- Bondi Beach is one of the most popular beaches
in Australia.
Bondi Rescue is a reality TV show
that covers some of the drama that goes down on the beach.
Here are some of the most wild medical emergencies
that have happened on the show.
Beewoop!
- Get him outta the water, ready?
And then we'll start and compressions up here.
- All right, super important here,
getting people obviously out of the water for safety,
everyone's safety is of utmost priority.
Calling for help is the number one thing you do.
You don't just yell it,
you point to someone and say, you call 9-1-1.
Otherwise, everyone assumes everyone else calls 9-1-1.
And, I know I always say start chest compressions first,
but for drowning victims,
you do two rescue breaths first, mouth to mouth.
'Cause the mechanism of why someone's heart has stopped
and they're not breathing in the water
is very different than what happens on land.
- Okay, okay, who's doing,
I'm going, I'm going, I'm going.
- One, two, three, four, five, six,
seven, eight, nine, 10.
(inaudible cross talk)
- Good depth.
Two inches deep on those chest compressions.
Good speed, 100 beats per minute.
- 19, 20. One, two, three, four, five.
- All right, so the fact that he's vomiting
means, right away, you have to turn him over
onto his side in order to help clear that airway.
In drowning emergencies,
it's truly airway, breathing, circulation.
Like, you have to focus on the breathing.
When you find someone on the street who's collapsed
and heart has stopped, you can do hands only CPR.
But here, you have to think about the airway.
Let me explain the difference here, actually.
This is important nuance.
When you find someone on the street and they've collapsed,
their heart has stopped beating.
But, they've recently just oxygenated their blood,
so there's still some residual oxygen left in the blood
throughout the body, even though it's delivered most of it.
So, as you perform hands only CPR,
you can circulate that blood
and deliver that remaining oxygen.
When someone has drowned,
they usually have no oxygen reserves,
therefore are very hypoxic in their blood.
Doing hands only CPR does them a disservice,
instead of giving them some rescue breaths.
Also, a lot of people think that
the lungs get filled up with water.
The airway actually clamps itself off
and prevents water from going to the lungs,
and whatever small amount of water gets into the lungs,
actually gets absorbed systemically.
So, it's really about getting oxygen in there
as quickly as possible and pumping to help the heart
pump that blood throughout the body,
by actually squeezing the heart, physically.
- Can I get someone to come up and get a defib?
- [Narrator] The defib is in the tower,
but Dono can't leave the control post unmanned.
- The defibrillator is something that we use
to check if the patient has any sort of shockable rhythm.
A lot of times in Gray's Anatomy,
you'll see someone go flat line.
They say, oh my God, get the defibrillator, shock them.
That's not a shockable rhythm.
What happens is,
the defibrillator actually stops the rhythm of your heart,
breaks that rhythm, and allows it to restart.
So, if someone doesn't have a rhythm,
they're completely flat, and you reshock them,
you make it flat again, that doesn't help them at all.
At that point, it's more about doing the chest compressions
and giving them medications
to advance cardiac life support, like epinephrine.
- [Narrator] He's now been clinically dead
for three minutes.
- 21, 22, 23, 24-
(inaudible cross talking)
- And the way you're doing this is 30 pumps
for every two breaths.
So you do 30 pumps at a speed of 100 per minute.
Give two breaths, continue.
- [Narrator] It's critical that no one
touches the man's body while it is shocked.
- He's my friend.
- I know you can't touch him.
- [Responder 1] Don't touch him.
- [Responder 2] Don't touch him.
- [Responder 3] Don't touch him.
- [Responder 1] You'll get electrocuted.
- [Defibrillator] Check airway, check breathing.
If needed, begin CPR.
- So the modern defibrillators are really good
in that they analyze the rhythms
and you don't have to look at the rhythm
and try and figure out what's going on.
It will say non-shockable rhythm, continue CPR.
Or shockable rhythm, remove all people from defibrillator.
Then you hit shock.
It says shocking on three. Shock, shock, shock.
And then it'll deliver the shock
so that you know not to be touching the person.
- [Responder 1] I've got a pulse. I have a pulse.
- [Responder 2] He's back, he's back. He's responding.
- [Responder 1] Let's go. Let's go.
See if he wants to vomit.
See, he's got a lot of fluid coming out, huh?
- [Responder 2] That's what we want. That's good.
