Brave ambulance crews feature in new TV series

THREE brave ambulance crew members based in the Loughlinstown Ambulance Base will be featured in a new series of a gritty TV documentary. 

In the first episode of TV3’s ‘Paramedics’, which follows HSE National Ambulance Service in Dublin, frontline ambulance crew Katrina Sheerin, Laura Hogan and Andy O’Toole, are called to a heroin overdose in an abandoned building in Dublin.

With the patient found unresponsive at the bottom of a basement staircase, the team have their work cut out for them as they fight to save his life while avoiding dangerous hazards including an array of dirty and used syringes. 

Then, from car crashes to cardiac arrests, viewers will see the call takers based in Tallaght in action.

These are the people who handle the thousands of panicked 999 calls for help across the country, in a life changing medical emergency, every day.

The show that goes out on tomorrow, November 9 at 8.30pm on TV3, follows the hugely successful first series.

‘Paramedics’ goes behind the scenes with the HSE National Ambulance Service, giving viewers a keen insight into the role of the people we hope never to need – Ireland’s frontline emergency medical service. 

Paramedics gained unprecedented access on board the National Aeromedical Service, which responds to calls across the entire island of Ireland. 

In this brand new second series, viewers will watch the ambulance crews tackle heroin overdoses, suicide attempts, trips, falls, cardiac arrests, dealing with death and imminent baby deliveries. 

Also featured is David ‘Scotty’ Dixon, from the Dublin based Rapid Response motorbike. He is seen responding to an emergency when a family bicycle carriage, carrying a mother and her three small children, overturns on a busy road.

‘Paramedics’ is produced with the help of the HSE National Ambulance Service.

The National Ambulance Service (NAS) is the statutory pre-hospital emergency and intermediate care provider for the State. In the Dublin metropolitan area, ambulance services which are funded by the HSE are provided by the NAS and Dublin Fire Brigade. 

The NAS mission is to serve the needs of patients and the public as part of an integrated health system, through the provision of high quality, safe and patient-centred services.

This care begins immediately at the time that the emergency call is received, and continues through to the safe treatment, transportation and handover of the patient to the clinical team at the receiving hospital or Emergency Department. 

The NAS responds to over 300,000 ambulance calls each year, employs over 1,600 staff across 100 locations and has a fleet of 500 vehicles.

In conjunction with its partners, the NAS transports approximately 40,000 patients via an Intermediate Care Service, co-ordinates more than 800 aero medical calls, completes 600 paediatric and neonatal transfers and supports Community First Responder Schemes.