How to Get a Good Night’s Sleep
Meet the ambulance crews making a real difference to people…
as the call comes through in the early hours of the morning, informing the ambulance service that an elderly man has collapsed on the toilet, paramedic Gari heads to the scene.
He helps the patient, Jim, but after restarting his heart several times, Gari and the team have to accept there’s nothing more they can do other than place Jim back in bed and console his heartbroken wife, Christine.
Dealing with grief
‘I’ve made cups of tea for people, I’ve taken dogs for walks, I’ve had someone say, “Can you put his cardigan on because he’ll get cold”. It’s our job to make them accept and understand what’s happened,’ says Gari, who is one of the North West Ambulance Service crew members followed in BBC1’s new fly-on-the-wall documentary series. The first episode, shot over the weekend of the Parklife festival in Manchester, sees crews attend 11,179 calls in 48 hours.
‘I used to work in the business sector and I remember coming home and my previous husband saying to me, “For God’s sake, it’s not life and death,”’ says paramedic Andrea, who now works alongside second husband Glynn. ‘I thought, “What if it were?” What if I could find a job where I could give this much passion and enthusiasm and actually make a difference to people’s lives?
‘Unless you’ve been in this position, I don’t think anyone can understand the grief you go through in a day’s work.’