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The ‘hairy’ situations faced by Scotland’s formidable paramedics

Medical emergencies don't discriminate. When illness or injury strikes, you could be standing right outside the A&E department or you could be at the top of a hill, on your own.

This new ten-part series shows the extraordinary and challenging moments faced on a daily basis by paramedics working across Scotland.

Luckily, as seen on Paramedics On Scene, this is the kind of situation that the aptly named S.O.R.T. (Special Operations Response Team) are equipped for.

Part of the Scottish Ambulance Service, these are the paramedics trained to deal with Scotland's more extreme medical emergencies such as terror attacks or road traffic accidents.

In this series viewers are given exclusive, unprecedented access to the frequently hair-raising, life-saving work of Scotland’s paramedics as they respond to emergencies — wherever they are needed.

Running out of time to find a collapsed walker

Paramedics search for a man in his seventies taken unwell at the top of a hill.

Tensions are high from the very first episode when paramedics Steve and Mark receive a call to a walker who has collapsed with chest pain up in the hills near Edinburgh.

Time is ticking for the older gentleman who they're worried might come down with hypothermia.

But he's in rough terrain so they'll need a special piece of kit - an off-road vehicle called a Polaris.

The Polaris

"It's a bit like a large off-road golf buggy. It's our 4x4 all-terrain super quad bike we can get in there we can carry patients, we can carry passengers. It's a really, really versatile piece of kit", says Steve proudly.

With their specialist equipment on board, fellow paramedic Leigh described the journey up Carnethy Hill.

"It was actually quite hairy because it was quite a steep hill. So some of the equipment was falling off the back of the vehicle!"

Even with their super quad, the team struggle to locate the patient until a fell runner waves them down.

They find their patient, a man in his 70s called Richard.

He had been out walking with the purpose of trying to feel better after months of ill health.

“I was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer approximately a year before. I'd had the operation, I was very weak, I was down to nine stone”, says Richard.

Richard was trying to improve his well-being after lengthy cancer treatment.

“Then I had chemotherapy for four months so I was trying to recover from all of that to get fit and to raise my level of general well-being.”

After assessing Richard the paramedics believe his heart isn't behaving itself and decide the journey on the Polaris would be too much for him. The helicopter is called and Richard is flown safely off the hillside.

The helicopter pilot (dressed in red) arrives

Being a paramedic anywhere in the world is clearly not for the faint-hearted.

But if this new series is anything to go by, with its vast and diverse landscape, emergency healthcare in some areas of Scotland requires not only a cool head, but also a taste for adventure.

Paramedics on Scene begins Sunday 29th September on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Scotland and ´óÏó´«Ã½ iPlayer.

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