- Don't keep bagging him.
If he's conscious and he's breathing.
I know there's a lot of stuff happening right now,
but you could actually force some of that vomiting
aspiration back into the lungs.
You don't want to do that.
(man retching)
Put him on his side.
No, take the ambu bag off.
(clapping)
He's still not out of danger yet.
Everyone stop clapping like you just watched
a Jerry Springer episode.
(clapping)
He was without oxygen for a long period of time.
And that guy keeps putting this stupid ambu mask on him.
Stop it. He's awake now.
- [Narrator] Portuguese Man O' War Jellyfish,
commonly known as blue bottles,
are blown onto the coast by onshore winds.
Blue bottles have rightly earned the label, floating terror.
- I've seen thousands of people that have been stung
by blue bottles, but this day,
it was the biggest welt I've ever seen.
- Oh.
Yeah, they basically leave like whiplash looking marks
on your skin, creating a type of dermatitis.
It's actually really cool how this happens.
So they have these nematocysts
that are at the end of their test-
Testicles.
(laughing)
Tentacles.
When they hit you with them and they touch you,
they actually attach to your skin,
and then inject the poison in.
And there's been some evidence
that putting vinegar onto them
can actually help deactivate that venom
and those nematocysts.
- [Narrator] Nine year old Zach
has suffered a blue bottle sting over his entire leg.
(Zach screaming)
- Zach, that's enough, enough.
(Zach screaming)
- All right, dad, maybe give your son a hug.
Like there's toughening your kid up,
but when they're experiencing real big pain, give him a hug.
- [Narrator] Zach's father is back on his feet.
As lifeguards administer the green whistle.
- What you gotta do is, you gotta put it in your mouth
like this, all right?
And just breathe it in.
And it's gonna take the pain away for you.
- The kid's like, give me it!
- There you go.
- Oh, wow
- Good man.
- Huh? The sweet sound of silence.
(Mike laughing)
- These lifeguards are like, "can you shut this kid up?"
They got the kid high and he calmed down.
(static crinkling)
- I'm really allergic to peanuts.
- Oh no. I hope she's not having an anaphylactic attack.
- [Lifeguard] And have you had an allergic reaction before?
- Yeah.
- [Lifeguard] Is this what you felt last?
- I know this feeling. Yeah.
- [Narrator] Left untreated, Victoria's throat
will become so swollen, she may be unable to breathe.
- This type of allergic reaction, called anaphylaxis,
actually leads to swelling of the air pipe.
It also can create swelling of the mouth.
It can lead to nausea, vomiting in some cases.
And one of the most dangerous things about anaphylaxis,
outside of closing your throat,
is the major drop of blood pressure.
'Cause it dilates your blood vessels,
therefore tanking your blood pressure,
not getting enough blood circulation to those vital organs.
It can potentially lead to death.
This is why a lot of people think,
oh just treat it with Benadryl.
But Benadryl doesn't treat that part of anaphylaxis.
That's why we need to use these EpiPens
to boost up the cardiac output
and decrease the swelling of the oral pathway.
- [Narrator] Lifeguard's best chance of saving Victoria
is via a shot of adrenaline from an EpiPen.
- And I'm sure many of you have heard the story.
I've had to do something like this in the air,
while flying on a gentleman who did not have an EpiPen.
So we had to concoct the EpiPen through medications
that you would actually use if someone's heart stops
and they were flat lining.
Same medication, different dosage.
I had to do that calculation kind of on the fly.
There was no wifi 'cause we were
flying over the Atlantic Ocean.
It was a crazy scene.
And also, this auto injector is nice
and thin and small the needle.
So it's not gonna cause a lot of discomfort.
The one that I had to use is made for a crash cart.
So it's like a really thick, long needle.
And I had to jam it into his thigh.
He was not happy with me,
but he was happy after the fact when he survived.
- Thank you Dr. Mike, I really appreciate your help, man.
- So I hit her with the EpiPen, bang.
Held it in for 10 seconds,
and I thought that was gonna be it.
Okay lay down sweetheart.
There we go.
You all right?
Stay with us. You're all right?
When she dropped on us, I was so scared.
And I thought maybe this would be a resus.
- I suspect what's happening here
is probably a vasovagal reaction.
When you get really nervous that she essentially
lost blood supply to her brain temporarily,
from seeing the needle go into her thigh.
