The extraordinary work of the West Midlands Ambulance Service is featured in a major BBC1 documentary series.
The first series of Ambulance was filmed in London but the second has moved to Birmingham and the Black Country, to film some of the 3,000 people who call 999 for paramedics every DAY in our region.
And these are some of the shocking things which happen in the first episode from just two 12-hour shifts.
- A man is brought back to life by paramedics, 26 minutes after a cardiac arrest
- A woman who suffered a stillbirth delivers her next baby in the bath
- A man drives his mobility scooter into a lake to kill himself
- A man is attacked with a baseball bat in a row over a parking space
The eight-part series, narrated by Christopher Eccleston, begins on Thursday, August 24.
The cameras follow the cases, minute by minute, from the initial 999 call to how quickly the ambulance gets there and what happens afterwards.
West Midlands Ambulance Service has to cover more than 5,000 square miles and 5.2 million people.
The first episode begins on a Saturday night when calls pour into the control room. They deal with almost 1,500 patients, 20 per cent up on a week night.
One of the incidents they are called to involves 10 people fighting in the street. One man is stabbed while another has been hit by a baseball bat in what he reveals is an argument over a parking space.
Paramedics Natalie and Nat are sent to a 25-year-old woman who is in advanced labour with a suspected placenta abruption.
It's her third baby, a boy, but her daughter was stillborn last year.
She's in the bath and it's too hard to move her, though the paramedics are worried about the baby being in distress.
It's a joyful moment when a healthy boy is safely delivered.
But paramedics Darren and Mel are visibly upset when they attend a job at Rowheath Pavilion in Bournville.
Initially they are told a man has fallen in while fishing after a suspected heart attack or epileptic fit.
But it gradually emerges that he drove his mobility scooter into the lake deliberately.
The paramedics revive him and get him to the Queen Elizabeth hospital, where he tells doctors: "I don't want to live any more, I hate life, let me die."
He then dies in hospital of secondary drowning.
Sarah Watson, 27, from Bournville, is one of the paramedics featured in Ambulance.
She says: "The job can be really hard but also immensely satisfying when you manage to help people.
"It's a really diverse job, you never know what you're going to get when you respond to a call.
"It can be unnerving, especially as I'm in a double female crew with Katie Linford.
"I have been in an ambulance where someone smashed the window, I've been verbally and sexually abused and it can be hard.
"Some images never leave your mind. I remember turning up to a hit and run where a woman had been hit with such force that her face was unrecognisable.
"We want to help so it's always difficult when the injuries are too severe.
"I've delivered five babies which is one of the best jobs but also the scariest. It's such a beautiful moment but a big responsibility.
"I'm pleased that Ambulance will show viewers what we do."
Ambulance begins on BBC1 on Thursday at 9pm
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