Heartbreaking scenes in the latest episode of the BBC's Ambulance documentary - focussing on the North East Ambulance Service - saw paramedics called to help a young woman who'd "slipped through the cracks" and was sleeping rough after escaping domestic violence.
The woman, just 19, was sleeping under an underpass in Newcastle. The ambulance were called as she was in pain due to nerve damage in her legs. She had left hospital a fortnight earlier.
As NHS paramedic Chris Kirkbride and crewmate Iqra rushed to attend - having chipped ice from the vehicle on a freezing morning - they both reflected on having attended call-outs to look after this woman before. When they arrived the woman told her story. She said she had been sleeping rough for "about a year or two" and had turned to the streets after leaving care.
