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Ambulance

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Factual: Health & Wellbeing

Documentary series taking a detailed look at ambulance services.

Life and death decisions on the frontline. From control rooms to the crews on the street, meet the people making sure every second counts.

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Ambulance: Series 3

Christopher Eccleston

Kirsty Cunningham

Simon Ford

Ben Rumney

Chris McLaughlin

Jo Hughes

Dragonfly Film and Television

Ambulance: Series 3: Episode 8

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Episode 8

Series 3

BBC One - Ambulance, Series 3, Episode 8

The emotional toll on the crews called to some of the most troubling cases becomes clear.

Documentary series. West Midlands Ambulance Service crews pay a heavy emotional toll after attending troubling cases of addiction and attempted suicide.

This episode follows West Midlands Ambulance Service over three shifts in Staffordshire, where crews are dealing with an increasing number of social issues, drug and alcohol misuse, and mental health patients.

The night shift starts with paramedic crew Dom and Sue, who are waiting at the address of a potentially violent female in Stoke. The police have requested the presence of an ambulance as there are reports that the woman is in possession of two hammers as weapons. After 40 minutes, Dom and Sue are still waiting for police to arrive, frustrating for both the crew and dispatchers in the control room, who are missing a valuable resource while other calls continue to come in.

Later in the shift, Dom and Sue are sent to a young female heroin addict who has suspected DVT after injecting into her leg. The patient is one of 2,500 heroin users in Stoke, which has the fifth highest rate in the UK. Sue is left feeling deflated by the cycle she's repeatedly witnessed and the patient's inevitable return to drug use after being taken to hospital.

Elsewhere, other crews are called to troubling cases, causing the paramedics to reflect on their own past and to assess the emotional demands of the job.

Jordan and Katie attend to 21-year-old Stephen, who has tried to kill himself by jumping from a bridge into a canal. When the crew arrives, the patient is already hypothermic and starts to lose consciousness, and if they don't get him to hospital soon enough, the hypothermia could prove fatal. For Jordan, the suicide attempt resonates with his own struggle with mental health. He confides to his crewmate that he thought about ending his life when feeling desperate about the prospect of coming out as gay.

Mark and Verity are another paramedic pair who know the importance of the emotional support they provide each other. They treat 35-year-old Brett, who has lived with alcohol dependency for 18 years and doesn't know where to turn. With the patient on a waiting list for detox, the crew struggles to see how they can help other than to check him over and offer encouragement. Later, they're dispatched to 56-year-old John who, after years of battling depression, has taken an overdose of co-codamol. In the ambulance on the way to hospital, Mark reveals that he too contemplated suicide when his stress-related anxiety was at its worst. It was only recognising he'd hit rock bottom and signing up for course of counselling that saved him.

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Documentary series providing a revealing insight into West Midlands Ambulance Service.

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