it's showing the benefits of practice exercising.
I know I've been parts of major exercises before,
I was the Silver Commander at Riyadh.
So we used to do major disaster exercises.
You always reached a point in that,
the disaster, when you said,
"Right, stop. Time for tea that one's finished."
This one has shown that
you maybe need to take some of these scenarios
a little bit further.
Cause when it happens,
and the way this one happened,
it can be overwhelming.
So good communications,
quick turnarounds of requirements.
Once it was in place, it was very quick.
And I know it was welcomed, certainly by the trust
that I was working in as well.
The thing that is surprising
is when you arrive,
everybody automatically assumes you're a paramedic.
Even the doctor, "Oh, the paramedic's here."
But it's that look on their faces of relief
that help is arrived.
That still surprises me.
It still surprises me the lack of basic first aid
that people actually understand in the community,
despite all of the training that's available,
all the pamphlets,
everything we're taught about,
the old Vinnie Jones adverts of staying alive.
People don't know basic first aid.
And it can help,
but I suppose part of that is people in that situation
are panicking if it's relative.
The other thing that's surprised me
are the amount of people who are willing
to step in and help somebody.
We always see the bad stories across
about the youths and everything.
Some of the best people who've stepped in to help
are young people.
To go to a very sick individual who was drunk
and there were two teenage girls looking after him,
put him in the recovery position.
We got him conscious.
What was funny was as we were moving away, he said,
"Don't forget my bag."
And the girl picked up the bag and both bottles of vodka
fell out and broke and she gave him a tenner, see.
But, yeah, there are good people out.
