'If we need to do surgery at the roadside, we can' - meet Glasgow's 'extreme' medics who star in new TV show

Tense hillside rescues, surgery in the field – literally – and quick-thinking that could mean the difference between life and death are all part of his day job, but he says he has never felt scared arriving at a scene.

That almost changed last June, when Niall arrived outside Park Inn on Glasgow’s West George Street.

“We were the first trauma team, backing up road paramedics, and we believed it to be a ‘routine’ stabbing,” he explains. “As soon as we got there, though, we realised something was wrong. I remember getting out the response car and thinking, hang on – something bigger is going on here…”

Six people, including a police officer were seriously injured at the hotel that day – the attacker was eventually shot dead by police at the scene.

“Nerves do play a part, of course, but your training kicks in and you do what you have to do,” says Niall.

Niall and his colleague Darren Black, an advanced retrieval practitioner, are two of the medics who feature in Rescue: Extreme Medics, a new Channel 4 series following the Scottish Ambulance Service's EMRS (Emergency Medical Retrieval Service) and the new Scottish Trauma Network.

This team of paramedics, consultants and first responders cover 30,000 square miles and 90 islands, looking after some of the most remote communities in Europe.

The first episode is heart-in-the-mouth exciting, as the team races to help a pylon engineer trapped under a quad bike in the remote hills of Skye. Euan Lindsay is slipping in and out of consciousness, and believes he has amputated his arm, but manages to dig a hole around his pocket to retrieve his phone and call 999.

The cameras follow the case from the moment the information is received by the ambulance control centre in Glasgow (which receives more than 5000 calls a day). The specialist team is deployed by helicopter from the base at Glasgow Airport and swiftly turns the remote hillside into a trauma ward. There is also a case involving a cyclist who collides head on with a digger bucket, suffering a severe neck injury, and the team get a call about 17-year-old tree surgeon Oscar who has had an accident involving a chainsaw at work…

“This is relatively tame stuff,” smiles Niall. “There was a lot they couldn’t show. Seriously, hopefully the programme will raise awareness about what the entire system is set up to do.”

Darren, who has been with the EMRS for 18 months, and part of the helicopter team for five years, agrees.

“It’s a great job, I’m very lucky,” he says. “We could be sent anywhere – north, south, east, west, in the hills, on the islands, in any weather. The unpredictability of the job is what makes it exciting. Most of the time we are sitting like coiled springs, waiting for the call to come in.”

Darren, who now lives in Howwood, grew up in Lockerbie.

“I joined the ambulance service well aware of the challenges those areas face, when you’re quite isolated and 30, 40 miles from the nearest trauma centre,” he says.

Niall, who grew up in Ayr, divides his time between the emergency department at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley, and EMRS.

“I studied medicine at Glasgow University and after graduating, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to specialise in,” he explains. “I worked in Melbourne for a while and got interested in emergency medicine.

“I knew a bit about the EMRS and joined in 2007 – it was very different then, everyone was a volunteer and there was no pre-hospital care element. But I enjoyed it, and when I became a consultant, a slot came up and I have been there ever since.”

The team’s job is to start treatment by the roadside, or on the hill, to give the patient a better chance at survival.

“In a hospital, you have all kinds of back-up – in a field or at the roadside, if anything unexpected happens it’s up to the team to deal with it," he says.

Cases involving children are often the most emotive for everyone involved, says Niall.

“I have an 18-month-old daughter, and I know if I was to turn up at a scene involving a girl the same age, it would be a mental hurdle, but we have a lot of systems and training in place to deal with that,” he says.

“I remember we got a call to a young girl who had been knocked down by a car in a rural village. She had very severe injuries. Her parents were there watching it all unfold and we have to tell them we’re anaesthetising their child, taking control of her breathing and taking her away in a helicopter- they know it’s the right thing, but it’s hard for them. That’s when all the training comes in, and things click into place."

The young girl suffered a significant brain injury and broken bones, but survived.

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“She’s back at school now,” smiles Niall. “That’s when you realise every part of the system is of value – a badly injured person, far from help, gets what they need.”

The service has changed “beyond recognition” he adds. "In our kit we carry everything we need to keep a critically ill or injured patient alive – drugs, anaesthetic equipment, blood. If we need to do open heart surgery at the roadside, we can do it,” he says.

A few months ago, Niall had to do exactly that. “We were called to a stabbing victim on a Glasgow street,” he says. “We had to open his chest, as it was his only his chance.

“The kinds of things we do at the roadside now would have been unthinkable even a few years ago.”

He adds: “I’m really proud to be part of it.”

Rescue: Extreme Medics begins on Monday, March 28, at 9pm on Channel 4 and All 4.