This happens quite often.
In fact, the gentleman after I injected him
with the syringe, he started telling me
that he thought his throat was feeling weird
and closing again.
But when I looked into it, it actually was completely open.
I had to use my iPhone flashlight to do so.
I realized what was happening was because
I gave him adrenaline, his throat dried up.
His mouth dried up like you would
when you're giving a speech and you get nervous.
And as a result, he felt like it was closing again,
but it actually wasn't.
So it was good that I was able to check that
and not necessarily stick him again
with an unnecessary medication and needle.
- [Narrator] Andrea and her cousin Gerald
were taking advantage of iconic Bondi as a backdrop
for a rollerblading video,
when things went horribly wrong.
- Whoa.
- Oh! Patella dislocation.
It's actually really easy to pop back in, but wow.
Really all you do is you put pressure
on the outside of the leg and extend a leg at the same time,
and then it just puts it right back into place.
- And I'm gonna just gently manipulate your knee.
- I mean, I like your wording.
I know it's not gonna be gentle.
(Mike laughing)
- Keep breathing.
- There you go.
Extend and pressure, pressure, pressure, pressure.
A little more pressure.
- And he rolled up.
- There you go.
And it's gonna pop right back in.
There you go.
It goes from pain level 10 to zero almost instantly.
- [Narrator] A man's found floating lifeless in the surf.
- See that's sometimes the worst situation.
'Cause you don't know how long they've been under that surf.
- [Narrator] Hoppo can't detect a pulse.
- Then right away, two rescue breaths, chest compressions.
Let's go.
- [Narrator] He's not breathing.
- [Hoppo] Baggie. Come on, come on.
Bagging.
- [Narrator] Tucker is clinically dead.
The machine reads Tucker's vital signs.
- [Defibrillator] Do not touch patient. Analyzing rhythm.
- I can't get one. Start CPR.
- [Narrator] The defib doesn't work on Tucker first time.
- Oh, much faster.
He needs to go much faster with those chest compressions.
- [Narrator] The third shock has finally had an effect.
- It's getting stronger.
It's a good pulse.
Good pulse here.
- When you get someone back from having no pulse
or no breathing, it's an amazing feeling.
The adrenaline rush of it.
- Yeah. I can attest to that.
For them they're doing this
usually on younger, healthy people.
I'm doing this sometimes on people who are older,
who have a lot of medical conditions.
They have a young healthy person
who got really sick really fast cause they drowned.
Then they rescued them,
they restart their heart and now they're better.
And they're almost like back to normal real quick.
For me I have to then now stabilize that patient,
get medications going, check their vitals,
make sure that if their blood pressure's too low,
get them on pressers to artificially
raise their blood pressure,
get them admitted into the ICU,
transfer them to a different team of care.
But this is tough because
you cannot control this environment.
I have much more control of my environment
when I'm in the hospital.
- I stood on sea urchin.
- Oh I don't know about sea urchins.
- A sea urchin is a little sea creature
with all these little spikes that come off it
and they kind of hide in the rock crevices.
- Oh!
Dude. Why do people go in the ocean?
Just hang out on shore.
- [Narrator] Sea urchin spikes, carry toxin
and are extremely brittle.
Like needles of fine porcelain, they easily break.
- And yet we tell kids go play in ocean!
There's spikes with poison in there.
Future generations will look at us and be like,
what's wrong with these people?
- [Narrator] Jesse and Harrison
start the delicate operation.
- Oh man.
- [Narrator] Removing the spines one at a time.
- Can they like numb him up?
Give him a little lidocaine. Jesus Christ.
- [Harrison] Oh, look at that one.
- Ah! Look at that one!
- Drink. Drink.
- I was told that he was having low sugar levels.
I've dealt with diabetics and low blood sugar levels before.
And I know that they need soft drink
or they need something sweet
to bring those sugar levels back up.
- He could be hypoglycemic as they're saying,
cause those who are diabetic
struggle to control their blood sugars.
And sometimes they do drop,
especially if they give themself
excess medication by accident.
- And then he pulled out from around his neck
that he also was an epileptic.
- I mean just call an ambulance.
Like I hate that they're always trying to solve
and figure out everyone's medical history.
Clearly this person's going through something
and they need help.
And you're not qualified to deliver
that help at this moment.
