it's 95, 94.
42:53Working with other agencies is brilliant.
42:56Like we worked with, we worked with the Coast Guard, we worked with the Air Corps.
43:00So working with them is great and it's an amazing service that's out there.
43:04Care of everything? Yeah.
43:06And for Deirdre, this particular call brings back some very distressing personal memories.
43:13I've had to use the Coast Guard before in 2020 while out walking.
43:18We were hiking with our family and my son Connor, who was seven at the time, fell and had a
43:24really bad injury to his knee.
43:25I was winched up first and then Connor was airlifted with the paramedic and we were flown to Dublin Airport
43:33and then transported by the National Ambulance Service to Temple Street.
43:38So I'd always had a desire to become a paramedic, but I think that time when I saw how everything
43:46worked together,
43:47I was like, yeah, that is pretty cool.
43:58My God, it's unreal, isn't it?
44:00It'll definitely blow the false eyelashes off.
44:29Next time.
44:30Deep breaths, deep breaths, deep breaths.
44:32Okay, Jenny.
44:36Patient assessment wise, you didn't really do one.
44:38I need you to do the assessment, do the clinical diagnosis, then give the clinical hand over.
44:45Did she say how far the guards are?
44:46There's no ETA for them.
44:53With suspicions of an inside connection, Lana upsets her superiors and a disappearance leads to a citywide chase.
45:01The new series of Trigger Point continues Thursday at 9 on Virgin Media Play and 1.
45:25If you've been affected by any of the issues raised in this programme, please visit our support page,
45:31virginmediatelevision.ie forward slash helplines.
45:34We'll see you next time.
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