Extreme medics to the rescue on Mull

Extreme rescues on Mull are featured in a new series on Channel 4.

 

Rescue: Extreme Medics, aired the first of four first episodes on Monday at 9pm.

 

With exclusive access to the Scottish Trauma Network, each episode follows super-skilled medics as they deliver advanced hospital treatment at the scenes of the most serious of accidents, in some of the most challenging landscapes in Scotland.

 

The episodes use the latest in camera-technology that allows viewers to see what the medics see and take them even closer to the dramatic and emotional stories in the most demanding of environments.

 

Each programme follows the story of three traumas, from the emergency phone-calls coming into ambulance control, to the treatment in the countryside, all the way through to the hospital and rehabilitation.

 

On mountainous Mull, viewers will see what happens when a 23-year-old rolls his car 20 feet down an embankment while taking part in the island's annual rally.  He is urgently airlifted from the island to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) Major Trauma Centre, where doctors discover significant damage to his spine.

 

Also on Mull's coastline, a 45-year-old hillwalker has fallen 15 feet down a waterfall. The coastguard helicopter rescue her from the rocks and she is flown to hospital, where scan results reveal a serious fracture to her back.  As doctors assess the damage, Sally’s husband, Keith, talks about how meeting her was a second chance of love for them both.

 

Whether on a remote island, a windswept mountainside, or a tourist-packed coastal road, viewers of this series can see the crucial, minute-by-minute decisions made to save lives.

 

Using cameras that are worn by the medics and with new, unique access to the trauma teams, viewers will experience what medics do as they save lives on-scene.

 

The cameras also follow patients through their rehab as they look to get back on their feet and home to their families.

 

Michael McAvoy, head of documentary at series producers Firecrest Films, said: “At the heart of this series are the magnificent medical teams who go to extraordinary lengths to save lives in such incredibly difficult surroundings.

 

"Our unique access and our use of kit, such as bodycams, give viewers the chance to be almost right by the medics as they undertake complex medical procedures in challenging and remote locations across Scotland.

 

"Rescue: Extreme Medics is unique as it shows different medical departments all working together. In this series, you see stories that take you from traumas on the hillside, to surgery in hospital and then the rehab that gets patients home.”