FATHER FIGURE

ADVANCED PARAMEDIC LUKE TELLS US ABOUT A CALL-OUT THAT HIT CLOSE TO HOME…

The crew members of the North West Ambulance Service have to be ready for whatever comes their way when they start a shift, and in this week’s episode, advanced paramedic Luke is dispatched to assist a 19-yearold in labour. The dispatcher tells him that it will be “useful practice” – as Luke’s about to become a father himself…

“When you get a call through for a maternity job, there’s a bit of added pressure,” he tells us. “Obviously maternity and childbirth is a natural thing that’s been happening for a long, long time, and there’s only a small percentage of labours where anything goes wrong – but you’re still responsible for two lives on those incidents, so for me there are always a few more nerves! Initially, the job at hand was my main focus, but afterwards – once we’d made sure that baby and mum were fine

– it was hitting home that this was going to be me very soon!”

As previous series were made with the West Midlands Ambulance Service, this was Luke’s first time being filmed on the job – yet many of his patients already knew what to expect.

“The amount of people when we were on jobs who’d say, ‘Oh, I watch that programme!’ was phenomenal,” he chuckles. “I’ll probably watch it and cringe, because whenever

I see myself on film or hear a recording of myself, I realise how heavy an accent I have!”