Our heroes: Thank you from every one of us...

THEY’RE the frontline heroes who go to unimaginable lengths to protect us. Showing remarkable courage, professionalism and compassion in horrific circumstances, they battled through the night and the days that followed to rescue and treat the victims of M

PARAMEDIC Dan Smith was at home in the city centre when Salman Abedi struck. He was the second medic on the scene, running the final 100 yards or so along Deansgate to get to the Arena.

“As I was running along Deansgate people were running in the opposite direction covered in blood. It was then the seriousness of the situation hit me.

“I was faced with a lot of very scared people, a lot of badly injured people. The police who were already at the scene were doing a fantastic job of getting people out of the Arena.

“There was a lot of confusion, a lot of distress. At this stage we didn’t know the full extent of what had happened, there was an awful lot of shocked, confused, upset people. I was trying to get control of the scene, trying to get people into one location where we could treat them best.

“We were unsure at that point if there was potential for another explosion, we were trying to get to grips with everything.

“But in amongst that there was also an unbelievable amount of people doing what they could to help.

“I have been a paramedic for 17 years in Manchester and that night I saw people pulling together in a way I have never seen before.

“The overwhelming thing for me is that it was a distressing and chaotic scene, but people – paramedics, police the public – just got on with it.

“The thing I will remember more than any other is the humanity that was on display. People were catching each other’s eye, asking if they were OK, touching shoulders, looking out for one other, saying thank you.”

CATHERINE Jackson, 38, is an A&E consultant at Wythenshawe Hospital. She spent Monday night in charge of the resuscitation area in A&E overseeing the care of some of the most grievously injured victims.

“I was at home when a friend called me because she thought I was at the concert.

“I looked online and realised then it was a major incident so headed into the hospital. At that time we didn’t have much information, most of the information we did have was from the M.E.N. website.

“I was assigned the role of head of the resuscitation area. That meant I was in charge of assigning care to the most acute patients.

“At that point we had no idea about what type of injuries we would be treating – but we’d been told to expect nine major trauma patients. To put that in context the hospital normally deals with one a day. We were braced for the worst, shocked, but we train for this type of incident and when the first patients started to arrive the professionalism shown by staff was overwhelming. It was a serious environment, but the way people worked was amazing.

“There were a few quiet heroes in the department, people who were supplying us with food and drink. There were staff who did 24 hours shifts, but they wouldn’t have been able to do that without support.

“We have a few people who have served with the armed forces, who had experience of dealing with shrapnel injuries and that was invaluable.

“The dedication and compassion from everyone was incredible to see.”

DAVID Jones, 60, is a consultant general surgeon at Wythenshawe Hospital. He worked through the night operating on a patient who suffered life-threatening shrapnel injuries.

“My first job was to create some extra beds so I went on to the surgical ward where I knew some of my patients were well enough to go home or be moved to other wards. “That way we managed to free up 18 beds. “Then I became involved with a patient with multiple life-threatening injuries who required surgery.

“They also had other injuries which, while not life-threatening, were life-changing.

“Because we were in surgery we were not really aware of what was going on. We operated for several hours and it was only when we came out of the theatre at about 7am that we became aware of the bigger picture.

“The thing that struck me was how calm it was. There was no panic. We have a plan in place, we train for situations like this and the organisation was excellent.

“My colleagues were amazing and the patients were amazing, both those we were treating and the patients I asked to leave so we could free up beds. There was no grumbling, everyone realised the seriousness of the situation.

“I’m a surgeon, but I can’t operate without a team around me and the team was amazing.”

DEREK Cartwright, chief executive of the North West Ambulance Service, headed up the control room in Whitefield, Bury, on the night of the attack.

“One of our senior paramedics was in the area and he got there very, very quickly.

“He was on his own with the victims for a few minutes, but the job he did in giving us feedback from the scene was remarkable. In the early stages of major incident like this accurate information is vital because it allows you to formulate the correct response. If you get it wrong in the early stages it’s hard to correct it.

“Very quickly we had sizable resources there, we very quickly had five doctors there and three more consultant paramedics.

“Overall we had 60 ambulances at the scene and 300 people working on the incident, ambulances came from Blackpool, Merseyside, Cheshire – all over the north west. We worked to make sure the patients were taken to the most appropriate hospitals for their injuries. We did that very quickly. “We did our absolute best. Tragically 22 people died, but I’m sure that if it wasn’t for our efforts more people would have died. I’m always proud of our staff, but this takes pride to another level. It was very humbling to see how people got on with it in a very quiet, professional way. “At about 4am we got everybody together at the ambulance station on Plymouth Grove and when I arrived paramedics were getting the ambulances ready for the next calls. “It was staggering. And the response we’ve had from the public since has been incredible. Some of our crews have been getting spontaneous rounds of applause from the public when they have attended call-outs. “It’s been really emotional, but really heartening to see.”