- Do you want me to call an ambulance or anything, mate?
- Yes. Yes.
- So if you have an epileptic fit.
- He's clearly having an epileptic fit.
- What was your name again?
What was your name again, mate?
He's having an epileptic seizure.
All I could do was hold his pulse
and I was just basically waiting to see
what would happen next.
- That's actually what you do during one of those.
If they last over a certain period of time
we can medicate them in the hospital
but otherwise you just have to let it happen.
In fact, restraining them and holding them down,
can actually cause muscle damage.
- You're all right mate. You're all right matey.
- It's okay. You're all right mate. You're with us.
- You're all right matey.
- Post-ictal phase, which is this time after your seizure
is actually a very weird time
for not only the patient, but also for providers
because patients oftentimes have amnesia
and don't know what has happened.
They don't know where they are.
They sometimes can be extremely aggressive.
So, it's really important that there's people there
to keep them calm, explain what happened
and diffuse the situation.
I've had patients throw stuff at me.
- Well I'm a type 1 diabetic.
and what it does is it, lowers my sugar.
So I can go into a hypo, any time, anywhere.
- A person with type 1 Diabetes is someone
who has an autoimmune condition that has resulted
in the destruction of the cells that produce insulin.
So you do not have enough insulin on your own
to facilitate the sugar leaving your blood
and going into cells where it needs to function.
So what ends up happening is those patients need insulin,
artificial insulin to be injected into them
in order for them to function normally.
And sometimes if you don't gauge how much insulin
you're putting in, in comparison to how much carbs
and sugars you're consuming,
you could actually cause yourself to become hypoglycemic,
have very low blood sugar, which can lead to seizures.
- [Narrator] With the crowded surf full of beginners,
it's only a matter of time before the first collision.
- [Lifeguard] That's sick. That's gross.
- Oh my God.
- [Narrator] Lifeguards won't attempt
to put a severe dislocation back in place.
- The only time we do a reduction in the field,
is if we see neurovascular compromise,
meaning that there's not enough blood circulation
going to an area, and as a result,
part of that area is dying.
Then the risks may warrant doing that procedure.
Oh my God, is he gonna just pop it in?
(gagging)
What a champ.
I can't even watch this.
- [Lifeguard] Cheers for him.
(cheering)
- That's terrible because the hand
has so many vital structures in it.
Blood vessels, nerves.
This is why we have hand surgeon specialist.
It's not enough to send someone to an orthopedic surgeon.
Send them to a hand surgeon.
My guy's just here, like (grunts).
- It's still slightly out.
- Slightly out? It's broken my guy.
- And I get over there,
and there's a gentleman sitting against the drain pipe,
in a puddle of water.
Quite calm at this stage, saying he's dislocated his hip.
- A dislocated hip could be
one of the most painful things ever.
- [Lifeguard] He's had a hip replacement.
- Oh my God.
They're not ready for the level of pain
this person's about to experience.
- [Narrator] Moving him to the ambulance
will cause enormous pain.
Paramedics administer morphine.
- Yeah.
- [Narrator] It's a bumpy ride over rocks and sand
before Danny reaches the ambulance.
(screaming)
- Yeah. He's not faking it
- You all right?
- [Narrator] Beau and Harries help a disoriented man
with a mystery ailment.
- I don't know.
I'm going to faint.
- [Beau] Yeah?
- [Narrator] His condition is getting worse by the second.
- You okay there mate?
- [Narrator] Suddenly he stops breathing.
- If he stops breathing, you start chest compressions!
He's not a drowning victim.
- [Narrator] Eventually he comes around.
- That's it relax as much as possible.
- [Narrator] Lifeguards need his medical history.
- Well, they don't need his medical history.
They need to call an ambulance
and they need his medical history.
- I don't know. When it gets cold in the water,
it makes my skin go itchy and red.
- Oh, he has cold water urticaria.
- [Narrator] Later doctors confirmed Matt suffers
a rare allergic reaction to cold water that causes hives.
Matt's swim had sent him into anaphylactic shock.
- Well, an EpiPen would've gone a long way there
but they couldn't have known that.
You don't recklessly just give EpiPens to random people.
Here are some of the worst fitness mistakes
my patients make.
Click here to check that out.
As always stay happy and healthy.
Look at my tail.
(upbeat music)