999: On the Front Line

A woman at home is in the advanced stages of labour. The paramedics plan to head to hospital but when her waters suddenly break and she gets the urge to push, they're forced to think again. A man has a painful urine infection. He's a diabetic and in agony with very high blood sugar levels. A 14-month-old is choking and won't feed.

What sounds like a routine job is anything but when the paramedics find a man having a life-threatening diabetic hypo. He's fallen down a flight of stairs and is wedged against his front door. It takes the efforts of the fire service to reach the patient, and the only way is up a ladder and through an upstairs window. A woman with dangerously low oxygen levels is struggling to breathe.

On the night shift, the emergencies can be very different to those faced by paramedics during the day. In Worcester, they're called to reports of a man unconscious in the town centre. A friend says he's been taking drugs, so they quickly get him on to the ambulance. Unfortunately, some of his friends want to come too.

A car collides with two children walking home from school. Two ambulances including a doctor, and a critical care paramedic are sent to the scene. When an epileptic man has back-to-back seizures, his carer calls 999. He used to have a high-powered job, but his epilepsy has robbed him of his career. A woman is in agony with severe back pain.

The paramedics will tell you every day's a school day. That's certainly the case when they're called to a rare and unusual stomach condition that's left a patient in agony. On the night shift a young man is intoxicated and passed out in the street. An elderly man has fallen at home and can't get back up.

Taking the dogs for a walk ends badly when a woman gets tangled up in her their leads. Lapsing in and out of consciousness is not how she envisaged spending her 45th wedding anniversary. A man is in severe pain with an umbilical hernia and while at work, a woman has a suspected seizure.

With increased pressure on the service, the call assessors need to make split second decisions on who should get help. But some callers are regulars who know how to play the system. Tonight, a man makes repeated calls claiming to be having a heart attack. He lives near the hospital and in the past has used an ambulance as a taxi to get him home.

A woman's face is visibly drooped on one side, and she can't raise her arm. The paramedics suspect she may be having a stroke, a time critical emergency. A teenager is complaining of pain in her side and is finding it difficult to breathe. It could be a kidney infection or a sign of something more serious. A young woman has had a seizure.