West Midlands ambulance heroes share coronavirus stories in new TV documentary
"It's a lot of weight on your shoulders, but a weight I'm happy to carry."
These are the words of a student paramedic who held the hand of a crying pensioner as she was told she would have to go to hospital.
Sam is just one of hundreds of students who stepped up to the front line to help during the height of the pandemic.
He was one of the many West Midlands Ambulance Service workers filmed for a new three-part documentary, Paramedics: Britain’s Lifesavers, which first aired last night.
Sam and paramedic Rich were called to 85-year-old Beatrice who was struggling to breathe. Sam held her hand as she cried when they told her she would have to go into hospital.
After he said: "I feel like you have a great responsibility because the patient can be sat up talking to you happy as day and things can change very quickly."
During the height of the pandemic, calls to the 999 and 111 service run by West Midlands Ambulance Service increased by 400 per cent. To ease the pressure, students and volunteers stepped up to join those on the frontline and give something back to the NHS.
A total of 508 paramedic students were fast-tracked to the front line.
Cameras captured the daily decisions being made to make sure ambulances could continue to provide urgent medical care to the West Midlands.
The programmes look at many different areas of the trust and tell the stories of some of the staff as they deal with the enormity of the situation faced by the entire trust.
Worried
Another student paramedic, Caitlin, was only working for two days before she fell ill with what might be coronavirus symptoms.
"I woke up this morning feeling groggy and sleepy and just generally not well," she said.
"My temperature was 39.1 degrees. I'm worried for my own health but also my family.
"I was out on the front line for two days but I've been careful and I've had my PPE on."
Caitlin was booked in for a test in Wolverhampton and luckily the test came back negative.
The first programme also shows new call handlers Ollie and Jackie squeezing five weeks of training into a fortnight in order to step up to help meet demand.
More Covid-19 coverage:
Trainee Ollie, 18, reveals a personal connection to the 111 service as his family used it before his aunty was taken to hospital at the beginning of lockdown.
He said: "My Aunty Kate had a cold about a week before lockdown, it all got pretty serious.
"She isolated at home then as lockdown progressed she got worse, we called 111 and the decision was for her to be taken into hospital.
"At this point we didn't know she had coronavirus, we thought she had a bad chest infection, which she was quite prone to.
"She deteriorated that week and she slowly passed away in early April."
And Jackie, 55, previously worked in sales so had to learn a new way of communicating.
Paramedics: Britain’s Lifesavers, Mondays 9pm on Channel 4
