The Great Western Air Ambulance Charity is set to feature in BBC Two’s ‘An Hour To Save Your Life’, a four-part series focussing on emergency medicine which started yesterday evening.
An Hour to save Your Life looks at innovations in emergency medicine and the improvements in patient outcomes as a result of pre-hospital care and fast-tracking cardiac arrest, medical and trauma patients to specialist centres.
Now in it’s third series the programme explores the critical decisions facing doctors and paramedics in the first hour of emergency care.
Against a ticking clock, each episode follows three patients from the moment a 999 call is made, minute by minute, as frontline doctors and paramedics battle to keep them alive and treat their injuries.
It will give a unique insight into the situations the GWAAC Critical Care Team find themselves in on a daily basis.
The show was filmed over the winter of 2015/16, with a film crew spending two months with GWAAC’s Critical Care Doctors and Paramedics.
This showed them responding to incidents in both the helicopter and critical care cars. Filming also took place in the Bristol Royal Infirmary and Southmead Hospitals.
Across the programme a number of patient stories are featured, from GWAAC, London’s Air Ambulance, and the Great North Air Ambulance.
Of the stories, three involve people who were helped by the GWAAC crew in the pre-hospital phase. The key clinicians involved in each patient case conducted in-depth retrospective interviews, so the style of the programmes is very much clinicians taking the audience through what happens.
GWAAC Head of Fundraising and Marketing Emma Carter said: “This is a rare chance for people to see exactly what our crew do when they are faced with situations where someone’s life is in danger.
“Getting someone who is seriously ill or injured the specialist treatment they need as soon as possible is key to their survival, and this is what our dedicated crew do day after day.
“I hope as many as possible will watch the show, and see why it is so vital that people support us. Without the support of the public we would not be able to continue to save lives.”
Episode 2 (Tuesday August 16th, BBC 2, 9pm)
In Gloucestershire George is involved in a serious horse riding accident, which leaves him unable to move.
Critical Care Paramedic John Wood and Critical Care Doctor Greg Cranston are worried that he may have damaged his spinal cord and that his breathing may deteriorate.
They provide treatment at the scene, before transporting him to Southmead Hospital in Bristol, which is the major trauma centre for the region, for detailed scans.
Episode 3 (Tuesday August 23rd, BBC 2, 9pm)
In Bristol pedestrian Christy is hit by a car. Critical care Paramedic Vicki Brown and Critical Care Doctor Greg Cranston suspect she may have bruising to the front and back of her brain and give her an emergency roadside anaesthetic.
In hospital her brain begins to swell rapidly and she undergoes an emergency operation to remove part of her skull. Christy now faces months of rehabilitation, including a further operation to replace the missing part of her skull.
Meanwhile in Gloucester Peter has been run over by a forklift truck. Critical Care Paramedic Pete Sadler and Critical Care Doctor James Tooley fear he has sustained life changing crush injuries as he cannot move his legs.
Concerned he may be bleeding internally they bind his lower body to keep him rigid. Once in hospital, scans reveal a pelvic fracture. Peter’s legs have suffered extensive soft tissue damage which will take some time to heal.
Get involved in the conversation on Twitter using the series’ official hashtag #AHTSYL and via @GWAAC.