A tiny baby rushed to the RVI, a heart-breaking miscarriage and fears for 100-year-old Doris in Heaton all featured in Thursday's harrowing episode of the BBC's Ambulance TV series.
The latest series of the show is focussing on the North East Ambulance Service and episode four saw tears and trauma over a busy winter weekend for the ambulance service. Paramedic Joseph Picola and clinical care assistant Hayley Robertson were in the thick of a series of difficult storylines.
The pair shared with each other how much trusting your crewmate can help ambulance service staff through the hardest of calls. In the episode, their first call sees them unable to help someone who has fallen from a Quayside bridge, before they were almost immediately called to a touch-and-go incident with a small baby in Walker.
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After the panic required in rushing the unwell baby to the RVI, where the paediatric team at A&E then took over, Hayley, 28, was shown reflecting on her work partnership with Joseph. She spoke movingly about how, on a previous shift together, they had gone to a category one - the most serious of calls - for her own grandfather.
She said: "It's a difficult thing to find a crewmate you feel 100% comfortable with.
"It's a special thing when you find it. I was on a shift in Newcastle and we heard the call for a category 1. As soon as Joe knew it was my granddad he was like 'we're going'. Joe did absolutely everything he could do for my granddad that night."
At the end of the episode it was revealed that Hayley has since sought support for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), which is not uncommon among ambulance service personnel. During the weekend, the pair also looked after 100-year-old Doris - who still enjoys tonic wine. Her story ended more happily as the ambulance crew were able to organise for her GP to care for her at home.
A Blucher-based team of Shumel Rahman and Perry White were also called to a devastating incident whereby pregnant Kim suffered a second miscarriage - she had been expecting twins but neither baby survived pregnancy. "Paramedic" Shumel comforted the woman by reflecting on how he had himself experienced the pain of miscarriage in his family.
The show also features call-outs to cases involving a "frequent caller" who the paramedics discuss has fallen through "gaps in the [health] service" and is struggling with their mental health - while another man in his late 80s needed care as his Parkinson's worsened.
At the end of the episode, the team-members all reflected on the strains of their job. Shumel said: "There are also jobs that'll stick with you. That you play over in your mind." He added: "You can't fix everything, but you can help that person, that family, to cope and to deal with that trauma."
Shown driving back to base and soundtracked by Sam Fender's The Dying Light, Hayley added: "People are suffering, I see it daily at work. And it's all ages. Everyone in different ways. One thing that helped me is remembering why I got into the ambulance service - and all the people that we help."
The end of the episode reveals Hayley has sought mental health support and would "urge others to do so". Reflecting on the shows he added: "What you see of me in the show is a very vulnerable woman who was going through a tough time but I hope that by showing the struggle, people feel they are not alone and can get help too."
According to Mind, 77% of ambulance services workers note that their mental health has declined since the beginning of the pandemic. NEAS highlighted the support it offers its staff, which includes counselling, and a peer support system for those to have experienced trauma called "Trauma Risk Management". The Ambulance Staff Charity also supports the mental health of those on the front line.
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